By Matt Agorist
Amazon’s Echo built upon the voice search capability of Android’s ‘Ok Google’ and Apple’s Siri and turned it into a device that is capable of doing everything from answering questions to turning on your on your air conditioner. However, like all beneficial technology, when the government gets involved, this useful household item is converted into a spying machine for the surveillance state.
In a seemingly unprecedented case out of Bentonville, Arkansas, the latest example of how police can use your technology against you is coming to fruition.
Investigators in Bentonville have filed search warrants with Amazon, requesting the recordings made on a man’s Echo device between November 21 and November 22, 2015. The recordings belong to James A. Bates, who was charged with murder after a man was strangled to death in a hot tub.
According to CNET, while investigating, police noticed the Echo in the kitchen and pointed out that the music playing in the home could have been voice activated through the device. While the Echo records only after hearing the wake word, police are hoping that ambient noise or background chatter could have accidentally triggered the device, leading to some more clues.
“It is believed that these records are retained by Amazon.com and that they are evidence related to the case under investigation,” police wrote in the search warrant.
According to court documents, Amazon has yet to concede to the search warrant and has not sent any recordings to police.
However, according to police, Amazon may not have to send over the files for cops to get them. According to the warrant, police believe they can tap into the hardware on the Echo, which could “potentially include time stamps, audio files or other data,” reports CNET.
On top of Bates’ Echo, police have also attempted to break into his phone, but were unsuccessful due to his password. In response to the delay in investigation caused by Amazon not sending the recordings and the phone password, the police department issued the following ominous response within the warrant.
Our agency now has the ability to utilize data extraction methods that negate the need for passcodes and efforts to search Victor and Bates’ devices will continue upon issuance of this warrant.
Police have also seized an iPhone 6S, a Macbook Pro, a PlayStation 4, three tablets, a Nest thermostat, a Honeywell alarm system, wireless weather monitoring in the backyard and WeMo devices for lighting at the smart home crime scene.
They also pulled the records for Bates’ smart meter, which may have proven to be most useful as it shows an “excessive amount of water” used during the alleged strangling.
Of course, any information that can be used to solve a murder is helpful. However, this case will undoubtedly be used to set a precedent that police can subpoena these recordings at any time they see fit. It should also set off alarm bells to those who wish to maintain some level of privacy.
If you don’t want the government to see something, don’t store it digitally — which is why the following instructions are very important.
According to Amazon, when Amazon Echo or Echo Dot detect the wake word, when you press the action button on top of the devices, or when you press and hold your remote’s microphone button, the light ring around the top of your Amazon Echo turns blue, to indicate that Amazon Echo is streaming audio to the Cloud.
All of the audio in the room is recorded and stored, not just what you think you are asking Echo.
The device also records everything in the room prior to you using the wake word. When you use the wake word, according to Amazon, the audio stream includes a fraction of a second of audio before the wake word, and closes once your question or request has been processed.
When you go inside the Settings menu in your Alexa app on your phone, you can listen to every one of your requests by selecting History.
Just as the police noted in their murder investigation, there are times that Alexa randomly starts recording without the wake word being said.
Luckily, deleting this audio is simple.
In the History menu of the mobile Alexa app, you can delete specific entries one by one by selecting it and then tapping the delete button. However, if you want to wipe your entire history, you’ll need to do so at the Manage Your Content and Devices page at www.amazon.com/mycd.
Once logged in, you’ll see the page, Manage Your Content and Devices. From here, click on Your Devices. Select the device from which you want to delete the audio, and a sub-menu will appear under it. Click on Manage voice recordings, and then click delete. Before deleting, Amazon presents you with the following warning.
Once you click delete, a brief popup comes up letting you know that “Your deletion request has been received.”
How to Disappear Off the Grid Completely (Ad)
You can then check the mobile app and all voice recordings from that device will be immediately removed.
It is important to note that this technology itself is not the problem. Amazon records your requests to make your future requests faster and more accurate — and owning an Echo is entirely voluntary.
However, as the Free Thought Project has shown time and again, even if you are completely innocent of any crime, the police state can and will use anything against you in their attempt to prove otherwise.
Matt Agorist is the co-founder of TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared. He is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Follow @MattAgorist. and now on Steemit
Jeff “anti-trust” Bezos in action with the money you spent at his business. And now he’s giving your information to “the man” and probably selling it too to anyone else who can pay and desires it. How do you fight back?? Quit spending your money at Jeff’s business and just wait patiently for January 20th for Trump’s inauguration – problem (eventually) solved. And Jeff then has the problem…
This issue is not just a Libturd issue….it’s a control issue…. regardless of who is in control, they will use this technology against you, if it’s available…. I am still using a simple flip phone and bunny ears on my TV… Now, if they were to come for my computer, that is another story… But, my electro magnet is mounted right next to my computer and it’s a matter of hitting a switch…. then “poof” all is lost to include the hard drive….it physically crushes the plates…. it’s cool to see….
its impossible to use “bunny ears” on a new tv and old tvs dont work unless you have a digital converter box and then again the analog antennas do not good since all tv signals have been converted over to digital signals since the mod 2000s.
“do no good” ….”since the mid 2000s”
You’re a very literal person…. HD Digital Ant. takes the place of Bunny Ears…. It’s just Bunny Ears is funner to say than HD Digital Antenna … So, Gung Ho…. does that make you feel better?
i doubt you have a physical disk crusher… please post a pic of this ingenious device, we would like to all have one?
Im 97% sure you’re smart enough to look one up… I will even give you the Nomenclature : Handheld Electromagnet/Degausser ….. You plug it into the wall socket and pull the trigger…. the plates inside the drive will collapse together…. I used the word Crush for dramatic affect… gets your kind to frothing at the mouth….
We “defeated” The Soviet Union in 1989–or rather–we imported it here (as we did with Operation Paper Clip–we brought the Nazi’s here) as the Bolsheviks who run the USA are atheistic Bolshevik Zionists (aka “J$ws”). The rather pale skinned “Middle Easterners” are Bolsheviks who slaughtered untold millions in Russia and now want war against Russia. NOT ONE “conservative radio host”–save corporatist Rush, are NOT demanding we go to war with Russia. Why? What has Russia done to us–or Iran–what have they done? Thats right, they got Trump elected, (aside from the Communists who have infiltrated virtually every institution in this land and are now openly Communist -(they brag about it at our Universities–“kill all whites” from a white guy..fasinating—-a j$w of course).
For days all the talk on talk radio is how we have betrayed Israel. How? The U.N. resolution was for a divided land (read it) and the indigenous people given their land. A kid throws a rock at a pale skinned “Children of God” (70% are atheists) and they shoot him in the face, bulldoze their home and take the land.
The enemy is clear. We know who they are. They have a distinctive nose, sometimes, slightly olive skin (a very Russian trait) and steal, kill and cheat as a way of life. Bankers, Wall Street, Hollywood higher ups, Academia, all media and our gov and all of of our Communist “people’s representatives”–Adam Schiff, Chuck Schumer, Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, et al—hey! those are all Eastern European names…aka–The Soviet Union. From the Middle East? I think not. Debbie Wasserman Schultz could be from Scotland–ugly broad—(not a handsome people)
Whoops, forgot Bezo’s, Schmidt and Cohen—- Don’t look like semites to me because they are NOT.
We need a vaccine for this virus.
This diversity BS is just that…. If we were to allow like minded people to live in their own areas of the World and left each other alone, this might be a nice place to live….
Here is a great way to delete it
DONT USE IT
Nice and thanks for the info.
One problem. I worked in IT for 30 years. They save data off regularly to another ‘cloud’.
That data will be, of course, saved for 7 (shmita?) years.
There might be a way to turn this recording off.
I hope Trump will do something about all of this unconstitutional acts of the unholy.
Randall has a good point and wut Mohawk77 says – all comments have good points.
Step #1. Don’t use a smartphone.
Step #2. Don’t use a smartphone.
Step #3. Don’t use a smartphone.
Your article is inaccurate. Prove this statement “Amazon’s Echo built upon the voice search capability of Android’s ‘Ok Google’ and Apple’s Siri…”