Germany: Data of smart home devices as evidence in court?!

According to a draft resolution for the upcoming conference of interior ministers of the 16 German federal states, data from smart home devices are to be admitted as evidence in court. The ministers of the federal states believe that the digital traces could help to solve crimes in the future, especially capital crimes and terrorist threats.

The interior ministers want to remove constitutional concerns, because the mentioned data is of great interest for the security authorities. According to the draft resolution, judicial approval will be sufficient in the future. However, domestic politicians expect criticism and resistance from the data protection commissioners of both the federal states and the federal government.

Smart home devices are technical devices such as televisions, refrigerators or voice assistants that are connected to the Internet. They are also summarized under the term Internet of the Things (IoT), can be controlled via the smartphone and make daily life easier for the user. Many data are stored and processed.

We have already reported several times about smart home devices, including the fact that in the USA data from smart home devices have already helped to solve crimes (in German).

It cannot be denied that data from smart home devices can (under certain circumstances) help to solve crimes, but it must be neglected that due to the technical design a 100% reliable statement cannot be made. A simple example is this: whether the landlord was actually at home at the time in question or still on his way home, or just wanted to give the impression that he was at home while in fact on the other side of the world, cannot be determined on the basis of data from smart home devices. For example, the ability to use the smartphone to control the light/heat management allows the user to control it from anywhere at any time.

In addition, it should be taken into consideration that such interventions, or the mere possibility of intervention, may violate a person’s right to informational self-determination, and it is precisely the protection of this constitutionally protected right that data protection is committed to.

Update: The 210th Conference of the interior ministers has come to an end in the meantime and the approval of smart home data as evidence in court has been rejected. The resolutions of the conference can be found here (in German).