Germany planning to access voice assistant data to tackle crime

[LASER_oneXM]

Content source

https://www.itnews.com.au/news/germany-planning-to-access-voice-assistant-data-to-tackle-crime-526222

To extract evidence from Amazon's Alexa or smart fridges.

German authorities are working on guidelines to allow them to access data held by voice assistants like Amazon's Alexa or smart fridges to help them fight crime, a spokesman for the interior ministry said on Wednesday. Voice assistants, increasingly popular even in privacy-conscious Germany, carry out simple spoken commands given by their users, recording large amounts of information about their habits and behaviour in the process.

"To tackle crime effectively it is very important for federal and regional authorities to have access to the data captured by these devices," the ministry spokesman told a regular government news conference, adding that a meeting of regional interior ministers would discuss concrete proposals next week.
The spread of devices that promise convenience to users but which effectively place networked microphones and cameras in intimate domestic settings has sparked widespread concerns around the world about the privacy implications.

 

[Threadripper]

What evidence do they expect to extract? I have no doubt a criminal with a smart fridge would be asking it to restock on milk but what are they expecting to find and use as evidence? Lol.

 

[motox781]

What evidence do they expect to extract? I have no doubt a criminal with a smart fridge would be asking it to restock on milk but what are they expecting to find and use as evidence? Lol.

I'm guessing everything ever said, willingly or not...

Times are getting close for me to throw out my Google Home.

Sad time for Germans...that's just wrong...

 

[plat]

Well you can make a stink about "privacy concerns" but once you're the victim of an outrageous crime or there's a suspected terrorist with ties to ISIS in your nabe, you'd likely be screaming for the cops to access every single trove of information--including Alexa. I would.

The issue is, I guess, whether the authorities can just help themselves to the info or whether there are channels to go thru and standards to meet. Laws have to be built with maintaining privacy first.

 

[Threadripper]

Well you can make a stink about "privacy concerns" but once you're the victim of an outrageous crime or there's a suspected terrorist with ties to ISIS in your nabe, you'd likely be screaming for the cops to access every single trove of information--including Alexa. I would.

The issue is, I guess, whether the authorities can just help themselves to the info or whether there are channels to go thru and standards to meet. Laws have to be built with maintaining privacy first.

I'm no expert; but I don't think most terrorists revealed their plans to their smart devices... We don't need 8 billion people being wiretapped just in case they decide to talk about the time they stole some chewing gum when they were 12.

I'm guessing everything ever said, willingly or not...

Times are getting close for me to throw out my Google Home.

Sad time for Germans...that's just wrong...

I hope that doesn't become a reality, but if they were forced to record everything hot damn that would be a lot of network traffic, you'd probably notice it. I have two Amazon Echo's in my house, one in my bedroom. I use an app called Jumbo to delete the recordings every night and it checks the privacy settings as well.

 

[DeepWeb]

Well as if they aren't doing that already... They are just considering legalizing it officially...

 

[plat]

Post # 5: "I'm no expert; but I don't think most terrorists revealed their plans to their smart devices... We don't need 8 billion people being wiretapped just in case they decide to talk about the time they stole some chewing gum when they were 12."

Expert, shmexpert. This is not about trying to be "cool" or on the side of a popular and trendy cause. Here's one example, there are countless others. A mother of five small kids in Connecticut is missing for over a week. There is a lot of wealth involved, cheating, divorce, etc. A year ago, the missing woman wrote that she feared for her life, that her husband was going to harm her. Now, then, recently, a string of surveillance cameras caught the hubby and his girlfriend going to various trash locations with what turned out to be bloody clothes and kitchen sponges. Mysteriously, the cops are now searching in a trash-burning location for the remains. How did they get a clue--from an Alexa or smart fridge or something?

I think this area is a potential goldmine of evidence but like any goldmine, there has to be systems in place for proper use by trained and vetted authorities otherwise it'll be exploited and abused naturally.