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Police Use Fitbit Data To Charge 90-Year-Old Man In Stepdaughter's Killing (nytimes.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: The last time Anthony Aiello spoke to his stepdaughter, he took homemade pizza and biscotti to her house in San Jose, Calif., for a brief visit. Mr. Aiello, 90, told investigators that she then walked him to the door and handed him two roses in gratitude. But an unnoticed observer in the house later revealed that their encounter ended in murder, a police report said. Five days afterward, Mr. Aiello's stepdaughter, Karen Navarra, 67, was discovered by a co-worker in her house with fatal lacerations on her head and neck. She had been wearing a Fitbit fitness tracker, which investigators said showed that her heart rate had spiked significantly around 3:20 p.m. on Sept. 8 (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source), when Mr. Aiello was there. Then it recorded her heart rate slowing rapidly, and stopping at 3:28 p.m., about five minutes before Mr. Aiello left the house, the report said. Mr. Aiello was arrested last week on murder charges and booked into the Santa Clara County Jail, the San Jose Police Department said. On Thursday, he will appear in court in the Hall of Justice in San Jose, according to the Santa Clara County district attorney's office. "[T]he police said their investigation used a combination of video surveillance and data from Ms. Navarra's Fitbit, an Alta HR device, which she wore on her left wrist and synchronized with a computer in her home, where she lived alone," reports NYT. When asked for comment, Fitbit shared a copy of its privacy policy, stating in part that they comply with legal processes, including search warrants and court orders, when it shares data.
Tech companies are not, will not, and cannot be your friends.
In this case it's cool if they legit caught a murderer with it because at least it actually caught someone who did something terrible instead of the feds spending hundreds of manhours to bust your local weed dealer and shoot his dog or whatever, but don't think for a minute anything you have that collects data on you can be trusted.
Do they add Being Murdered to Jogging, Walking, Cycling? Pity she didn't get the upgrade that calls 911 if it detects unusual physical energy directed to the head
A cell phone is a tracking devices that happens to be able to make phone calls. Seems like fitness trackers are just that.
Competition Good, Monopoly Bad.
Tech companies are not, will not, and cannot be your friends.
A certain amount of paranoia is certainly warranted in technology any time it harvests your information, for sure.
However in this case a device that the victim owned and activated was used to obtain information on her last moments alive. The NYT article shows that the police obtained a warrant to get the data, as they should. The data then was used to construct a timeline to determine what happened, when.
While the fitbit is not marketed as a crime-fighting device, it was a useful tool in this investigation. I don't really see what the problem here is. There is no indication that the victim was wearing the fitbit against her own will.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
If I ever get to be 90 I wish I could be anywhere near fit enough to kill someone. Not that I would want to but do that but if you can actually kill someone violently it means you can move properly, which a lot of 90 year olds can't.
This isn't even the first time such data has contributed to LEO investigation.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fitbit-murder-case-richard-dabate-pleads-not-guilty-wife-s-n752526
Now we have more Fitbit murder evidence cases than filesystem nerd murder cases, at least...
Anchovies Pizza?? WTF?? That's your favorite -- not mine!!
This is what I think of whenever someone says anchovies :D https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Heart attacks are often preceeded by a spike in heart rate. As the blood clot in a coronary artery thickens, the heart pumps faster to try to give itself more blood. It ultimately exhausts itself, slowing rapidly to a halt as lactic acid builds up in the muscular tissue.
The fitbit data is consistent with having had a heart attack. Perhaps she cut herself up in a fit of hypoxic delirium as her oxygen level dropped.
I see no evidence reliably linking this poor old man to any crime. I am an Internet Expert(TM) so you should agree with my position.
Are they absolutely certain about the time sync between the cameras and the fitbit? Are they certain that the fitbit data corresponds with death?
This needs an achievement.
and if you cannot afford a lawyer, other than this one found posting in a tech column known as Slashdot, from his momma's basement, the state will provide one for you. Do you understand these rights
"This product is not a medical device, and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. With regard to accuracy, Fitbit has developed leading hardware and algorithms to track fitness information and is constantly improving its products to calculate measurements as accurately as possible. The accuracy of Fitbit devices is not intended to match medical devices or scientific measurement devices, but is intended to give you the best information available in a wearable activity tracker."
In other words, "we're only guessing at your heart rate." The "evidence" obtained from the fitbit will be thrown out.
The fit-bit shows that she died at a certain time, but it doesn't show that he was there. The part about him being there is just something the article states without explaining. Presumably, that's a time line the prosecution said happened, which is something a prosecution does with or without evidence. That timeline might be backed by evidence, or it might be something they pulled out of their ass. I would be much more convinced if the fitbit established the time of death AND the cellphone established he was there in the house at that time.
That is all.
You don't want the $80 "new" version.
If any of my friends are reading this, if you're a murderer I'm not your friend either.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
She had been wearing a Fitbit fitness tracker, which investigators said showed that her heart rate had spiked significantly around 3:20 p.m. on Sept. 8 (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source), when Mr. Aiello was there. Then it recorded her heart rate slowing rapidly, and stopping at 3:28 p.m., about five minutes before Mr. Aiello left the house, the report said.
Yeesh. I'd imagine anyone looking at that data, knowing that a murder had been committed, would get a cold shiver down their spine, watching the heartrate data do that.
That being said.. while in this case a tracking device (which is what Fitbit is, after all) has provided the time-of-death evidence necessary to catch a killer, it's still completely fucked up that people are voluntarily wearing a tracking device like Fitbit that gives away such valuable personal data to any corporation for any reason -- that apparently the police and other government agencies can then have access to. Don't do it, folks.
"Lacerations on her head and neck" coupled with "was found slouched in her chair with a kitchen knife in her hand, appearing as if she killed herself" makes me think this was the weakest plan to throw the cops off of all time. Who kills themselves by wildly stabbing at their head and neck? C'mon guy at least open the window and try to make it look like an intruder or something.
Take any digital watches and cell phones present next time I kill someone...
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
*thump* *thump* *thump* *thump* *thump* *thump*
Gallows humor is always funny.
Wasn't there a bunch of news recently about the new Apple Watch calling 911 for some abnormal heartbeats?
In any case, these devices are generally going to be able to identify whether they're on a wrist or not, particularly with newer ones that also include pulse oximeters. I could easily see both fitness trackers and smartwatches being able to detect patterns that look like severe health issues and/or death and the ability to contact emergency services.
The biggest roadblocks are going to be regulatory and legal rather than technical - are your devices authorized to track this, respond to this, respond by calling 911, etc. *and* just as important to a manufacturer if a capable device *does not* detect, recognize or respond to a health emergency does the manufacturer get sued?
fencepost
just a little off
Your fitbit motion sensor showed you were jerking off last night at home instead, and your DVR shows you were watching Dancing With The Stars.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I have a fitbit charge 2 which counts steps and sleep habits, both of which are very useful to counter my diabetes. (why can't they track glucose too?) In this case it also tracked her heart rate going to zero and the time that happened. Also very useful to add forensic evidence for her murder. You could argue that's an invasion of privacy but I think the fact a murderer was caught outweighs that invasion, which she probably agreed to in any case. I'll gladly continue to wear my fitbit and I'm a security professional who cases about privacy. The benefits far outweigh the consequences.
nothing to see here - move along