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Encrypt Your Smartphone — Or Else

Posted by timothy on from the red-phone-repeat-red-phone dept.

pin0chet writes "Modern smartphones contain ever-increasing volumes of our private personal data — from text messages to images to emails — yet many smartphone security features can easily be circumvented by thieves or police officers equipped with off-the-shelf forensics equipment. Worse, thanks to a recent California Supreme Court ruling, police officers may be able to search your smartphone for hours without a warrant if you're arrested for any reason. Ars Technica has an article exploring the legal issues surrounding cell phone searches and explaining how you can safeguard your smartphone from the prying eyes of law enforcement officers."

7 of 304 comments (clear)

  1. How? by sirsnork · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I read this yesterday and it basically says "No apps can actually encrypt your entire phone, so buy a Blackberry". They point to some apps that will selectivly encrypt parts of your data but none seem to do all of it. I found myself wondering about the headline if for %99 of the phone sout there it's actually impossible.

    --

    Normal people worry me!
    1. Re:How? by teridon · · Score: 4, Informative

      Blackberries can be securely encrypted, but it caused me a unforeseen problem.

      I use my blackberry to filter incoming emails and alert me based on the message contents (or subject, sender, time of day, etc.) You can't do that with the default email program -- you have to get a third-party app.

      Unfortunately, if you encrypt the phone, the third-party app can't read the incoming emails anymore. It seems to be a platform limitation. (If someone can prove me wrong, please do so!) I *want* to encrypt my blackberry, but it would then become basically useless to me.

      I have a password on it, of course, but that's not nearly as good as using device encryption.

      --
      I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing. -- Thomas Jefferson
  2. Encrypted texting on Android by intellitech · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I use TextSecure by Whisper Systems for text messaging. It's currently in beta, but secure sessions are easy to set up, and the whole application, in general, is working out quite well for me. Better than the stock messaging application in CyanogenMod, at least.

    --
    vos nescitis quicquam, nec cogitatis quia expedit nobis ut unus moriatur homo pro populo et non tota gens pereat.
  3. CA Supremes are full of shit by commodore64_love · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What part of this Supreme Law do they not understand? "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers[data], and effects[cellphones], against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things [phones] to be seized." It was adopted as a response to the abuse of the British Writ of Assistance, which is a type of general search warrant, during the 1760s and 70s and their use forbidden in 1776 when the Colonies declared themselves independent States.

    Cellphones should not be searchable until a police officer stands before a judge and obtains a warrant, and swears an oath that he, the officer, is telling the truth (and punishable with Perjury if not).

    --
    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  4. Re:Simple... by Dr+Max · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It doesn’t only affect smartphones they will be able to search all your messages to make sure you weren’t planning something illegal check you don't talk to any known criminals. Also by taking your phone off you it stops you from contacting legal help, which could shut down their operation very quickly.

    --
    Rocket Surgeon.
  5. Re:How about... by Lazareth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What you're basically saying is that we don't need no stinking privacy, if you've done nothing wrong you got nothing to hide.

    As the laws are now, the citizen has to take steps to prevent unjustified invasion of privacy by the state, which is completely backwards.

  6. Data on the phone vs. data presented on the phone by swb · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Let's assume for argument's sake that I'm stopped by the police and I'm arrested. My phone is unlocked and they start to search it.

    Are they entitled to data only ON the phone, or are they allowed to use an application on the phone which allows access to data stored elsewhere on the phone?

    In theory, an email client setup for IMAP doesn't store data on the phone -- messages are retrieved from the server. This glosses over caching, butassume the device could be setup to NOT cache messages locally (or background erase them after N seconds/minutes), the data isn't "on the phone" it's only being *presented* on the phone.

    My vague understanding of searches when arrested is that proximate searches are OK, but with an always-connected network device, what's proximate, especially if (like almost all IMAP clients, even ones with very limited caching) there's no perceptible difference between data that's local and data that's on some server somewhere else?

    Is the limit some dump of flash (and RAM, if they could do that)?

    And why stop at smartphone application data? What if I have an RDP or a SSH/telnet app on my phone that gives them access to dozens of machines (which, in turn, may ALSO offer dozens of machines)? Are those remote systems, because they can be accessed as if local, also eligible for a search?

    I guess what's scary is that it's not hard to see a slippery slope where anything the phone allows them into they have access to.