Page 18 - May 2018 FOP Magazine

Big Brother and the pitfalls of cellphone data
At a recent seminar on mobile discovery, an IT ex- pert shared some fascinating data with a room
full of mostly attorneys. As of January 2018, nearly 7.6 billion people live on this planet.
course, comes the bad.
The old adage “Once it’s out there, it’s out there forever” used to apply only to spoken words — but not anymore.
PAT
PAT
FIORETTO
FIORETTO
Of that number, nearly 4 billion (53 percent)
use social media, and 3.2 billion (42 per- cent) are active social media users. Most as- tonishing, more than 5.1 billion (68 percent) have mobile devices — nearly two thirds of the world’s population own some sort of cellphone!
FOP
Labor Report
Most people like to share what is contained on a cell- phone with others. Once something is posted on the in- ternetoratextissentfromyoursmartphonetoanother
Whether an iPhone or an Android, from octogenarians to preschoolers, the amount of data and number of applications found on such devices are growing every day. Twitter, Facebook, texting, WhatsApp, Snapchat and Instagram are only a few ex- amples of how people stay connected (not to mention Tinder, Grinder and other dating applications).
Mobile devices also contain a great deal of our personal in- formation: names, phone numbers and addresses from contact lists; social security numbers; bank account numbers; daily cal- endars; music playlists; PINs; photographs (perhaps some that are compromising) and GPS tracking information (a worldwide radio-navigation system formed from a constellation of 24 sat- ellites and their ground stations), just to name a few. Some apps count steps taken each day, while others keep track of calories burned. Parking apps allow drivers to locate the cheapest and closest parking spaces. I, for one, rely on my iPhone to know what I will be doing at any given time in the day. I can com- municate with a client, family member or friend from anywhere around the world, in a matter of seconds. But with the good, of
device, it is out there — for good. Cellphone users con- stantly and quickly upload and post comments, pictures, videos and other data to Facebook and other social media accounts. Others voluntarily share the information through an email or text. Passersby routinely whip out a cell phone to take a picture of an accident, event or encounter. Often, the person documenting the event might think the information captured by the device is private and will not necessarily be shared with others. However, at times, such information can be retrieved by others, whether you want to share the information or not. Just
ask the Mayor.
About the same time that I attended the seminar, the Chicago
Tribune ran an article titled, “Emanuel will turn over personal cellphone for review in battle over texts.” The article explained that Mayor Emanuel (who admitted to conducting City business on his private cellphones and accounts) capitulated and will now allow a third-party digital forensics company to collect and preserve various information responsive to an outstanding FOIA request. The data to be collected will include both text messages and emails that deal with his public business and come straight from his personal cellphone. One would suspect that when the Mayor originally sent such electronic communications, he had no idea that the data some day would be made public.
18 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ MAY 2018