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Cellphone Privacy In Canada: Encryption Triggers Need For Warrant

Posted by timothy on from the rot13-baby-rot13 dept.

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."

3 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. Spread em' by Jeslijar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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"

    1. Re:Spread em' by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 5, Funny

      1. Home owner takes trash to curb.
      2. SWAT team swoops into unlocked door.
      3. Ha! The mattress tags have been removed! Another victory for law enforcement!

  2. Re:Huh? by z4nsh1n · · Score: 5, Informative

    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/