Can internet searches be used in court

But the Fourth Amendment also protects cell phones. A law enforcement officer or injury lawyer must prove it is very likely that evidence is on the phone to legally search it.

Different people can search your cell phone under different conditions. Federal agencies can search any information on your phone, including search results if they provide a subpoena. All cell phone companies must obey federal subpoenas to search phone records.

Police officers also have the right to search your cell phone in certain circumstances. Or, if someone has a protective order against you and you attempt to stalk them, your search history can be used to support further charges. However, many charges are based on intent, meaning your search results on their own cannot be the sole basis for a conviction.

The prosecution must also show that you actually intended to or did commit a crime with the aid of your search results. There are two ways in which online information is admitted as evidence in criminal cases: sting operations and subpoenas by district attorneys.

In sting operations, police investigators typically masquerade as users online with the purpose of getting another user to admit to a crime or engage in illegal activities, such as soliciting a minor for sex, admitting to selling drugs , or asking someone to help with a fraud scheme. But what about your own search results? Well, for those the prosecution must subpoena your internet provider to access their records. They may provide your entire search history for the past few years, but the district attorneys will likely only care about searches that occurred around the time of the alleged crime.

This phenomenon is hard for most older people to accept. So be careful what you search for: it may come back to haunt you. All Rights Reserved. Singularity University is not a degree granting institution. Sign in. Forgot your password? Get help. Password recovery. Police then used the phone number records to pinpoint the location of Williams' device near the arson, according to court documents.

The original warrant sent to Google is still sealed, but the report provides another example of a growing trend of data requests to the search engine giant in which investigators demand data on a large group of users rather than a specific request on a single suspect.

The keyword warrants are similar to geofence warrants , in which police make requests to Google for data on all devices logged in at a specific area and time.

Google received 15 times more geofence warrant requests in compared with , and five times more in than The rise in reverse requests from police have troubled Google staffers, according to internal emails. Google said Thursday that it works to protect the privacy of its users while also supporting law enforcement. The company declined to disclose how many keyword warrants it's received in the last three years. Reverse search warrants like geofence warrants are being challenged across the US for violating civil rights.

Lawmakers in New York have proposed legislation to make these searches illegal, while in Illinois, a federal judge found that the practice violated the Fourth Amendment. Keyword warrants aren't new. Todd Spodek, the attorney representing Williams, said he plans to challenge the legality of the keyword warrant issued in June.