It started as a usual criminal investigation in an aggravated arson and insurance fraud case, in which a suspect needed to be cleared. But then the authorities revealed that the chap is having a pacemaker, a heart implant.

According to the news, “the police obtained the data from the suspect’s artificial heart implant and asked a cardiologist to examine whether it offered data consistent with the suspects’s telling of events. The suspect has said the fire woke him up, that he packed some belongings into a suitcase, broke a window with his cane and threw the luggage outside. Then, he left the house, picked up the bags and went to his car. The cardiologist concluded that a comparison of his heart rate, his cardiac rhythms and the demands placed on his pacer were inconsistent with that story“.

Of course there was an argument from the defese that health information shouldn’t be used in court, but it has been ruled that it consisted only yet another type of evidence and as such it could and should be used.

What is interesting here is the authorities’ quick wits to turn to newer and newer kinds of technology (in this case, the recording of the cardiac data) in order to prove their point. Obviously this they won’t only use in criminal and intelligence fields, but wherever and whenever they could.

To us, whom never burnt down our house in order to fetch some money from the insurance company it means something else. It means that if you have any implants, it records crucial data about the functions of the body, and it is reasonably assumed that someone else is able to access these data – and find out about your human weaknesses.

Sources:

https://www.cnet.com/news/judge-rules-pacemaker-data-can-be-used-against-defendant/#ftag=CAD590a51e

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mans-cardiac-pacemaker-data-led-to-arson-charges/