Last March a woman name Jeannine Risley called 9-1-1 alledging that a man in his 30s had broken into the place she was staying, woke her, and raped her. Police found overtuned furniture, a vodka bottle, and a knife on the scene when they responded. Still, something didn't seem right about the story (example: there was fresh snow on the ground and there were now footprints in the snow leading to the house) so they kept investigating. As part of the investigation, police requested that Mrs. Risley provide them the Fitbit device that she was wearing so that they could analyze the data. Sure enough, the Fitbit data proved that Mrs. Risley was awake and walking around during the period where she claimed to be asleep. This, combined with other evidence, provided sufficient cause to charge Mrs. Risley with several misdemeanor offenses.
As one might imagine, it is use of Fitbit data that has propelled this matter to the national stage. As those in our profession have stated far too often, once individuals place data "out there" it is nigh impossible to restrict its use. Mrs. Risley willingly wore a device designed to track and record her activity; it should not be surprising to anyone that that same data could be used to prove or disprove the commission of an unlawful act. While it's doubtful that this one case will spark a substantive ripple in the push for wearable technologies or an expansion of the Internet of Things, we might finally begin to see some chatter outsite of our own professional circles about the privacy and legal implications of an uber-networked society -- to include protecting the data collected from from unauthorized alteration.
My two cents. Click here for a quick link to the original story.
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