Amazon Echo, the police Uses asks the data to a murder case – The Republic

IS NEAR the day when the judges will call the fridge and the boiler, to testify in court, to solve the case of a murder. Seems to portend this future, after that, in the past few days, it is discovered that a tug of war going on between the police and Us and Amazon to get the data of the Echo platform, internet of things (IoT). The police considers that these can be useful to solve the case of a murder that took place in November 2015, when a man (Andrew Bates) was killed in the bathtub. The main suspect, the owner of the house: Victor Collins.

Already, the police, of Arkansas, has been able to discover from the data of the boiler smart of Collins that there was an abnormal consumption of water from a at three in the morning. Perhaps to wash off the blood? Already this information is so precise, it would be difficult to achieve with domestic appliances analog; but from the Echo, the police hope to have something more: the sound recordings of that night.

The mics of Echo, in fact, are always active. So they can send commands to the electrical appliances when they hear certain key words. The recordings go from the Amazon servers, that process the user’s request. The point is that sometimes the Echo will record a few words for error, without the knowledge of the user.
Amazon has so far refused several times to provide these recordings, fearing it would weaken the confidence of its users. Companies such as Amazon and Google, who are investing, they must fight the idea that the internet of things is a threat to our privacy.

The story reminds us of the incident that occurred between Apple and the Fbi to unlock the iPhone of a terrorist and then have access to your data. But there is now a quantum leap, because with the internet of things any object (or almost) can contain data that is relevant to the investigators. In short, we were just used to the idea that our devices – cell phones and computers – can reveal information that can be used against us, and already we have to contend with the fact that this can apply to all things. From the boiler, the car, the tv, the refrigerator, in fact, because all of these objects are now be fitted with connections and sensors. In some cases (see already with smart tvs or connected cars) will become more and more difficult to go without; the alternative to “analog” is not connected could soon become very bad or disappear completely.

In these cases, you face two schools of thought. Anyone who claims that the investigators have the right to put their hands on the data of the users, wherever they are. And those who fear a slippery china: namely, that at this rate, the producers are forced to provide the State a way to access the data anyway, even bypassing the protections of the user and any encryption. With the risk, in this way, to weaken the security of the device against illegal access (cyber criminal) or otherwise infringe the democratic rights.

it Is a delicate phase of transition. A phase in which the States tend to strengthen the standards for interception and surveillance on the users (recently the has made the United Kingdom). And in which there are few and of doubtful efficacy, the entries institutional in the opposite direction (see the european Court of Justice on the data retention, in the past few days or the Guarantors Privacy of the Eu). In this situation, the difference can make the outcome of the confrontation between police and vendors in technology; although it may be considered a flaw, also the fact that you assign this role as a bulwark of our privacy policy (or our right to correct information), in the silence of the policy.

Topics:

Amazon Echo

Arkansas

privacy

police

murder

apple

Fbi

Starring:

Andrew Bates

Victor Collins