Re:NH judge orders Amazon to give Echo recordings in murder ...
by cgriswald on Saturday November 10, 2018 @06:15PM
(#18424037)
What does it even mean to record? Saving to disk? You can’t start recording after hearing a trigger word and somehow get sound from before the trigger word unless you’ve already got it... I imagine a FIFO stream or buffer that only writes to disk if a trigger word is present.
Also, there may be trigger words that cause recordings even if no actions need to be taken...
http://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/judge-orders-amazon-to...
The Union-Leader quotes the district attorney's request, which seems to have cognizance of how Echo works:
> On Oct. 30, Senior Assistant Attorney General Geoffrey Ward asked Houran to direct Amazon.com to produce any recordings made between Jan. 27 and Jan. 29, 2017, suggesting evidence of the crime of murder and/or hindering apprehension of prosecution could be found on the device.
> “As part of the normal functioning of an Echo electronic device activated either intentionally or accidentally by ‘wake up words,’ audio recordings are made of the moment when the device is activated,” Ward wrote.
> “Specifically, when the Echo detects a ‘wake up word(s),’ the device begins audio recording through its integrated microphones, including recording the fraction of a second of audio before the ‘wake up word(s),’” Ward continued.
> The motion, which was made in lieu of an application for a search warrant, also asks for information identifying cellular devices that were paired to that smart speaker in that time period.
If there's one thing these kinds of stories have effected in me, it's the knowledge that I should scream "Alexa!" (or maybe Siri/OK Google depending on which room) right before I get murdered in my own home.