EPIC Settles ICE Lawsuit About Technology Used for Warrantless Searches of Mobile Devices

EPIC has settled a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. EPIC sought records about the agency's use of mobile forensic technology used to conduct warrantless searches of mobile devices. EPIC obtained ICE contracts with Cellebrite and documents showing that Cellebrite's mobile forensic technology can bypass passcodes to extract email, voicemails, video, audio, photos, web browsing activity, and historical location data. A slide entitled "Legal Considerations" explicitly cited the U.S. v. Riley case, which held in an unanimous decision that police generally require a warrant to search cell phones. EPIC's amicus brief in that case, which was joined by twenty-four legal scholars and technical experts from the EPIC Advisory Board, was cited twice in the Court's opinion.