{"id":4726,"date":"2018-04-19T01:19:47","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T07:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/royceeddington.com\/?p=4726"},"modified":"2018-04-19T01:19:47","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T07:19:47","slug":"amazon-echo-devices-keep-60-seconds-of-recordings-the-big-question-is-this-in-perpetuity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/royceeddington.com\/?p=4726","title":{"rendered":"Amazon Echo devices keep 60 seconds of recordings. The big question – is this in perpetuity?"},"content":{"rendered":"

For several years, Amazon had been telling the tech world<\/a> their Echo home devices don’t “…actually do anything with your voice until you say their \u201cwake word,\u201d which is usually just … \u2018Alexa\u2019”<\/p>\n

There was a big story that threatened to poke a hole in that narrative. Specifically, that an Amazon echo device’s recordings were needed to solve a murder case.<\/a><\/p>\n

Amazon initially pushed back against releasing the recorded data, claiming “the First Amendment’s free speech protection applies to information gathered and sent by the device”<\/a>, but eventually agreed to release the data after “after the user… consented to the disclosure”<\/a>. The murder case was eventually dismissed<\/a>, but there was never any explicit information on how much data Amazon handed over to the police regarding the investigation or what the data entailed.<\/p>\n

The core issue remains. How exactly would an Echo device be useful in solving a murder case if it remains “off” until it is activated by the “wake word”? Why would the police want an Echo’s supposedly limited recordings?<\/p>\n

A new finding in a very<\/strong><\/em> interesting tweet from Matteo ( @geminiimatt<\/b><\/span><\/a> ) a few days ago might shed some light on that discrepancy.<\/p>\n

On examining the extracted data from an Amazon Echo device…<\/p>\n

\n

We are walking through the extracted data on an Amazon Echo. The device keeps the last 60 seconds of recording (stored in the cloud), app & device. wifi username\/password. sqlllite database contents. @B1N2H3X<\/a> is giving us the tour. pic.twitter.com\/FCyU6WyShG<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Matteo (@geminiimatt) April 14, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n