Judge John Coughenour of the U.S. District Court in Seattle has ruled that FBI is not allowed to even look at the lock screen on a suspect’s smartphone without a warrant, Ars Technica reports.
The case involves a man from Washington state arrested in May last year, indicted on charges of robbery and assault. During the investigation, the FBI took a photo of the suspect’s phone lock screen, which had information they considered to be of interest. However, this behavior has been classed as unlawful.