The news about police requesting Amazon Echo voice recordings as evidence in a murder investigation has left many people voicing out their concern on their own privacy when using the device.
According to Yahoo, the short answer is no but with a few caveats. The Echo isn't recording every word you say and it also is not sending a constant audio stream of everything on your surroundings to the servers as it will result in way too much data for Amazon to handle.
Based on the reports, the Echo works by using "hot words". For example, if you are looking to spot a familiar car in traffic without looking closely to all of the other cars, it is simply monitoring all audio for the keyword "Alexa". Only then it would start to record audio for a few seconds to make a request and send it to Amazon's servers.
With such functionality, it is said that Echo is unlikely would have had recorded the entire crime of Bentonville murder case. An Amazon spokesperson released a statement "Amazon will not release customer information without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us. Amazon objects to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate demands as a matter of course."
One theory behind the move by the police on requesting the company is probably "hoping to get lucky". On occasion, an Alexa speaker thinks it has heard someone utter 'Alexa," even though no one did. At other times, someone on the radio may actually say the word, and prompt the speaker to start recording.
According to court filings, Amazon was issued with two search warrants but refused to share information sent by the smart device to its servers. However, the police said a detective found a way to extract data from the device itself. The accused killer has yet to be put on trial and it is not clear whether the information ultimately proved useful to the investigation.
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