East Bay CHP Officer Accused Of Stealing Nude Photos Says It’s ‘Game’ For Police

a reply to: tadaman

That's not exactly true.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously ruled that police may not search the cell phones of criminal suspects upon arrest without a warrant -- a sweeping endorsement for privacy rights.
By a 9-0 vote, the justices said smart phones and other electronic devices were not in the same category as wallets, briefcases, and vehicles -- all currently subject to limited initial examination by law enforcement.

"The fact that technology now allows an individual to carry such information in his hand does not make the information any less worthy of the protection for which the Founders fought," the ruling said. "Our answer to the question of what police must do before searching a cell phone seized incident to an arrest is accordingly simple — get a warrant."

www.cnn.com...

a reply to: MysticPearl

Didnt know that. Thanks.

I still would toss everything in the car and lock it. Just in case you meet a bad cop who doesnt care or your phone isnt on auto lock.

BTW, always set your phone to lock immediately and never give your password to a cop unless a warrant is delivered.

As a software developer, I think I need to create an app for these phones. Perhaps, when the phone is "locked and awaiting a password", a proper alternate password given will start a massive wipe or encrypt of the contents. Maybe switch to a generic user shell that contains only the numbers you allow to show for emergency contacts (in case someone has found you unconscious etc..)

Does anyone know if this exists yet? If not, I am game to try it. Already have a name for it "Scumblocker"

originally posted by: evc1shop

BTW, always set your phone to lock immediately and never give your password to a cop unless a warrant is delivered.

As a software developer, I think I need to create an app for these phones. Perhaps, when the phone is "locked and awaiting a password", a proper alternate password given will start a massive wipe or encrypt of the contents. Maybe switch to a generic user shell that contains only the numbers you allow to show for emergency contacts (in case someone has found you unconscious etc..)

Does anyone know if this exists yet? If not, I am game to try it. Already have a name for it "Scumblocker"

I think the main weakness is in saving images to memory cards. Maybe one idea to consider is having a phone with no local storage (hope you have a good data plan) and an unlock password that gives access to different image directories on a cloud based on what password is provided? Then you get into cloud security issues but everything is a tradeoff. Maybe go the alleged Apple route of all cloud information being encrypted and the user password itself being the decryption key so that you never have it on your server. For the key maybe you could use voice recognition software to take a specific persons voice saying a specific word or phrase. That would be somewhat difficult to copy I think (more so than text atleast... though the phrase would be more public)

a reply to: Aazadan
Upload direct to a cloud isn't a sure thing since phones do have signal issues from time to time, especially in the fringe areas outside major cities. Encrypting files to SD storage and pushing them up to a cloud service using a sync method that then removes them from the local copy upon successful upload may be one way to combat that and the abilities to undelete or retrieve card data using forensic software.

You got to start somewhere, right!