Joel Reidenberg was quoted in a CNN story about a murder case that involves Amazon Echo, a voice command device that police believe may have recorded evidence pertinent to the investigation.
Joel Reidenberg, the founding academic director for Fordham University’s Center on Law and Information Policy, told CNN it’s the first such case he’s seen, but he isn’t surprised that smart speakers are already the subject of a court battle.
While some might argue that voice technologies such as Echo, Siri or Google Home, which assist users with queries and tasks, come with a different expectation of privacy than, say, social media postings or Internet searches, Reidenberg said he feels such an attitude is naive.
According to Amazon, Echo works by constantly listening for the “wake word” — “Alexa” or “Amazon,” by default — and then records your voice and transfers it to a processor for analysis so that it can fulfill requests or answer questions. The recordings are streamed and stored remotely, and can be reviewed or deleted over time, Amazon says.
“How is that any different from you sitting at your keyboard typing?” Reidenberg asked.