Slashdot Mirror
Cellphone Privacy In Canada: Encryption Triggers Need For Warrant
codegen writes "The Ontario Court of Appeal has just ruled that the police can search your cellphone if you are arrested without a warrant if it is not password protected. But the ruling also stated that if it is password protected, then the police need a warrant. Previous to this case there was no decision on if the police could search your phone without a warrant in Canada."
This seems directly equivalent to "If your front door is unlocked the police can come in and snoop around without a warrant"
You could say the same thing with several other things like...
"if your car is unlocked they can rummage through it legally without a warrant"
and
"If your fly is down, they can do a cavity search legally without a warrant"
Makes sense to me. If I were to be arrested without a warrant, the police can go through all the pockets of my wallet and look at every card and piece of paper I have in there, however if I were to have a lock on my wallet, they would need a warrant to open it. The modern cell phone is very much the same as the wallet and datebook of the past. If it's not locked, they can go through it.
A real world analogy: encryption is like a room within a room.
If you were to enter a residence, and find it divided into apartments, you'd probably have to get a warrant for each locked, separately numbered door.
The real question is whether one individual can have multiple rooms within a room. If your phone and computer are encrypted, do they need a warrant for each?
The ninth circuit is not the supreme court. In fact, the supreme court overturned the ninth circuit's ruling: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/01/supreme-court-holds-warrantless-gps-tracking-unconstitutional/
There's a difference between a lock (password) and a door knob (the slide to unlock/face to unlock). Also, aren't most phone's contents encrypted? I believe the iPhone is.
Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the author.
My phone is protected by an electronic protection device. You have to push the "ON" button to enable interaction.
Breaking that top-secret process violates the DMCA and means you are breaking the encryption and security apparatus on the phone.
Thanks DMCA for not definining minimum secutiry levels.
Wasn't my title. My title was password protection. It was changed by slashdot editors.
Atlas stands on the earth and carries the celestial sphere on his shoulders.
You should have a password on your phone anyway... if it grows legs and walks off in a coffee shop, then the password will probably protect it (at least to the point that they won't bother taking your data from the phone and would simply factory reset it and be done with it). The fuzz snooping in your phone is far from the only reason to put a password on it, and, I would hope, is probably the least likely to be snooping in your phone by a very wide margin.
The actual article says password. The Slashdot summary, incorrectly, says encrypted.
That said, you shouldn't just rely on a password, but also encrypt your data. If you only have a password set, if the police get a warrant, they probably have forensics software that can simply bypass your phone's login program. (Just like how if a thief has a boot CD, that Windows login password of yours isn't going to protect your data.) However, if you encrypt your data, decrypting it without you giving up your encryption key is beyond the means of most police departments---meaning you have a choice as to whether or not you wish to comply. You get to choose whether or not what you're protecting is worth a "contempt of court"or "obstruction" charge or whatever.
Liberty in your lifetime
On (Canadian) BlackBerries turning on encryption is synonymous with creating a password to use the phone.
Not exactly.
Canada: http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100310200119AASqYaB
U.S.: http://www.legalzoom.com/us-law/privacy/when-can-police-search (with legal citations)
Liberty in your lifetime
So you encrypt your devices with strong encryption and a good passphrase, not just password-protect them. Now it's still up to you if you wish to either divulge the passphrase or face something like a "contempt of court" charge. Depending on what information one is trying to secure, one might choose the latter.
Liberty in your lifetime
I think he was confusing the court system with the nine levels of hell.