They have your phone? Start with the next 60 seconds
England & Wales · Scotland · Australia · United States
Deleted is not gone. Locked is not safe.
What police can take from your phone, what they can make you unlock and what refusing costs: England & Wales, Scotland, Australia and the USA, law quoted.
Start here: compare jurisdictions, or go straight to a printable rights card.
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Rights card
A compact, print-friendly card with the key facts for your jurisdiction.The next 60 seconds
Things to ask and check in the first minute of an encounter, each with a quoted source behind it.Border prep
What the law and vendor documentation say at a border, and what happens to a device afterward.What's on your phone
What a modern phone actually stores, walked through.Could they get in?
What stands between your device’s data and someone who has it.Recently reviewed
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- What a 'full file system' extraction actually contains
- What a phone extraction can actually see
- What Apple and Android’s own security notes say
- Duress wipes, auto-reboot and the law: what a wipe can cost once a phone is sought
What this site shows
What a phone actually holds. What police in each country are permitted to take from it and what they can make you unlock — a password, a passcode, a fingerprint, a face. And what it costs to refuse where refusing is lawful but not free. Every claim on this site is quoted from a primary source, not asserted.
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