When I first saw SB 914, a bill currently sitting on
Governor Brown’s desk, I was confused. There’s no way that law enforcement
could be searching people’s cell phones without a warrant, right? There’s no
way that the Senate could have let that sort of thing fly for so long, right? I
mean, the bill has been around since February (albeit amended three times over
since then).
Well, apparently I was wrong.
It turns out that in January, the California Supreme Court
ruled that cell phones were fair game for unwarranted search, thereby
effectively prying open your private life. That sounds a bit melodramatic, but
consider what people do with their phones these days; your social networking,
Internet habits, and personal messages both oral and written are all in there.
Consider how often you use your phone as well; that’s an awful lot of
information.
Fortunately, there is a loophole in the ruling. While they
can access readily available information on your cell phone, they cannot force
you to unlock it if you have provided it with password protection – at least,
not without the involvement of the court process.
SB 914 is intended to protect your information, stating that
“The intrusion on the information privacy and freedom of communication of any
person arrested is of such enormity that it must require arresting officers to
obtain a warrant to search the information contained in or accessed through an
arrested person’s portable electronic device, such as a cellular telephone.”
(Read the bill in its entirety at http://www.firstamendmentcoalition.org/16701-2/sb-914-text-of-bill/
)
While no news yet as to whether Governor Brown intends to
see this bill a part of our legislature, there is a petition fronted by the
First Amendment Coalition.
(Sign the petition at http://www.firstamendmentcoalition.org/2011/09/call-to-action-sign-petition-urging-gov-brown-to-sign-sb-914-and-stop-warrantless-cellphone-searches/
)
So if you think you might not want the law’s grubby little
fingers going through your text messages and pornographic habits, you might
consider becoming involved.
Just saying.
