Police Search Cell Phones During Traffic Stops

[MaineShark]

The article is about a policy in Michigan, but I'm posting in in "General" because of the technology being discussed, which could be used anywhere.  No doubt at least some cops in NH have this equipment...

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/34/3458.asp

A US Department of Justice test of the CelleBrite UFED used by Michigan police found the device could grab all of the photos and video off of an iPhone within one-and-a-half minutes. The device works with 3000 different phone models and can even defeat password protections.

"Complete extraction of existing, hidden, and deleted phone data, including call history, text messages, contacts, images, and geotags," a CelleBrite brochure explains regarding the device's capabilities. "The Physical Analyzer allows visualization of both existing and deleted locations on Google Earth. In addition, location information from GPS devices and image geotags can be mapped on Google Maps."

Be careful what's on your cell.  Even if you have a password, or delete things.

Joe

[highline]

The article is about a policy in Michigan, but I'm posting in in "General" because of the technology being discussed, which could be used anywhere.  No doubt at least some cops in NH have this equipment...

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/34/3458.asp

A US Department of Justice test of the CelleBrite UFED used by Michigan police found the device could grab all of the photos and video off of an iPhone within one-and-a-half minutes. The device works with 3000 different phone models and can even defeat password protections.

"Complete extraction of existing, hidden, and deleted phone data, including call history, text messages, contacts, images, and geotags," a CelleBrite brochure explains regarding the device's capabilities. "The Physical Analyzer allows visualization of both existing and deleted locations on Google Earth. In addition, location information from GPS devices and image geotags can be mapped on Google Maps."

Be careful what's on your cell.  Even if you have a password, or delete things.

Joe

Contraband searches after a lawful arrest of a person can be done without a warrant...  to include cell phones and their data!

I've been a non-cop for fifteen months now, but before I left I didn't know of any who had this equipment.  Most police departments have the Microsoft Cofee setup to extract data from computers.

[jerry]

There's an app for that...or will be, and the US government is supplying it.

"Some day soon, when pro-democracy campaigners have their cellphones confiscated by police, they'll be able to hit the "panic button" — a special app that will both wipe out the phone's address book and emit emergency alerts to other activists."

"The panic button is one of the new technologies the U.S. State Department is promoting to equip pro-democracy activists in countries ranging from the Middle East to China with the tools to fight back against repressive governments."

The rest of the article at:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42276053/ns/technology_and_science-security/

[littlehawk]

Nice Jerry. I often wonder why no one has invented their own line of cell phones that would not make tracking possible and when you deleted stuff it was actually deleted and not stored in any memory. That same hand-held device could also make tasers inoperable. Call it Freedom Fone or soemthing.

[doobie]

Password protect your phone and disable the USB port for anything but power without a password.

[MaineShark]

I often wonder why no one has invented their own line of cell phones that would not make tracking possible...

Because it's impossible.

Tracking is done from the network side.  The towers need to know where your phone is, in order to connect you to the closest tower, so that's been part of cellular technology since the beginning.  Only way around that would be to invent your own phone company with equipment that would not log any of those data.  Good luck getting the Federal licenses to do that.

Joe

[Lloyd Danforth]

We don't nee no stink'in license!  Just Millions of dollars.

[Russell Kanning]

glad i only have a dumb phone

[Lloyd Danforth]

Even Smart Phones are stupid in Grafton