A husband has been convicted of the murder of his wife among other charges after her smartwatch tracking data revealed that she was up and moving around for a full hour after he claimed she was killed by an intruder.
The husband told police that a masked man broke into their home, killed his wife, and tied him up. Police discovered him with superficial knife wounds, and with zip-ties securing one of his legs and one of his arms to a folding chair. According to the police, there were no signs of a struggle in the house.
The police say that the husband gave them a timeline of events that conflicted with data on his wife's Fitbit, which showed that she was moving around for about an hour after the time he said she had been shot. In closing arguments the prosecutor painted a picture of a man who staged a home invasion and killed his wife in order to prevent his life from unraveling due to an extramarital affair and a pregnant mistress who later gave birth to their child.
Representation for the defense argued that the Fitbit data was unreliable. The man received 65 years in prison for the 2015 murder of his wife, among other charges.
Editor's Note: Although no insurance was directly implicated in this case, the potential implications are clear. Since smart devices started to become more popular, they have been used increasingly in criminal and fraud investigations to reveal unsavory intentions. Insurance companies have used smart data from a pacemaker, among other evidence, to refute a policyholder's claims that his house caught fire and burned down around him when in actuality he set the fire himself and then escaped from the burning home. Criminal investigators have used smart water heater records to argue that an exorbitant amount of water used around 4 am was an attempt to cover up a murder.
Millions of data points are being collected on a daily basis from devices ranging from fitness trackers to home security, doorbells, climate control systems, appliances, and baby monitors. These items are being commissioned to track steps, breathing, heart rate, distance traveled, calories burned, sun exposure, water intake, active minutes, and calories burned. And this is by no means an exhaustive list. Smart home devices allow users to remotely open and close or lock and unlock doors and windows, adjust the thermostat, and monitor and interact with appliances including the oven and refrigerator.
A finding that the husband, and not an intruder, murdered the wife could prevent a life insurance pay-out going to the victim's murderer. A discovery that a house fire was intentionally set could save premium dollars for hundreds of policyholders. According to the FBI, the total cost of non-health insurance fraud is estimated to be more than $40 billion per year, costing the average U.S. family between $400 and $700 in increased payments per year.
While smart technology can be an aid to insurers to combat fraud, it can also create issues with hackers accessing insureds' property. A hacker could open doors for easy access to steal an insured's property. As with any new technology, there are benefits and hazards, and both must be taken into consideration.