Gadgetory

now you guys are familiar with Amazon echo right that's Amazon's answer to the personal assistant for your home well Amazon echo may help police solve a murder case I don't know if that's cool or scary Victor Collins lay there facing down in James Bates hot tub strangled and drowned what started off as a group of friends watching a football game turned into a brutal murder and there may have been a female witness to the scene in this case that female is Amazon echoes Alexa according to authorities Bates invited Collins and two other friends to his house for a football game Collins was found dead in the morning strangled and Bates's hot tub and Bates was consequently charged with first-degree murder Bates claimed that he had gone to bed around 1:00 am leaving Collins with the two other friends Owen McDonald and Sean Henry but it was later confirmed by McDonald and his wife that McDonald had left Bates and Collins around 12:30 a.m. okay now just get to the part about Amazon echo well the interesting part here is that Bates had a few Internet of Things devices around his house including the Amazon echo police records showed that the Amazon echo may have been used to control music and that Alexa may be a key witness to this crime technically the Amazon echo has seven microphones that are always listening listening for your wake up command rock music this means that police could use the data to see whether it recorded anything from the night of the murder accordingly police have issued a warrant to Amazon asking for the said data in order to help prosecute Bates but Amazon is reluctant oh yeah for sure and Amazon said this quote we will not release customer information without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us Amazon objects too overboard or otherwise inappropriate demands as a matter of course however the echo device has been seized by the Bentonville Police and although it's unclear whether Alexa will speak as to what may have happened that night this is just one example of how internet connected devices around us may one day become a key component in solving crimes now I know some of you are thinking this is a great opportunity for Amazon echo to provide the information necessary to prove this man's guilt or innocence case closed wonderful no not so much no my friends it is a slippery slope and the history of law enforcement has told us that if law enforcement has the power to use this type of data for this information then they can and will use it for other types of information that was not originally intended when they made the new law to adapt to new technology right I mean RICO cases is a really good example for those of you who are too young to know years ago in the 80s the FBI created something called the RICO this was a new law that allowed FBI and other law enforcement agencies in the u.s. to charge one member of a criminal organization a gang or mafia or whatever and then immediately arrest and charge the rest of the members of that gang even if they didn't have evidence to a specific crime being a member of that game of that gang was crime enough and they could be charged and put into jail for a significant amount of time they were called RICO cases case in point the FBI and other law enforcement agencies took the RICO law and used it for other things that were not directly related to organized crime real big infringement on human rights on our privacy and it's scary because if these devices are everywhere picking up information and law enforcement can tap that that's a real big slippery slope you will have no privacy not even in your own bloody bedroom what do you think about that are you worried about it I think you should let me know what you think in the comments below