REVscene Automotive Forum - Police can now search your cellphone as long as there's no password

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Police can now search your cellphone as long as there's no password

Yahoo! News Canada - Latest News & Headlines

Quote:

TORONTO - Ontario's highest court has signalled that the right of police officers to look through someone's phone depends on whether there's a password.
The Court of Appeal for Ontario says it's all right for police to have a cursory look through the phone upon arrest if it's not password protected, but if it is, investigators should get a search warrant.
The court's ruling comes in the case of a man who appealed his robbery conviction, arguing that police breached his charter rights by looking through his phone after his arrest.
Kevin Fearon was arrested in July 2009, after a jewelry stall at a flea market in Toronto was robbed, and police found pictures of a gun and cash as well as a text message about jewelry on his phone.
The Appeal Court denied his appeal, saying that police were allowed to look through Fearon's phone "in a cursory fashion" to see if there was evidence relevant to the crime, but after that they should have stopped to get a search warrant.
The court says if the phone had been password protected or otherwise locked to anyone other than its owner, "it would not have been appropriate" to look through the phone without a search warrant.
The Appeal Court judges referenced a decision in a murder case in which the judge did not allow evidence from a personal electronic device because it "functioned as a mini-computer," which has a high expectation of privacy. The contents of that device were only extracted by a police officer using specialized equipment in that case, the Appeal Court judges noted.
"There was no suggestion in this case that this particular cell phone functioned as a 'mini-computer' nor that its contents were not 'immediately visible to the eye,' the court said in its ruling, released Wednesday.
"Rather, because the phone was not password protected, the photos and the text message were readily available to other users."
The court, though, declined to create a specific new rule for all cellphone searches.
"It may be that some future case will produce a factual matrix that will lead the court to carve out a cellphone exception to the law," the ruling said. "To put it in the modern vernacular: 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.'"

I'm pretty sure they did it regardless LOL.. :badpokerface:

Edit: Well the high school police officer at my high school did it to some guys regardless LOL she even took their money as "evidence" LOL

Lol can't see article via mobile, but if thas true, brb putting passwords on everything
Posted via RS Mobile

Not too sure about our justice system but isn;t the precedent only set in Ontario? Would this apply to BC residence?

already have a password on lock screen, and a separate password for messaging/image apps on phone.. Android ftw!

I've had the CBSA look thru my iphone. Anybody had this happen to them before?

I always throw a password on when I cross the border. Other than that my phone is always open. I got nothing to hide...

not having a pass code on your phone is like... not locking your car! takes 1 second to do.

CBSA has the authority to examine cell phones and other media devices because of the Customs Act.
Posted via RS Mobile

Quote:

Originally Posted by vantrip (Post 8167140)

Not too sure about our justice system but isn;t the precedent only set in Ontario? Would this apply to BC residence?

This would apply across the country. Individual provinces do not have different justice systems.
Posted via RS Mobile

What are you talking about? It's called Provincial Legislation

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ulic Qel-Droma (Post 8167385)

not having a pass code on your phone is like... not locking your car! takes 1 second to do.

you dont unlock your car door every couple seconds..

Never understood people with Smartphones with no lockscreen or password of any sort.
If I lose or get my phone jacked, there's so much that my phone can be used for.
I would rather lose my wallet and get all my important cards replaced than lose my phone (if it didn't have a lockscreen password).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blah_Teggie (Post 8167190)

I've had the CBSA look thru my iphone. Anybody had this happen to them before?

Yeah, happen to me at the US/Alberta Boarder. Had phone in the car and they searched that, and also my laptop. Following that they searched my car also, what a day that was haha

Quote:

Originally Posted by xilley (Post 8167398)

you dont unlock your car door every couple seconds..

you set your phone so it auto locks in 3-5minutes.

so you only need to do it every 3-5minutes+... 1 second.

^^ or in the case of a blackberry 10 (not sure about earlier OSes) you can set two different times - one for the screen timeout and one for the lock screen. I never used to put a password on, but after i got the z10 with the second option I put it on. I have it set to turn off the screen after 1 min and then lock after 30 mins. That way I only need to unlock if I havent been using it for awhile.

I wonder how that would work? I have a pass lock, but it wasn't on yet when the cops were rifling through it. Hmmmm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ulic Qel-Droma (Post 8167648)

you set your phone so it auto locks in 3-5minutes.

so you only need to do it every 3-5minutes+... 1 second.

Unlike my car my phone is in arms reach 24/7

Most people have more than phone numbers to see; texts, emails, web history, apps, banking info (hopefully not), photos, videos, notes, documents...

Phones these days are much more than just phones. There is EVERY reason to put a password on your phone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpartanAir (Post 8169082)

And for Android users, encrypt your phone. Otherwise anyone can just plug your phone in via USB cable, and start peeking.

uh ... all you people writing "brb setting password naaaooo" ... unless you are hiding something from the authorities, what's the point? :suspicious:
You should either already have it set, or you don't.

The police aren't gonna give a rats ass if they see your text to your buddy "dayum that half nekkid chick last night was smoking hawt" ... unless of course your gf is a cop :badpokerface:

i believe that they can request you give up your password, but you don't have to. however, if you don't, they are allowed to seize your device for further examination (read: they'll try and crack your password).

of course this is just a possibility, and they probably won't bother unless they have reason to believe you might have incriminating evidence on your phone.

yes, the cbsa has a lot more power than the police.

CBSA can go through it without a warrant i believe.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ybqpvjst (Post 8169164)

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Quote:

Originally Posted by dlo (Post 8166847)

Lol can't see article via mobile, but if thas true, brb putting passwords on everything
Posted via RS Mobile

:badpokerface: