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Briefing
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- Motion to Reject Search Warrant – Amazon filed motion on February 17, 2017 to disregard search warrant requesting recordings from Amazon Echo device owned by suspect James Bates, accused of murdering friend Victor Collins in Bentonville, Arkansas in November 2015
- Protected by First Amendment – Argued audio recorded by Alexa, including browsing and purchases made, and device's responses are protected by First Amendment of U.S. Constitution, which protects free speech
- Compelling Need for Data Acquisition – Rationalized there must be compelling reason to obtain data from Echo device, including evidence not being accessible through any other sources
- Partial Compliance – Partially complied to warrant on February 8, 2016, providing subscriber information and purchase history from defendant’s Amazon account, except for recordings
- Potential Recording Source – Feds could not access defendant’s Google Nexus phone because it was encrypted at chip level, which could have given access to audio recordings
- Previous Cases – Cites Google and Baidu cases where courts deemed that First Amendment protects search engine results
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