In my last blog entry, I explained how a series of court decisions has virtually eliminated legal protection for information in your cell phone.  If you’re arrested for even the most trivial offense, police may inspect your calling records, address book, text messages, photos, video files, Web browsing records, and e-mail messages—all without a warrant.  Any information they find can be used against you in a subsequent criminal case.

What can you do to protect yourself?  First, if you can get along without a cell phones or other portable electronic devices, by all means do so.  If you need to carry a cell phone, be sure to activate the password feature.  In some cases, this may create a legal expectation of privacy that prevents a warrantless search.  It may also prevent someone who steals your cell phone from being able to use it or retrieve data from it.

Also, use only the features you really need.  In my case, that means I use my cell phone only to makes and receive calls.  I don’t use it for text messaging, to take photos, to send e-mail, or to browse the Internet.  And I delete all calling records regularly.

But even this may not be enough.  A modern cell phone is really a miniature personal computer.  And just like a personal computer, data you delete on your cell phone can be recovered until it’s overwritten.  To protect yourself, periodically reformat your cell phone to make it impossible for anyone to retrieve "not quite deleted" data.  To learn more, click here.

With cell phones becoming ever more sophisticated, the risk of your data being compromised will only increase in the future.  Protect yourself now, not later!

Copyright © 2008 by Mark Nestmann