Ride the Lightning
Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
Police and Their "Happy Dance" When iPhones Are Seized
February 27, 2013
As we have always said, we do our own "happy dance" when iPhones come to our forensics lab. A recent posting by Ars Technica underscores just how much data is on an iPhone and how tickled law enforcement is when an iPhone is seized.
A document filed in court and released by the ACLU shows how much significant evidence is stored on an iPhone. Last fall, officers from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seized an iPhone from the bedroom of a drug investigation suspect. They retrieved call records, contacts, stored text messages, photos, videos and passwords. They also got 659 geolocation points, including 227 cell towers and 402 Wi-Fi networks with which the iPhone had been connected – constituting a detailed record of where the phone had been in previous weeks.
Prior to the advent of the smartphone, no one would have carried around so much information in their pockets. The ACLU continues to protest that law enforcement searches of cell phones violate the Fourth Amendment, but its protests have not gained much traction.
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