Your Data, Cop's "Game"

Data thieves are everywhere:

A 23-year-old California woman claims she was arrested for suspected drunk driving and taken to jail in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Martinez. She allowed a California Highway Patrolman to access her iPhone, so he could retrieve the phone number of someone she needed to call. She allegedly gave him her passcode.

After she had been booked, she says, she noticed that certain of her private pictures — some featuring her in a state of undress — had been sent to a number she didn’t recognize. This number allegedly turned out to be that of the officer’s private cell phone.

Her lawyer, Rick Madsen, told ABC 7 News that his client believes up to six photos were sent from her cell phone to that of Officer Sean Harrington.

Then there’s this from another paper:

CHP Officer Sean Harrington, 35, of Martinez, also confessed to stealing explicit photos from the cellphone of a second Contra Costa County DUI suspect in August and forwarding those images to at least two CHP colleagues. The five-year CHP veteran called it a “game” among officers, according to an Oct. 14 search warrant affidavit.

I’ve read so many horror stories about CHP over the years, I’m inclined to believe the worst. But whether or not this story pans out, the lesson remains the same: Passcode protect everything and never, ever give the authorities access to your cell phone without a court order.

And fight one of those like crazy, too.