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Apple Watch's Fall Detection Could Get Users Into Legal Trouble (arstechnica.com)
AmiMoJo writes: Apple has released more details about how the Watch 4 will contact emergency services if the watch detects that you've had a hard fall. If the watch detects that the wearer is "immobile for about a minute," it begins a 15-second countdown. After that, the Watch will contact emergency services.
Elizabeth Joh, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, was quick to point out that, by inviting the police into your home, Apple Watch wearers may be opening themselves up to criminal liability. If police are alerted by an Apple Watch of a possible injury, they do not need a warrant to enter a home under the "community caretaking" exception to the Fourth Amendment.
Any evidence of a crime in plain view (e.g. a joint) could land the owner in trouble.
The article notes the "(mostly) opt-in nature" of the service, though one New York-based criminal defense attorney had an even better idea.
He said he "would much prefer a feature that can automatically dial a user-determined contact."
Elizabeth Joh, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, was quick to point out that, by inviting the police into your home, Apple Watch wearers may be opening themselves up to criminal liability. If police are alerted by an Apple Watch of a possible injury, they do not need a warrant to enter a home under the "community caretaking" exception to the Fourth Amendment.
Any evidence of a crime in plain view (e.g. a joint) could land the owner in trouble.
The article notes the "(mostly) opt-in nature" of the service, though one New York-based criminal defense attorney had an even better idea.
He said he "would much prefer a feature that can automatically dial a user-determined contact."
They changed the sensors to be better able to detect falls specificity. The older models would potentially have more false positives.
These issues are not newly raised by the watch.
I can only surmise that the reason the watch doesn't ask for voice confirmation before dialing is, they assume the wearer is unconscious. If the wearer wakes up later in the hospital and is enraged about criminal charges for a joint spotted on their table, they have their priorities out of whack.
Likewise if the wearer experiences some head injury or loss of blood pressure and is too delirious to notice and abort the countdown. Probably better off summoning medical personnel.
Of course there is plenty of room for improvement. There's no reason the watch couldn't make a unique beeping sound as it counts down to remind the wearer to disable it. There's no reason it couldn't alert emergency services AND text/email/call a list of contacts. There's no reason not to allow customizations like "slide to call" rather than "slide to cancel", at the wearer's own risk.
How little faith do you have in your emergency services for this to be on the list of concerns?
In general the fall detection of the iPhone is a gimmick - Apple seems to be running out of ideas for things that can set them apart. The obvious issue is that it is marketed as mainly for older people, but older people susceptible to falls are usually not the target demographic of a device that needs to go on the charger every 2 days! What's more, I don't know the stats, but I would assume going to the bathroom in the middle of the night must account for a respectable percentage of falls, but your watch would probably be on the charger. Unless you have 2 Apple watches?
That would not be enough to condemn it as a gimmick perhaps if there did not exist dedicated fall alert devices that had none of the disadvantages of an Apple watch. I suspect with those devices you also don't invite the police to your house (assuming the article is correct and the Apple watch might do so), they usually alert a specialized EMT service.
At least it is opt-in, so a less annoying feature than what the iPhone X brought. Yes, while Face ID seems to work well and some people like it (I am not a fan myself), the decision to put it in a "notch" was very bad. Now every phone maker out there just copies the "notch" without actually any hardware or functionality similar to Face ID, and pretends to be an iPhoneX-equivalent, or one of the "cool kids'. I'll have to wait until this notch idiocy dies out before upgrading my phone.
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As someone who has rolled out lone-worker / man-down alert systems before, 15 seconds is not long enough to prevent false alarms. Even with careful training, and even when a person knows they are wearing a dedicated man down device, the number of false alarms these things generate are incredibly high when not given a shitload of time for the user to respond.
Rather than worrying about police rummaging through your house looking for your weed stash while you lay unconscious on the floor, I'd be more concerned with getting fined for repeated false alarms in jurisdictions that allow for such.
And it’s not even mine!
. . . and when the cops knock on your door, the watch answers:
"Dave's, not here, man!"
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In my state (KY but possibly others), we created a law that when 911 was called for an overdose that everyone at the scene was safe from prosecution of crimes such as possession etc. Could this law be expanded or interpreted to include 911 calls made by an apple watch?
http://www.lrc.ky.gov/statutes...
Rayn@RyPatts
So I apparently fell down 627 stairs then stopped moving for over 5 minutes. An ambulance showed up at the house along with my mum who let them in.
Tip: don't wear your new Apple Watch whilst having some alone time. Thanks Apple.
Lesson learned: Don't wear your Apple Watch while masturbating.
this depends on the state. Not every state looks the other way, and if you leave it up to local authorities it becomes inconsistent between bigger cities and more rural towns. Indiana is a good example of this. I work in Louisville and KY has a policy that possession (not distribution) of less than 8 oz is considered a misdemeanor $100 fine for the _first_ offence. After that it is back to disproportionate punitive measures. However, because under 8oz is a misdemeanor it does give sworn officers the flexibility to not report it. I have heard Indiana (right across a bridge) is no where near as flexible so people wont even carry their personal stuff on them if they have to go over the bridge. Southern Indiana is pretty rural and so law enforcement has more time to nitpick this kind of stuff whereas bigger cities are so busy dealing with bigger crimes they dont waste their time dealing with the little shit.
Or if you want to commit a crime, don't turn on features that call the cops.
How would you even know if you're committing a crime? No one can keep track of all of the laws, there are over 300,000 federal laws and regulations that can result in criminal prosecution and over 70% of people have comitted one or more jailable offenses.
https://www.politifact.com/pun...
Some may seem innocuous like 'If a doctor gave you a prescription for the common painkiller vicodin and your spouse brings it to you as you lie in bed, "your spouse is dispensing a controlled substance without a license,"' but if a cop sees it and is looking for an excuse to arrest you, he's got the legal justification to do so and it may cost you many thousands of dollars to clear the charges.
> it's a federal crime
I can lay my hand on No part of the U.S. constitution that allows Congress to outlaw a naturally-growing plant. It took an amendment to give them the power to outlaw alcohol, and the same requirement applies to weed.
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