CA Court Rules Smartphones Can Be Searched Without A Warrant

Network World ^ | 1/4/2011 | Ms. Smith

[ThunderSleeps]

Previous Article CA Court Rules Smartphones Can Be Searched Without A Warrant The California Supreme Court ruled that police can search a suspect’s cell-phone text messages without a warrant, based on past cases where cigarette packs can be searched. A smartphone stores vast amounts of personal data, not even in the same realm as a pack of smokes. In this electronic age, the government moves America closer to a creepy police state.

[ThunderSleeps]

Thanks, again, CA... Can we kick them out of the US?

[ConservativeWarrior]

Good luck with the password.

On that note, if they made enough failed attempts that my device wiped its memory, could I sue them for destruction of property?

[bgill]

Kumbaya, dude, and pass the koolaid.

[ExTexasRedhead]

Then it would be equally appropriate for the people of CA to ask that law enforcement search (without warrant) the phones and text messages of all CA politicians as well. What juicy tidbits would that expose???

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

“A smartphone stores vast amounts of personal data, not even in the same realm as a pack of smokes.”

Actually, a cigarette package could hold an awful lot of data — depending on how it's encoded. For instance, check out this article on the “Rainbow Format”, which mentions the equivalent of: “432 pages of ‘foolscrap’ being stored on a four-inch square piece of paper”.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/college-student-creates-paper-based-storage-system-no-not-that/

Please note, I'm not attempting to justify the warrant-less snooping.

[apillar]

I wonder how long it will be before some enterprising developer makes an app that military grade wipes and overwrites the storage on the phone if several invalid attempts are made to access it or if it detects a cracking program being used...

[q_an_a]

News reports say that a Password requires a warrant.

[Washi]

Good luck with the password.

I don't know much about smartphones, but I'm assuming that the same digital security principles apply with them as with laptops.

On a laptop, even if the login is password protected, the storage media can be mounted and read by an outside computer. Only full disk encryption can guarantee the privacy of the data if confiscated. Are there apps for smartphones that allow/provide for this type of encryption?

[kenmcg]

“CA Court Rules Smartphones Can Be Searched Without A Warrant”

After that they’ll search the phones of the people listed in the smartphone. Common in the USSR, E. Germany (the old) China, N Korea, etc.....and now the USA!

[ConservativeWarrior]

Are there apps for smartphones that allow/provide for this type of encryption?

I think RIM servers can encrypt Bberries. I wouldn't bet on typical phones having full-memory encryption, though.

Of course it may be a bit more difficult to access a phone's memory from a second OS. That doesn't strike me as something a local PD would be able to do. Even the PC harddisk may be a stretch for most PDs, though I could be wrong. I wonder if they contract out that type of technical work.