In one of the rare times I find myself in support of the ACLU, I have to admit, they are doing the right thing here. Police in Michigan are using a powerful piece of tech to download the contents of driver’s cell phones during routine traffic stops.
It seems like a complete violation of the Fourth Amendment:
“Law enforcement officers are known, on occasion, to encourage citizens to cooperate if they have nothing to hide,” ACLU staff attorney Mark P. Fancher wrote. “No less should be expected of law enforcement, and the Michigan State Police should be willing to assuage concerns that these powerful extraction devices are being used illegally by honoring our requests for cooperation and disclosure.”
A US Department of Justice test of the CelleBrite UFED used by Michigan police found the device could grab all of the photos and video off of an iPhone within one-and-a-half minutes. The device works with 3000 different phone models and can even defeat password protections.
“Complete extraction of existing, hidden, and deleted phone data, including call history, text messages, contacts, images, and geotags,” a CelleBrite brochure explains regarding the device’s capabilities. “The Physical Analyzer allows visualization of both existing and deleted locations on Google Earth. In addition, location information from GPS devices and image geotags can be mapped on Google Maps.”
The ACLU is concerned that these powerful capabilities are being quietly used to bypass Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches.
I’m really at a loss on this one.
Why in the name of Patrick Henry would a police officer need to download everything on your phone?
If you can think of a good reason, let me know in the comments, because I can’t think of a single one.
There has been a gradual erosion of our rights; in this case the 4th amendment is at issue. The word “Orwellian” comes to mind. Ok, I’ll play devil’s advocate for a minute. The police could say that if a routine traffic stop later becomes something much more important—hypothetical serious crime in which the getaway car is later described and remembered by the ticketing officer—then they will be in a much better position to nap the perp. They would have a record of phone numbers perp calls and places perp goes.
While that scenario might even actually happen, the loss of basic freedoms inherent in giving police this kind of power are so appalling that I don’t see how anyone could make the case that it’s a fair tradeoff. I believe that as this story gets out there, people are going to think much more seriously about what their phone represents and consider much more carefully the kind of security that they will be demanding from manufacturers as well as service providers.
The fact is, that this will only get worse. The only reason we are talking about this now is because Michigan got caught doing it. Do you really think that Michigan is the only one?
I QUESTION FOR WHAT PURPOSE THIS IS BEING DONE. CAN ANYONE PROVIDE SOME REASONABLE ANSWER? AT THE SAME TIME I WOULD LIKE TO BELIEVE WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE, OR ARE THEY GOING TO SUSPEND YOUR LICENSE FOR FAILING TO COMPLY?
Nazi & KGB tactics here in the land of the “freee”.
This is wrong on too many levels. Little do they know that using the CelleBrite machine causes damage to smartphones. I worked in the industry for 5 years and have had to replace a few due to this machine. All the others we had to perform a hard reset which makes the end user lose all their data stored on the device. This is evil, pure and unadulterated.
So what exactly are the ramifications of telling them to get stuffed and you’re not giving it up without a warrant? I’m stunned that nobody has had the balls to challenge this under the plain sight rule in court.
[...] Michigan State Police have technology that can download cell phone data wirelessly during a routine traffic stop. So if you’re pulled over for rolling through a stop sign, the cops can now take everything on your cell phone against your will and without even telling you about it. This was uncovered and is now the subject of an ACLU request which, of course, the state police refuse to grant. Via Duane Lester: [...]