Amazon is refusing to assist in the giving of recordings from an Amazon Echo for the case of James Andrew Bates, accused of murdering his friend, Victor Collins in 2015 by arguing that the FBI would be violating Alexa’s (Amazons AI) First Amendment rights.
This case came to fruition in December when Amazon had gotten a warrant to provide audio from the Amazon Echo; they had reason to believe that the device has over 40- hour period of evidence ranging from November 21 through 22, 2015, including subscriber and account information, to boot. The tech company did hand over the subscriber information, purchase history, and a 90-page argument against the warrant, which was filed last week. The documents stated that recorded audio should be protected under First Amendment rights and that they wanted it thrown out.
Amazon truly believes that Echo user’s voice commands are protected as free speech. The Alexa voice service response rights will also be violated. Alexa may contain things and about the user’s life that the public should not know. That includes things such as hobbies and so forth.
“The responses may contain expressive material, such as a podcast, an audiobook, or music requested by the user. Second, the response itself constitutes Amazon’s First Amendment-protected speech.” Amazon’s lawyers had stated.
Amazon also stressed that the government needs to show a “compelling need” to for this type of data. Many people do favor fact that the government can have access to their private accounts, just on a whim. It is just plain unconstitutional, according to Amazon.
Many people believe that Amazon does have a case including Toni Massaro, a professor at the University Of Arizona College Of Law. She said their argument is surprisingly plausible.
“Of course, Amazon itself has free speech rights. As long as Alexa can be seen as Amazon, there is a protected speaker here,” she explained.
