Phone Lock Screen Viewing It May Require A Warrant
The FBI broke the law when it switched on a suspect’s phone to look at his lock screen without a warrant, ruled a judge. It said that gathering evidence from a lock screen constitutes a search, and doing this without a warrant violates the 4th Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable search and seizure … The ruling was made by judge John Coughenour in a district court in Seattle. Judge Coughenour ruled that the police were within their rights to look at the lock screen at the time of Sam’s arrest, as there are circumstances in which a search can be made at the time of an arrest without a warrant....