You might recall that I wrote a story about Arkansas cops wanting data from an Amazon Echo in relation to a murder case that they were investigating as the device is always listening to what’s going on. It looks like the cops are going to get their data. But things didn’t go down the way you would think it would:
Amazon’s First Amendment fight was short lived. After pushing back against investigators, the tech giant handed over data from an Echo believed to contain vital information pertaining to 2015 murder. The move, which occurred on Friday, was initiated by defendant James Bates, who agreed to allow police to review the information retained on his smart home assistant.
This means that Amazon gets to avoid a potentially messy fight, at least until the next time this happens. Thus you might want to keep an eye on this space as this issue is going to reappear.