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Comment Re:What's to stop them? (Score 3, Interesting) 29

Actually, there is jurisprudence on this. In a physical warrant, you cannot search for material that is non-responsive.

An example I used in a term paper in law school* is two accountants, one who is old fashioned and only uses paper, the other is fully digital. Accountant 1 has kiddie porn on a videotape labeled "Vacation 2014". Accountant 2 has kiddie porn in a file called "My Vacation 2014.mp4".

Both are served with warrants for tax fraud. The search of Accountant 1's premises cannot examine the videotape, as it is clearly non-responsive to the warrant. The search of Accountant 2's computer finds the illegal material in the MP4 under the "plain sight" doctrine.

It is obvious that the law needs to evolve to address this sort of issue.

* Disclaimer, I am not a lawyer. I am not licensed to dispense legal advice. Should you need legal advice, please consult an attorney licensed in your jurisdiction.

Comment Re:What's to stop them? (Score 4, Interesting) 29

I studied this and even wrote a paper on it... There are severe issues with the way searches of digital devices are carried out. Granted, on a phone they're probably less, but because it's so easy to rename "IncriminatingDocument.txt" to "MyVacation.mp4", they have to search every file.

The issue is that any digital device these days has SO MUCH non-responsive information that it's essentially a general warrant. And as GP noted, it would be easy to do parallel construction. Maybe the answer is to have a third party (special master?) do the search, and only provide the responsive material to the police. But there's alway the issue of the equivalent of regulatory capture.

There is no easy solution.

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