“Health data has provided crucial evidence at a trial in Germany, in which a refugee is accused of rape and murder,” BBC News reports. “Apple’s Health App accurately records steps and has been pre-installed on the iPhone 6S and newer models. Data suggesting the suspect was climbing stairs could correlate to him dragging his victim down a riverbank and climbing back up, police said.”
“The accused – Hussein K – has admitted his guilt but disputed some details,” The Beeb reports. “The 19-year-old medical student Maria Ladenburger was murdered in October 2016 and the trial – at the district court in Freiburg – started in September. Ms Ladenburger was raped and drowned in the River Dresiam.”
“The suspect – identified by a hair found at the scene of the crime – refused to provide police with the PIN code to his phone so investigating officers turned to an unnamed cyber-forensics firm in Munich, which broke into the device,” The Beeb reports. “As well as locating Hussein’s movements, the phone also suggested periods of more strenuous activity, including two peaks, which the app put down to him ‘climbing stairs.'”
“Complicating the trial are attempts to pin down Hussein’s real age,” The Beeb reports. “He initially claimed that he was 17 but his father, tracked down to Iran, has disputed this.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This is one of the first uses of biometric data from a smartphone / wearable. It certainly won’t be the last. Also, it looks like German investigators, at least, can figure out how to get data from an iPhone when they need it. However that hole was exploited, hopefully, Apple’s already closed it.
Note: Today is Martin Luther King Day in the U.S. and the markets are closed. As such, we will have limited posting today.