Case 4:16-cr-40070-KES Document 262 Filed 02/17/17 Page 7 of 11 PageID #: 899
government, law enforcement agencies can permanently save all unresponsive
data collected from a cell phone after a search for future prosecutions on
unrelated charges. If the government’s argument is taken to its natural
conclusion, then this opens the door to pretextual searches of a person’s cell
phone for evidence of other crimes. Under the government’s view, law
enforcement officers could get a warrant to search an individual’s cell phone for
minor infractions and then use the data to prosecute felony crimes. No limit
would be placed on the government’s use or retention of unresponsive cell
phone data collected under a valid warrant.
As the Supreme Court noted in Riley, cell phone data can include
immense amounts of information such as “thousands of photos,” months of
correspondence, or “every bank statement from the last five years.” Id. at 2493.
The search of a cell phone can provide far more information than the most
exhaustive search of a house. Id. at 2491. This is especially true because cell
phones collect many different kinds of data in one place such as “an address, a
note, a prescription, a bank statement, a video . . . .” Id. at 2489. “The sum of
an individual’s private life can be reconstructed through a thousand
photographs labeled with dates, locations, and descriptions . . . .” Id. The
government’s position, which would allow for mass retention of unresponsive
cell phone data, is simply inconsistent with the protections of the Fourth
Amendment. The government’s objection on this point is overruled.
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