"...[P]olice in Arkansas want to know if one of the gadgets overheard something that can help with a murder case... Amazon declined to give police any of the information that the Echo logged on its servers, but it did hand over Bates' account details and purchases. Police say they were able to pull data off of the speaker, but it's unclear what info they were able to access. Due to the so-called always on nature of the connected device, the authorities are after any audio the speaker may have picked up that night. Sure, the Echo is activated by certain words, but it's not uncommon for the IoT gadget to be alerted to listen by accident... An Amazon spokesperson stated: 'Amazon will not release customer information without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us. Amazon objects to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate demands as a matter of course.'.. ...Echo only captures audio and streams it to the cloud when the device hears the wake word "Alexa." A ring on the top of the device turns blue to give a visual indication that audio is being recorded. Those clips, or "utterances" as the company calls them, are stored in the cloud until a customer deletes them either individually or all at once. When that's done, the "utterances" are permanently deleted..." https://www.engadget.com/2016/12/27/amazon-echo-audio-data-murder-case/
"Amazon resists Echo murder evidence call Amazon is continuing to resist efforts by prosecutors in a US murder case to obtain recordings from one of its Echo smart speakers. In its first formal legal response to the request for audio recordings to be handed over, Amazon said prosecutors had failed to establish it was necessary. It said that it had to weigh customer privacy against such requests. Prosecutors argue that the data could throw light on what happened. Police want any information from the Echo that may be on Amazon's servers....." http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39063113
