Drive-By Shooting Suspect Remotely Wipes iPhone X, Catches Extra Charges (appleinsider.com)

schwit1 shares a report from Apple Insider: A woman from Schenectady, N.Y. accused of being the driver in a shooting used Apple's remote wipe feature to destroy evidence on her iPhone X that might have been related to the event. The iPhone was seized as evidence in the case, but police say that shortly after she triggered the remote wipe, an option available via Find My iPhone in iCloud. Normally the tool is intended for people with lost or stolen devices. The suspected driver, Juelle Grant, was arrested on November 2nd and charged with two counts of tampering with physical evidence, and one count of hindering prosecution. As Apple Insider notes, only one of the tampering counts is connected to the iPhone.

Comments

No Faraday cage?

[Arzaboa]

I'm surprised (I probably shouldn't be) that the police do not have some system in place so that these phones are cut off from communicating with anything once they have them. I'd have to think that a tampering charge is less than a murder charge.

--
Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. -- Winston Churchill

Re:No Faraday cage?

[Harlequin80]

It's beyond reasonable doubt, not beyond ANY doubt.

For example

Someone logs into her iCloud account, from an IP address that is registered to her physical address and then wipes the phone immediately after an event that gives her motive to wipe the phone.

You then have means, motive and opportunity with little to no reason to believe anything else was likely to occur. I don't see how you could argue that there was a reasonable doubt.

Re: No Faraday cage?

[blindseer]

Usually, turning a phone off is easy enough. It might need a password to do so - in which case you force it off by removing the battery. Oops - can't do that with some of the newer phones.

A non-removable battery is a feature, not a bug. If you want a phone that can be wiped remotely to secure your data from being taken without your permission then you want the phone to stay powered so it can receive the wipe command. Alternately the storage could be volatile and removing the battery would wipe as well.

I'm not terribly concerned if the police are inconvenienced in scraping data off our pocket computers. My electronic devices are for my convenience, not the government's.

Re:Not supporting shootings, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

There is a big difference between tampering with evidence and being required to assist in your own conviction...

There is a thing called a Constitution and the right against self incrimination, maybe you have heard of it?

Re:Like Schoedinger's cat, kinda

[rogoshen1]

I think it's one of those "we're gonna charge you, and you can fight it; but you'll get the maximum penalty -- OR you can fess up and we'll give you 5 years and probation" type shake-downs.

And definitely, this round will definitely go to the bad guys (overreaching DA's and police)

You don't have to prove anything in court

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd also have to think that you can't prove in court who did it

Not really. IRL something like 98% of cases are plea-bargained, so generally you don't have to prove a damn thing.