The Supreme Court on Wednesday officially ruled that phones in the United States are "generally protected from searches without warrant," which means law enforcement should now need a warrant before they try to open your phone and use its contents as evidence against you.
The suit, Riley v. California was brought to the Supreme Court after a man named David Riley was pulled over in California for a traffic violation. Police took a cell phone from Riley during a search, noticed that Riley was using "a term associated with a street gang," and then handed the phone over to a detective. After the detective went through the phone, Riley was arrested in connection with a shooting – all of this stemming from a traffic violation.
"The data a user views on many modern cell phones may not in fact be stored on the device itself," the Supreme Court said. "Treating a cell phone as a container whose contents may be searched incident to an arrest is a bit strained as an initial matter."
Here's another way the Supreme Court considered searching cell phones:
The United States concedes that the search incident to arrest exception may not be stretched to cover a search of files accessed remotely-that is, a search of files stored in the cloud. Such a search would be like finding a key in a suspect's pocket and arguing that it allowed law enforcement to unlock and search a house. Officers searching a phone's data would not typically know whether the information they are viewing was stored locally at the time of the arrest or has been pulled from the cloud."
That doesn't mean that police officers can't inspect your data, however. "Our holding, of course, is not that the information on a cell phone is immune from search; it is instead that a warrant is generally required before such a search, even when a cell phone is seized incident to arrest," the Supreme Court said.

Disguise your little one with the help of a themed costume
From avocado halves to hoppy bunnies, costumes speak to every child's unique spirit. And we've collected our favorite options.

Add magic to your living space with these string lights
String lights add personality and soft light to your living space. Here are some of the best.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra's Space Zoom camera is amazing and a bit creepy
The Galaxy S20 Ultra supports up to 100X zoom, which Samsung calls Space Zoom, but is it any good? Can a phone really product usable photos at 100x zoom? We've got our Galaxy S20 Ultra already so join us to find out!

Your beard will look sharp if you're using these beard trimmers
Facial hair can be a serious hassle. Shaving every day can result in razor burn and it can be difficult to get the exact look you want for your beard. That's where having an awesome beard trimmer comes in. This accessory makes grooming and shaping your beard easier than ever.