Reference no: EM132982405

Question: Amazon designed its Echo devices to listen, and respond to, voice commands. But in December of 2016, police in Arkansas sought the audio recordings of Victor Collins for another reason-to help them solve his murder. As the case unfolded, it because clear that the device listens to, and uploads to cloud servers, a wide variety of audio inputs, including (the police hoped) incriminating evidence that might help them solve the case.

Amazon refused to provide the recordings, arguing that "personal privacy" was more important. For example, defense attorney Kimberly Weber stated "You have an expectation of privacy in your home, and I have a big problem that law enforcement can use the technology that advances our quality of life against us." Additional issues were the reliability of what might have been recorded, who recorded it, and the accuracy of the information on it.

Ultimately, the situation involved issues involving personal privacy, the workings of an Internet of Things, and the question of who should have final control over the audio logs made by an Internet listening device used in a private home. At the time of this writing, the police decided that they had enough incriminating evidence without the audio tapes and decided not to pursue their acquisition.

Based on this information, do you think Amazon should be forced to provide Echo recordings, or are "Privacy rights" more important? Defend your position with arguments to support it.