Chief snooper
CAMPAIGNER’S PHONE WARNING TO POLICE Expert wants spy law change
A civil liberties campaigner has called for the law to be changed before police can access mobile phones taken from suspects.
Solicitor Scarlet Kim has been invited to take part in a steering group set up to advise Police Scotland on a code of conduct on phones.
She urged the Scottish Government to tighten up legislation before Police Scotland start using their controversial cyber kiosks.
The force spent more than £300,000 on the devices, which allow them to bypass passwords and encryptions while searching for evidence.
But Kim – legal officer for Privacy International, who campaign against state intrusion – said current laws let officers go on “fishing expeditions” any time they seize a phone.
She wants them to be forced to obtain a warrant before they can access information.
Kim has called on Holyrood to copy the US. In 2014, its Supreme Court made it illegal for enforcement agencies to seize and search a mobile phone without a warrant.
Kim said: “If you need a warrant to search a person’s house, why not a phone?”
Detective Chief Superintendent Gerry McLean said: “We have been open and transparent about the proposed purpose of cyber kiosks and we have engaged with politicians, unions and partners from the justice sector ahead of their potential implementation.”
In 2016, Police Scotland were found to have harvested mobile data without proper authority in search of Sunday Mail sources,
Wat chdog s s a id t he y ha d contravened the European Convention of Human Rights by getting the data without a judge’s permission.
The breach came after we revealed a forgotten suspect in the Emma Caldwell murder investigation.