Legal Commentary

Privacy dangers of smartphones

By David Canton

David Fraser has a post entitled Your smartphone could be your most dangerus possession, so secure it. 

David states, in part

After a decision out of California which found that police are able to rummage through all your portable electronics incident to arrest, much attention has been focused on how much data people carry around with in their portable electronics. CNN Money is running a story with the descriptive title: Your smartphone could be your most dangerous possession.

David and I have commented before about the ability of customs agents to go though all your electronics.  The California decision was based on the notion that the police looking at the contents of someone’s phone incidental to an arrest is no different than looking in their trunk or pockets.  But with the amount of information that can be on our phones, it’s much more intrusive than that.  Its more like looking through all one’s personal files, banking records, phone records, etc.

And its not just about what police and customs agents can look it, its the risk of losing a phone with all that personal information on it.

Take a look at David’s post for a link to an article about securing your phone.

Full post as published by eLegal Canton on January 14, 2011 (boomark / email).