Fit for Forensics: Taxonomy and Common Model for Forensic Analysis of Fitness Trackers

Abstract

Fitness trackers, smart watches, wearables and everything in between have evolved from being highly specialized sports technology and cyber gadgets of early adopters into being similarly ubiquitous devices like smartphones. Unsurprisingly, the data collected by these devices has entered the scope of forensic investigations, providing user-centered and extensive measurements that may prove very valuable as complementary or perhaps even essential evidence in criminal cases. While there exists a body of work focused on the analysis of data from individual devices, the area still appears fragmented. To counter this, we provide a definition and taxonomy of fitness trackers and integrate existing work into a universal model for forensic analysis of such devices that also takes legal requirements into account.