Protecting Phones from Prying Eyes—EFF's Podcast Episode, "What Police Get When They Get Your Phone"
Channel: EFForg
Date: 2021-11-17

If you get pulled over and a police officer asks for your phone, beware. This snippet is from EFF's podcast How to Fix the Internet. You can listen to the entire episode wherever you get podcasts, and on our blog: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/11/podcast-episode-what-police-get-when-they-get-your-phone

Local police now have sophisticated tools that can download your location and browsing history, texts, contacts, and photos to keep or share forever. Join EFF’s Cindy Cohn and Danny O’Brien as they talk to Upturn’s Harlan Yu about a better way for police to treat you and your data. 

In this episode you’ll learn about:

Mobile device forensic tools (MDFTs) that are used by police to download data from your phone, even when it’s locked
How court cases such as Riley v. California powerfully protect our digital privacy-- but those protections are evaded when police get verbal consent to search a phone
How widespread the use of MDFTs are by law enforcement departments across the country, including small-town police departments investigating minor infractions 
The roles that phone manufacturers and mobile device forensic tool vendors can play in protecting user data 
How re-envisioning our approaches to phone surveillance helps address issues of systemic targeting of marginalized communities by police agencies
The role of warrants in protecting our digital data.