Law enforcement agencies have powerful forensic tools to gather information from your phone

[Matrix]

Editor's take: I’ve been preaching for years to anyone that will listen that when it comes to technology, you should have no reasonable expectation of privacy. New research from Upturn, a nonprofit based in Washington DC, further solidifies that stance.

Over the course of 2019 and into 2020, Upturn filed more than 110 public record requests with state and local law enforcement agencies to determine which have access to forensic tools to collect data from smartphones and how they use them.

 

While some are still under the impression that such tools only exist in the world of spy movies, that’s far from accurate. Others might underestimate an agency's’ ability to acquire these tools due to their cost or complexity but according to Upturn’s findings, that is also wishful thinking.

 

 

(The "Select Content Type" screen on the Cellebrite Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) user interface.)

 

The nonprofit found that at least 2,000 law enforcement agencies, representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia, have purchased products sold by mobile device forensic tool vendors. Since 2015, agencies have conducted “hundreds of thousands of cellphone extractions,” often without a warrant.

 

Upturn noted that law enforcement has used the tools across a range of cases, from serious crimes down to more minor offenses involving things like graffiti, public intoxication and parole violations.

 

 

(The "Select Extraction Type" screen on the Cellebrite Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) user interface.)

 

Smartphones have never been more ubiquitous. For better or for worse, people’s entire lives now play out on their phones. Think of it as a “window into the soul.” And one that, even if you have a password-protected device, isn’t ever really fully private.

 

If you are at all interested in personal privacy, I would encourage you to read Upturn's report. It's lengthy but also quite insightful, and may forever change how you approach mobile phone security.

 

Source

[mp68terr]

The article speaks about forensic/privacy in general, but not about encryption. What about encrypted files? Do these tools allow the law enforcement agencies to decrypt encrypted files?

[AZwaffelForAWaff]

https://www.upturn.org/reports/2020/mass-extraction is the full article and it does say that some tools already break known file encryption. That is why you should always keep yourself updated about the latest privacy and security technologies and utilize the best methodologies to encrypt your data. Data storage and data transfer should be 100% encrypted at all times. The only data that should decrypted is when you get to look at it (unless you can decrypt on-the-fly). Unfortunately that is not the case with today's data. Too much of it is stored and transferred as plain-text.

 

It is of greater concern that law enforcement can abuse WiFi, mobile data, and mobile radio networks, not that they abuse your data once you get arrested and your belongings get confiscated. Once you are arrested, you lose most of your rights, including rights to privacy.

[mp68terr]

The full report indeed speaks about encryption.

IMHO the fact that some of these tools can break locked phones/files is an important point that should have been in the article, without having to read the full report.

[BimBamSmash]

It's a shame they are not interested in my ringtones...

 

By the way, who watches the watchmen?

[Arachnoid]

Wont work on a Nokia 3310