Supreme Court of Canada ruling on cell phone privacy

[SkAoUt]

In a close 4-3 split, the court decided that police can search (if you're under arrest) your cell phone (even password protected ones). However they can only search for recent relevant information regarding the charges and have to keep detailed notes.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cel...rrest-allowed-by-canada-s-top-court-1.2869587

Not that I've anything to hide on my cell phone I'd still rather that the authorities be required to get a warrant if I was ever under arrest.

 

[rosco rathbone]

Take it to the Canadian Politics subform buddy this is American politics.

[/foam #1 finger]

 

[SkAoUt]

Weeell, before this is moved to the Darkroom Lounge does anyone other than my police state loving friend have any relevant opinions?

 

[CandiCame]

I don't give a single shit. I think that people are too obsessed with pretending their shit is private. It's not. I don't know what made folk ever think it was. It's not like people won't grab my phone and look through it anyway. "Let's see what games/pics/apps Candi has on here. Oh wait. It's pics of the same child 300 times. And a puppy. Huh. I don't know what I was expecting."

Edit: I honestly thought the cops could already do this, because they could take your phone. Before were they allowed to take it but not look at it? Because that's weird.

 

[Que]

It is egregious abuse of power. In America we barely have a 4th amendment any more, thanks to the war on drugs and no-knock raids. Used to be, the constable knocked on your door, you invited him in for duty-free tea and called your lawyer. He looked over the warrant and if he had objections he got it quashed.

Warrants are so broadly defined now that they are fishing licenses. Looking through a modern smart phone is the equivalent of allowing the police state access to:

• your library card records
• your adult video store rentals
• your private journal
• a list of all the people you have freedom to assemble with who you talk to, how regularly and for how long. The things the assure us are not a civil liberties issue because they only mine the meta-data for trends.
• your banking records
• your personal correspondence, email, chat and texts.
• in my case it will show that my phone has traveled at 125mph, but not where.
• it shows my average speed over an interval of time. One could deduce criminal speed from that.
• your purchases.

Once they access all of the above any inferences or evidence that they gather can then be formalized into a neat little warrant to go obtain a piece of admissible evidence with no trail as to how it is they knew to subpoena bank records from that little country bank in another state.

I am free to break any law and avoid detection. They are not permitted to find me doing one thing and then fish through my personal effect to see if a colonoscopy will yield more charges.

Things discovered incident to arrest need to be very limited in scope. Everyone breaks the law. The last time I had my truck impounded, hauled 45 miles to an impound yard and required to drive 150 miles to get a piece of paper to retrieve that, it was because a dirty cop (since indicted) had monitored my license, discovered that an unpaid ticket had resulted in a suspension. He stole the plate from my truck which gave him probable cause to pull me over and impound the truck. Imagine if that cop had my phone.

When the truck was impounded he demanded the key. I had already thought of that and had locked the key in the truck. Without a warrant he cannot enter that locked truck as there is no possible danger. They had to drag it onto a flatbed and store it for my retrieval.

 

[1sickbastard]

It's a bit silly considering that they could just buy one's cell phone records from the provider without having to bother with any of that pesky civil liberties nonsense.

 

[boomer177]

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that a warrant is necessary, http://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...ff1326-fc6b-11e3-8176-f2c941cf35f1_story.html, although that can be readily obtained.

Ignore American-centric posters, SkAoUt. Is it any wonder us Americans are so loved by one and all?

 

[domroger]

Personally speaking I don't trust the police ,there are too many cases of perjury etc .
The only answer to the decision is to keep the contents of your cell phone to a minimum .

 

[Pairaclities]

QFT domroger qft. I don't have any info on my phone other than emails and websites visited. Nothing incriminating there, unless I inadvertently looked at an underage pussy!
The state is no longer trustworthy.
I think there used to be a large number of enforcement people with integrity up to about yr 2000. Since then it has deteriorated to a condition of every badge for himself. And the federal officers are all about control at all costs - including breaking the constitution.