Legal and Ethical Issues

One legal aspect that was found through research was by a man Adam Gershowitz who wrote an article called, The iPhone Meets the Fourth Amendment. In his article Gershowitz (2008) goes through a hypothetical scenario where a pretend defendant was pulled over for running a stop sign.  The officer feels this suspect is suspicious, but has done nothing illegal except drive recklessly. However, the offense is arrest able and because the officer is suspicious the officer places the suspect under arrest for running the stop sign.

Gershowitz (2008) goes on to talk about how under the search incident to arrest doctrine, officers are permitted to search the suspect’s body for weapons or contraband. The doctrine is automatic and allows the officer to open containers even without probable cause and this suspect has an iPhone in his pocket. The officer removes said iPhone and begins to search through the contacts, call history, emails, pictures, movies, or even the browsing history from the internet of the suspect. The officer not only finds financial, personal, and embarrassing information, but he also finds incriminating photos of stolen contraband and emails evidencing drug transactions (Gershowitz, 2008). Gershowitz (2008) asks the question of whether all of this is permissible in the court of law even though the suspect is arrested for a traffic violation and there was no probable cause or a warrant to search the phone.

            With the iPhones huge success and large popularity millions of Americans will have an iPod on them. But where is the line crossed when cops search iPhones? Should they be limited to just scanning the display screen or should they be allowed to go deeper? Should web browsing history and emails be searchable? Gershowitz (2008) acknowledges that the founders of the Fourth Amendment could not have for seen such a technologically advanced device. And that for now the Fourth Amendment would still uphold such an incidence as described earlier because the Supreme Court in 1914 said the government has the right “to search the person of the accused when legally arrested, to discover and seize the fruits or evidences of crime” (Gershowitz, 2008).