Do Our Smart Devices Have The Right To Remain Silent?

On 20 July 2017, a burglar sneaked into a family's flat in Hungary, grabbed whatever valuables he could find, and disappeared without a trace. At least that's what he thought. Unfortunately for the burglar, his crime was recorded by the family's baby monitor.

The family handed the video over to the police and the burglar was identified. In this case, it was clearly adequate for the police to use the footage in making an arrest. But what if the footage had been stored on an external server operated by a third party? Could law enforcement authorities request its disclosure even if it was unclear that evidence had been recorded?

Under the current data protection regulations, the answer generally would be yes. Law enforcement authorities would not only be entitled to request such information from the server operator, but also impose a fine for non-compliance.