Police Utilizing Private Companies, Exploits To Access Data From Suspects' Smartphones

http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20140326/08390126689/police-utilizing-private-companies-exploits-to-access-data-suspects-smartphones.shtml

Police Utilizing Private Companies, Exploits To Access Data From Suspects' Smartphones
from the brute-force-attacks-that-don't-involve-SWAT-members,-battering-rams dept
by Tim Cushing
Wed, Mar 26th 2014 2:01pm

Law enforcement agencies really want to see your phone's contents. I mean, they really want to. Martin Kaste at NPR has a story on law enforcement and smartphones which contains the following quote from a Rolf Norton, a Seattle homicide detective.

"I'm thinking there's probably a wealth of information that just got tucked into your pocket," Norton says. "Something that we'd like to get our hands on."

Easy for law enforcement officers to say, but today's phones have more in common with a personal computer than they do with, say, the contents of someone's pants pockets, as the state of Texas memorably argued.

The courts have offered mixed opinions as to whether a warrant is needed to view the contents of someone's phone. This lack of a "bright line" is increasingly problematic as smartphones have become a convenient, pocket-sized data center that can reveal plenty of information that wouldn't normally be accessible without a warrant.