Apple Watch health and location data could help find missing Saudi journalist

Posted:
in Apple Watch edited October 2018
An Apple Watch may provide clues surrounding the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a consulate in Turkey, with the wearable said to be at the center of an investigation to find out what happened to the Saudi dissident.




A veteran journalist who criticized Saudi Arabia's war on Yemen and imposition of rule on dissenters, Khashoggi visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 for an appointment, to accomplish a bureaucratic task that would let him marry his Turkish fiancee. Khashoggi's 1pm entry into the building was the last publicly recorded sighting of the man, who has seemingly gone missing.

Turkish officials believe the journalist was killed inside the consulate, reports Reuters, potentially due to his criticism of the country, an accusation Saudi Arabia denies as "false and baseless, and a product of "malicious leaks and grim rumors." Investigators from both countries are investigating to try and uncover the truth.

Two senior Turkish officials advised investigators are interested in data stemming from a black Apple Watch worn by Khashoggi as he entered the building. According to the officials, the Apple Watch was connected to an iPhone left outside the consulate, and could provide some details of his movements and activities inside.

"We have determined that it was on him when he walked into the consulate," one official advised. "Intelligence services, the prosecutor's office, and a technology team are working on this. Turkey does not have the watch so we are trying to do it through connected devices."

It is possible that the Apple Watch could provide data on the user's heart rate and activity while in the building, and potentially even a location, though it depends on a number of factors. For example, the model of Apple Watch will define what kind of data could be shared, as well as whether it was able to get a connection to the iPhone to synchronize.

It also depends on how long the Apple Watch was in Khashoggi's possession, as it could have been removed, damaged, or even destroyed.

The Apple Watch data is only one of a number of lines of inquiry that is being undertaken, including analysis of security camera recordings, and a group of 15 Saudi men who entered the building at around the same time, flown in to the country a few hours earlier and flown back out later the same day.

The data captured by the Apple Watch and other fitness trackers have been valuable to other criminal investigations. Data from an Apple Watch helped solve a murder from 2016, with heart rate measurements from the victim's wearable device revealing the time of the victim's death, which led to the arrest of a family member.

Health app data has also played a vital role during a German trial in January. During a period the suspect was believed to have dragged a body to a river embankment and climbed back up, the Apple Watch recorded it as "climbing stairs," a result that was successfully duplicated by police in a reenactment.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    Mike WuertheleMike Wuerthele Posts: 6,858administrator
    As a reminder, AI is not the place for your political manifesto.
  • Reply 2 of 14
    hentaiboyhentaiboy Posts: 1,252member
    Apple watch data will show he got cold feet and did a runner from his bride to be 😂
  • Reply 3 of 14
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    hentaiboy said:
    Apple watch data will show he got cold feet and did a runner from his bride to be 😂
    Not even close to being funny.
    boxcatchercecil444caladanianfastasleeprcfadragan0405viclauyycjony0
  • Reply 4 of 14
    And, the Apple Watch OR other trackers of its' like have been confirmed to be used to locate and identify US military assets in conflict areas to direct bombing strikes toward them. (See recent news/intelligence reports). We are seeing the convenient and practical implications of modern tech from investigating crime to reverse workaraounds. Keywords: wearables, privacy, location data, heart monitoring, data sharing.
  • Reply 5 of 14
    Twitter login error:

    Callback URL not approved for this client applicationApproved callback URLs can be adjusted in your application settings.


    Anyhow, 
    hentaiboy said:
    Apple watch data will show he got cold feet and did a runner from his bride to be 😂

    Considering they believe he was literally sawed into pieces with a bone saw, this is an extremely insensitive comment.
    berndogcecil444caladanianrcfaSydNjony0
  • Reply 6 of 14
    Even if Apple is able to provide the data, I don't see how this will help. The Saudis are notorious for human rights abuses and they don't easily bow to external pressure. Even if presented with Apple Watch data showing he was inside the consulate, had a pulse and then didn't have a pulse, they will claim that the battery died or he removed his watch. This isn't looking good.
    rcfa
  • Reply 7 of 14
    boltsfan17boltsfan17 Posts: 2,294member
    This whole story is really bizarre. Many people say Khashoggi is dead, then you see articles with CCTV footage of him leaving the consulate. 
  • Reply 8 of 14
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member
    There was a recent story about how an Apple Watch led to the conviction of a murder suspect.  It would be fascinating to see if the victim's AW in Turkey provides any insight.  If it does prove that the Saudis were in any way involved in his disappearance, I wonder what Turkey's (or anyone else) response would be?
  • Reply 9 of 14
    mknelsonmknelson Posts: 1,118member
    This whole story is really bizarre. Many people say Khashoggi is dead, then you see articles with CCTV footage of him leaving the consulate. 
    Link please (and Haitansonny too!)

    All the articles I've seen show him entering and then the 15 mystery folks arriving from Saudi, entering the consulate, and then leaving that same day.
    dragan0405
  • Reply 10 of 14
    If it’s only GPS version, not LTE then chances are whatever happened to him in the consulate, the investigators wouldn’t find the data in his iPhone because it’s on the watch that hadn’t had a chance to sync to iPhone yet. 
    rcfa
  • Reply 11 of 14
    "U.S. soldiers are revealing sensitive and dangerous information by jogging" - Washington Post
    "Fitness tracking app Strava gives away location of secret US army bases" - The guardian
    "Pentagon cracks down on soldiers' GPS tracking apps" - BBC News
    "The Strava Heat Map and the End of Secrets" - Wired
    "Pentagon restricts troops’ use of fitness trackers, other devices" - The Mercury News

    "And, the Apple Watch OR other trackers of its' like have been confirmed to be used to locate and identify US military assets in conflict areas to [possibly] direct bombing strikes toward them...."

    Mknelson: "Link please (and Haitansonny too!)"

    Edit: insertion of "possibly".  DoD won't reveal specific instances; trying to find specific article w/ crediting attack on forces seen around news of Sprava.

    Sidenote: Instagram geolocation used to determine presence of Russian military in Ukraine during attacks.

    edited October 2018
  • Reply 12 of 14
    rcfarcfa Posts: 1,124member
    "U.S. soldiers are revealing sensitive and dangerous information by jogging" - Washington Post
    "Fitness tracking app Strava gives away location of secret US army bases" - The guardian
    "Pentagon cracks down on soldiers' GPS tracking apps" - BBC News
    "The Strava Heat Map and the End of Secrets" - Wired
    "Pentagon restricts troops’ use of fitness trackers, other devices" - The Mercury News

    Mknelson: "Link please (and Haitansonny too!)"
    That’s BS, the link requested was obviously the one to CCTV footage of him leaving the building.
    dragan0405
  • Reply 13 of 14
    rcfarcfa Posts: 1,124member
    The biggest irony is, that the country which has thousands of imprisoned and possibly tortured journalists and regime critics itself, and which not long ago was decrying Apple to the point where its followers publicly smashed their iPhones, is now concerned about the well-being of a journalist, and uses his Apple product as an investigative tool..,
    edited October 2018 beowulfschmidtJanNL
  • Reply 14 of 14
    "U.S. soldiers are revealing sensitive and dangerous information by jogging" - Washington Post
    "Fitness tracking app Strava gives away location of secret US army bases" - The guardian
    "Pentagon cracks down on soldiers' GPS tracking apps" - BBC News
    "The Strava Heat Map and the End of Secrets" - Wired
    "Pentagon restricts troops’ use of fitness trackers, other devices" - The Mercury News

    "And, the Apple Watch OR other trackers of its' like have been confirmed to be used to locate and identify US military assets in conflict areas to [possibly] direct bombing strikes toward them...."

    Mknelson: "Link please (and Haitansonny too!)"

    Edit: insertion of "possibly".  DoD won't reveal specific instances; trying to find specific article w/ crediting attack on forces seen around news of Sprava.

    Sidenote: Instagram geolocation used to determine presence of Russian military in Ukraine during attacks.

    There is a big difference between soldiers giving away the location of their base and "used to locate and identify US military assets in conflict areas to direct bombing strikes toward them". Where is this bombing strike that you're talking about? I'm not aware of any of these bases being in countries that didn't welcome them there.
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