Amazon is continuing to fight efforts to force it to hand over personal information obtained by its Alexa voice control system for a US murder trial.
The internet giant is contesting a search warrant issued in the case against James Bates, who is accused of killing former Georgia police officer Victor Collins in 2015, Forbes reports.
Police say information stored on Bates's Amazon Echo wireless speaker, which uses the Alexa service, could be useful in their investigation.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
However, Amazon argues that Alexa has First Amendment rights as the system contains "a multitude of data" that cannot be isolated to one single event.
It also says the warrant will "inevitably chill users from exercising their First Amendment rights to seek and receive information and expressive content in the privacy of their own home".
This isn't the first case of a company protecting its user data after a warrant has been issued – last year, Apple refused an FBI request to unlock the iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter, says Engadget.
Opening an access door could have comprised "the security of every iPhone moving forward", adds the site, as the FBI had already locked itself out of the device by attempting to change the iPhone's password.
-
Deep thoughts: AI shows its math chopsFeature Google's Gemini is the first AI system to win gold at the International Mathematical Olympiad
-
The jobs most at risk from AIThe Explainer Sales and customer services are touted as some of the key jobs that will be replaced by AI
-
Why AI means it's more important than ever to check terms and conditionsIn The Spotlight WeTransfer row over training AI models on user data shines spotlight on dangers of blindly clicking 'Accept'
-
Are AI lovers replacing humans?Talking Points A third of Gen Z singles use tech as a 'romantic companion'
-
Palantir: The all-seeing tech giantFeature Palantir's data-mining tools are used by spies and the military. Are they now being turned on Americans?
-
Grok brings to light wider AI antisemitismIn the Spotlight Google and OpenAI are among the other creators who have faced problems
-
Intellectual property: AI gains at creators' expenseFeature Two federal judges ruled that it is fair use for AI firms to use copyrighted media to train bots
-
Is AI killing the internet?Talking Point AI-powered browsers and search engines are threatening the death of the open web
