Protect Your Cellphone

        This past week, a Rhode Island judge: "threw out cellphone evidence that lead to a man being charged with the murder of a six year old boy, saying the police needed a search warrant." The courts and state legislatures are trying to pass laws that will keep up with technology and protect peoples privacy. An Ohio court ruled that a warrant is necessary to search a cellphone because "unlike a piece of paper that might be stuffed inside a suspect's pocket can be confiscated during an arrest, a cellphone may hold 'large amounts of private data.'" I think that it is important that courts are requiring a warrant to look through cellphones because today there are so many ways to store confidential information in a cellular device. Therefore, looking through a cellphone is not just viewing contact, messages, calls, etc. it is also getting access to financial statements, confidential communications, and private images.

        Technology is now opening up areas that the law has never seen before in terms of privacy. Questions are being presented to legislatures and the courts that are forcing a reinterpretation of our laws. As we have discussed in class, civil liberties are an essential part of being an American. The Fourth Amendment protects unreasonable searches and seizures, along with requiring any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause. Any private emails, texts, or voicemails where you have the expectation they will remain private. It is one thing if you are sending pictures or posting them online, but if they are strictly on your cell phone, you should have the right to privacy. The courts are trying to come up with ways of analyzing what they find in a cell phone. Some courts have compared it to what you may find in a suitcase, others are comparing it to as if they have overheard a conversation. To read more information on this topic visit this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/technology/legality-of-warrantless-cellphone-searches-goes-to-courts-and-legislatures.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0