CAUTION: Your "Smart Phone" . . .What Can The Government Get?

The quick answer is anything they want: who we talk to, when, and about what; where we were yesterday, last month, or three years ago; what we spent money on or got money for; our calendars, photos, emails, and contacts. These devices hold tens or even hundreds of gigabytes of data on almost everything about us. . . there are legal questions, some of which go unanswered.

The police want your phone data.

Here’s what they can get — and what they can’t.

Phones hold gigabytes of potential evidence, but the government’s ability to access them depends on a patchwork of court decisions and laws that predate the technology.

By Sara Morrison Feb 24, 2020, 7:00am EST

". . . When the key to unlock your phone is in your own mind or on the tip of your finger, it becomes a legal question that judges have to rely on decades-old, pre-modern-technology precedent to answer. And in many places, this question hasn’t yet been answered. . ."

LINK > https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/2/24 

There are short answers and long informed answers to these questions:

> Law enforcement wants access to third-party data on your phone.

What can it get?

> Law enforcement wants access to personal data on your phone.

Can they do that?

> Sadly, I have died. Law enforcement wants to unlock my phone but they can’t get my password due to my aforementioned death.

What happens now?

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"You may have noticed by now that, while many of the cases concerning phones and passcodes are recent — some are even still making their way through the legal system — the cases cited to make legal arguments are decades or even centuries old. The wheels of justice turn slowly, and judges are often forced to use decisions about access to pieces of paper to inform their rulings about access to devices that hold tremendous amounts of personal information:

• who we talk to,
• when, and about what;
• where we were yesterday, last month, or three years ago;
• what we spent money on or got money for;
• our calendars, photos, emails, and contacts.

These devices hold tens or even hundreds of gigabytes of data on almost everything about us.