Rethinking Police Searches of Computers
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Rethinking Police Searches of Computers
1–10 of 28 posts
Re: Rethinking Police Searches of Computers
#2If I'm a paranoid tech journalist (I'm not), everything would be tucked away in a hidden TrueCrypt volume masked as a swap file, and all my other files would be in the cloud. Not sure seizures are even useful in such a case.
Re: Rethinking Police Searches of Computers
#3> At the very least, the courts should forbid the police from looking at any file timestamped before March 18, 2010
Except that timestamps can be altered.
Re: Rethinking Police Searches of Computers
#4If I'm a paranoid tech journalist (I'm not), everything would be tucked away in a hidden TrueCrypt volume masked as a swap file, and all my other files would be in the cloud. Not sure seizures are even useful in such a case.
I get the feeling that your "cloud" service provider will turn over your stuff quickly and inform you later.
Re: Rethinking Police Searches of Computers
#5If I'm a paranoid tech journalist (I'm not), everything would be tucked away in a hidden TrueCrypt volume masked as a swap file, and all my other files would be in the cloud. Not sure seizures are even useful in such a case.
I get the feeling that your "cloud" service provider will turn over your stuff quickly and inform you later.
That's still an uphill battle, especially if stuff ain't hosted in the country you live in.
Like I said, I'm not paranoid, so I don't have time to go to such lengths, but simply having physical access to a computer these days may not yield nearly as much evidence as it may have a decade ago.
Re: Rethinking Police Searches of Computers
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
I get the feeling that your "cloud" service provider will turn over your stuff quickly and inform you later.
That's still an uphill battle, especially if stuff ain't hosted in the country you live in. Like I said, I'm not paranoid, so I don't have time to go to such lengths, but simply having physical access to a computer these days may not yield nearly as much evidence as it may have a decade ago.
It can yield a lot more useful evidence though. You can't get the guy for the iPhone thing - but you now have:
Every website he has visited (are all those boys/girls/sheep over 18?)
Every book/dvd/toy he has bought - did he declare state tax on all the stuff from Amazon.
All his tax and business records.
Everywhere he has been, everyone he has phoned,emailed, texted tweeted.
The police could get all this from other sources - but imagine going to a judge and saying "we can't prove the phone was stolen - so can we check all tax records for 10years in the hope of getting him for something else?"
But by getting a warrant for computers they have a fishing expedition for his whole life.
Re: Rethinking Police Searches of Computers
#7If I'm a paranoid tech journalist (I'm not), everything would be tucked away in a hidden TrueCrypt volume masked as a swap file, and all my other files would be in the cloud. Not sure seizures are even useful in such a case.
I get the feeling that your "cloud" service provider will turn over your stuff quickly and inform you later.
IANAL but I don't think they can compel you to give your truecrypt passwords as they're in your head. There was an ongoing court case (involving child pornography) about this topic.
Re: Rethinking Police Searches of Computers
#8If I'm a paranoid tech journalist (I'm not), everything would be tucked away in a hidden TrueCrypt volume masked as a swap file, and all my other files would be in the cloud. Not sure seizures are even useful in such a case.
I get the feeling that your "cloud" service provider will turn over your stuff quickly and inform you later.
This is assuming you keep unencrypted stuff on the cloud. If you're TrueCrypting your entire drive, you probably won't leave anything unencrypted elsewhere unless it's totally innocuous.
Re: Rethinking Police Searches of Computers
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's still an uphill battle, especially if stuff ain't hosted in the country you live in. Like I said, I'm not paranoid, so I don't have time to go to such lengths, but simply having physical access to a computer these days may not yield nearly as much evidence as it may have a decade ago.
It can yield a lot more useful evidence though. You can't get the guy for the iPhone thing - but you now have: Every website he has visited (are all those boys/girls/sheep over 18?) Every book/dvd/toy he has bought - did he declare state tax on all the stuff from Amazon. All his tax and business records. Everywhere he has been, everyone he has phoned,emailed, texted tweeted. The police could get all this from other s…
The only point I was trying to make, which may have been missed, is that it's much easier to keep what you're doing anonymous than it has been in the past, by:
1 - using encrypted volumes 2 - putting stuff in the cloud (encrypted where possible) 3 - using the anonymous browsing mode (which most popular browsers support)
Re: Rethinking Police Searches of Computers
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
I get the feeling that your "cloud" service provider will turn over your stuff quickly and inform you later.
IANAL but I don't think they can compel you to give your truecrypt passwords as they're in your head. There was an ongoing court case (involving child pornography) about this topic.
Even then, I think TrueCrypt lets you create a second volume within the initial volume, and leaves no trace that the second volume even exists.