(CNN) -- If you get arrested in California, better hope there are no incriminating texts or e-mails or sensitive data stored on your phone. On Monday, the California Supreme Court ruled that police in that state can search the contents of an arrested person's cell phone. Citing U.S. Supreme Court precedents, the ruling contends that "The loss of privacy upon arrest extends beyond the arrestee's body to include 'personal property ... immediately associated with the person of the arrestee' at the time of arrest." Two justices (Kathryn Mickle Werdegar and Carlos Moreno) dissented from the majority opinion: "In light of the vast data storage capacity of smartphones and similar devices, the privacy interests that the federal Constitution's Fourth Amendment was intended to protect would be better served by a rule that did not allow police to rummage at leisure through the wealth of personal and business information that can be carried on a mobile phone or handheld computer merely because the device was taken from an arrestee's person." In a blog post, Ohio attorney Patrick Murphy summarized the California case that led to this ruling: In 2007 a Ventura County Deputy Sheriff witnessed a drug deal involving a car driven by Gregory Diaz. Diaz and his passenger were immediately arrested, and six Ecstasy pills were seized. At the police station, Diaz's phone was confiscated. Diaz denied knowledge of or involvement in the drug deal. After Diaz was interviewed by police, Murphy writes, the deputy "looked at the cell phone's text message folder and discovered a message that said '6 4 80' -- which in the deputy's experience meant 'Six pills of Ecstasy for $80.' Minutes later [the deputy] confronted Diaz with the text message, at which time the suspect admitted to participating in the sale of Ecstasy." But this ruling is not limited to text messages. The ruling allows police in California to access any data stored on an arrestee's phone: photos, address book, Web browsing history, data stored in apps (including social media apps), voicemail messages, search history, chat logs, and more. Also, depending on the use of location-enabled services or apps that store data on the phone, the police might also be able to infer the arrestee's past whereabouts. What if access to your phone is locked with a security code or pattern? According to Catherine Crump of the American Civil Liberties Union, "The police can ask you to unlock the phone -- which many people will do -- but they almost certainly cannot compel you to unlock your phone without the involvement of a judge," she said. Also, she noted that so far it's legally unresolved whether police can copy data from an arrestee's phone for future examination. Depending on who's getting arrested, and for what, warrantless searches of cell phone data could have wide-ranging potential to implicate not just the arrested person, but also to draw police attention to other people who might be involved (or merely associated) with the arrestee. That might sound reasonable for investigations involving street crime, but what about for people who are arrested during protests and demonstrations? Expect the California ruling to be challenged -- perhaps in the U.S. Supreme Court. The San Francisco Chronicle reports, "This issue has divided other courts. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston of San Francisco ruled in May 2007 that police had violated drug defendants' rights by searching their cell phones after their arrests. "The Ohio Supreme Court reached a similar conclusion in a December 2009 ruling in which the state unsuccessfully sought U.S. Supreme Court review. The Ohio-California split could prompt the nation's high court to take up the issue." Ruling lets California police search your phone without a warrant - CNN.com ----- Yet another loss to our privacy rights. Being from Cali I have always been paranoid about this issue. Wondering if I get stop could a cop legally search my phone and find evidence not related to what I was stopped for. So you fellow blades in Cali, keep your phone clean or locked
It's not even about being a dumbass. You ever text a friend about catching a sesh? Evidence agaisnt you. The guy in the article, Diaz, actually only had "6 4 80" as a text, which the cop took to mean "6 (E pills) 4(for) 80 (dollars)" Cops are worse than copypastas, they just ctrl + v things together to make a conviction.
This could catch a bunch of dealers. Be safe yall. In the case of Diaz, he could have denied it. Even if the cop was smart enough to decode 6 4 80, that doesn't mean a jury is going to believe it.
That's precisely why I NEVER texted about anything smoking or drug related. Call someone, those don't get saved on your phone.
Wrong, the solution would be to stand up for our fucking rights. Cops should NOT be able to search through our phone without consent or a search warrant.
Aha! But due to this new ruling, cops are actually allowed to go into your phone records, email, texts, browsing history, everything. With the amount of people with smart phones today, the invasion of privacy can go muuch deeper than just simple text messages.
The solution was to stand up when Bush enacted the Freedom of Information Act, when he started jailing suspected terrorist and stripping them of what we believe to be 'unalienable rights'. The solution was to stand up when the TSA started issuing in-depth pat downs. Now, were slowly having our rights eroded, stripped away.
I dont know about all phones but my inbox and outbox are set to auto delete. Just about every phone out there has a lock code on it, just set a code, and refuse to give it up if the cops have your phone.
This is just straight bullshit. Phones can hold gigs of data! Cops can now look at damn near every part of your life if they want. Your friends, family, conversations, past calls, where you've been, pictures, videos, tweets, facebook messages. Through a smart phone cops can look at a lot about you. And it's perfectly legal now, and no one gives a fuck. It's just one more thing that takes away our freedom, slowly but surely all our freedoms are being stripped and there isn't a damn thing we can do because the majority of people in the US are so fucking blind and stupid. @vodka....that kind of falls under the "stand up for our rights" part of my post lol
Very true, but not texting about illegal things is pretty much our only solution until the law does get changed. Audio from calls doesn't get stored. Email and browsing history is just like my point about texting. If you don't want authorities to find illegal things anywhere on your phone, make sure you use it in a way that won't allow them to find anything. Thank you.
The thing is, the "average citizen" doesn't care about laws like these because in their mind they don't do anything wrong anyway. It's just the government taking baby steps towards us having no freedoms at all. So this law most likely will not get changed because the average american citizen is blind to / doesn't care about what's happening with our freedoms and sees no negative in this. Everyone wants shit for free and wants to be "safe". And by the time the majority of citizens realized we're fucked, it'll be too late to do a damn thing about it. If I have nothing in my car and a cop asks to search it, I'm going to say no. It's my right to say no, and I excercise my rights. The "average american" doesn't. They don't think into the future of what might become, they just care about what affects them right now. That's why stupid ass things like the TSA in-depth pat downs and the Freedom of Information Act come about. It's really fucking agravating, especially when it's only going to get worse from here.
If you didnt do anything wrong, you dont have anything to hide is the biggest pile of horse shit since Mein Kamf