R. v. Fearon: Supreme Court of Canada Hears Cell Phone Privacy Case

The Supreme Court of Canada heard R. v. Fearon, S.C.C. File No. 35298, today, an appeal in which Canada's highest court will examine the degree of privacy that can be expected in mobile devices. Typically, police are permitted to search through objects in a persons' possession for evidence related to the offence for which they are being arrested. This is a very broad rule, and the question is whether it should be applied 'as is' to moblie devices such as cell phones, tablets, wearable computing and perhaps even laptops. In its intervention, CIPPIC argued that these types of devices are capable of holding immense amounts of data and, moreover, are used to create and carry sensitive information of a type that individuals would only rarely have upon their person when being arrested in the pre-digital age:

• Webcast of the hearing, Friday, May 23, 2014
• CIPPIC's Factum and Motion for Leave to Intervene
• Other parties and intervener's facta
• The Supreme Court of the United States is examining the same issue in U.S. v. Wurie, Docket No. 13-212