This is outrageous! How can that not have been the law from the get go? Surely police powers are defined by a whitelist of the sets of occasions where their powers trump citizen rights. Not a blacklist of when they can't do whatever they feel like. Crazy!
Cops must get a warrant before raiding phones, email, etc (in California)
California has passed a law requiring police to obtain a warrant before searching phones, tablets, and other electronic devices, and accounts in cloud services, too. This even includes Stingray devices, which are cellphone masts that officers set up to track and monitor people by their mobiles. Governor Jerry Brown on …
COMMENTS
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Friday 9th October 2015 04:04 GMT Robert Helpmann??
Outrageous!
How can that not have been the law from the get go?
Counter-intuitive? Yes. Surprising? Hardly. All communications are not the same and are often handled differently depending on a number of factors (what data is being requested, how old it is, etc). As I am not a lawyer, I will direct you to this slightly dated article that has a decent breakdown of all of this as it is in the American legal system:
No Warrant, No Problem: How the Government Can Get Your Digital Data
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Saturday 10th October 2015 05:05 GMT Old Handle
To be fair, mobile phones and email haven't been around since they get go. You can't expect laws to be made about things that don't exist yet, except for very broad laws like the fourth amendment. And those are unfortunately easy to weasel around sometimes.
That said, they did take their time on this one.
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Friday 9th October 2015 07:12 GMT Anonymous Coward
One law for the rich...
So the cops need a warrant. But the Fruity Firm and the Chocolate Factory just need my "consent" to their terms (which, last time I looked at the Fruity one, made me litigate in California under modified California law. The modification was to disable the "get me out of here" module. [NB this is *not* legal advice.]
So I am subject to California law when it suits them and not when it benefits me. Bah humbug, mutters into beard, etc.
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Friday 9th October 2015 09:43 GMT PapaD
Re: @PapaD
Perhaps, but what you consider to be consent, and what is considered consent under the Law may not be quite the same.
Certainly, the DPA in the UK does specify that you can only use the data for the purpose it is gathered, but since Google explicitly states that it gathers data to provide better targeting of advertising for you, as well as to improve their service to you, then they can get away with quite a lot, as long as they can show that they are working towards those objectives.
Personally, I'd quite like the law changed so that I can make use of the software without agreeing to their attempts to improve certain aspects of it - with Google I can use ad blocking software to opt out of their targeted advertising, and I can use their settings to opt out of some of their tracking - I'd like that to constitute a legally enforceable decision by myself to opt out of ALL of their tracking.
I'd also like to be able to use Windows 10 without having to worry about what tracking MS will turn back on, after I've opted out - without having to regularly run a 3rd party script just to keep myself secure.
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Friday 9th October 2015 09:25 GMT Jimmy2Cows
Always follow the... um... proceeds of dodgy dealings...?
Governor Jerry Brown on Thursday signed off the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to require a search warrant for electronic searches.
Almost as though there might be something incriminating or at least career-endingly embarrassing on his phone he'd want the opportunity to remote-wipe if the feds come a-knockin'...
Cynical? Moi? Mais oui mes amis!
Leno and Senator Joel Anderson (R-Alpine) introduced the bill back in February.
These guys too perhaps?
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Saturday 10th October 2015 06:07 GMT Old Handle
Re: This is covered already
Kind of, but then you have BS like the NSA claiming customer metadata is just "business records" and not entitled to the same level of protection as content. Sometimes it does help to spell everything out.
(Not that a California law has much effect on the NSA, just an example.)
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Sunday 11th October 2015 18:34 GMT Joe D.
Stop cell phone tracking and tapping with a Faraday Cage
The problem is that this technology is not only available to law enforcement. Just like cell phone tapping software was originally only available to law enforcement this technology has not remained out of other’s hands. Cell phone spying software is available for as little as 50 dollars through the internet for anyone to buy.
Stingray (Harris corp) is an IMSI catcher device. Many other companies make these devices such as PKI and Septier. IMSI catchers can be bought directly online from China for $1800.00. These devices are capable of locating and tapping cell phones as well as changing the settings on your phone.
A cell phone can be stopped from tracking and tapping if it is placed in a Faraday Cage. A Faraday cage is a metal or conductive envelope that completely surrounds the electronic device and stops signals from going into or out of the cage.This can be accomplished by making a pouch out of a metallized ie conductive fabric. It stops you from getting calls as well but it will stop the IMSI catcher intrusions into your phone if you can't or don't want to take the battery out. Search youtube for detracktor for a demonstration