A Call for Probationer Data Privacy: Can States Require Cell Phone Search Waivers?

49 Ariz. St. L.J. 1487 (2017). Alexandra Crandall.

Ninety-one percent of adults own a cell phone, making it the most quickly adopted technology by consumers in history. Cell phones have become so ubiquitous that they are indispensable to modern life. Once unlocked, call logs, addresses, emails, and text messages reveal the owner’s professional and personal interactions with coworkers, friends, and family. Many smartphones track the owner’s movement, pinpointing stops, timing routes, and listing previous location searches. Applications on cell phones can count steps, record voice memos, track meals, schedule appointments, make lists, deposit checks, place food orders, and display political party-specific news. The intimate information made accessible through technology is expansive and has presented courts with new Fourth Amendment search and seizure issues.

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