The transformation of America into a police state is well underway.

In the wake of the North Hollywood shootout, police forces across the country militarized their forces and now SWAT is called out to evict grandmothers from their foreclosed homes.

Then they began to forcefully object to being photographed.

Now apparently, police forces are now embarking on a full-scale assault on our civil rights, imaging cellphones on the pretense of broken tail-lights.

The Michigan State Police have a high-tech mobile forensics device that can be used to extract information from cell phones belonging to motorists stopped for minor traffic violations. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan last Wednesday demanded that state officials stop stonewalling freedom of information requests for information on the program.

ACLU learned that the police had acquired the cell phone scanning devices and in August 2008 filed an official request for records on the program, including logs of how the devices were used. The state police responded by saying they would provide the information only in return for a payment of $544,680. The ACLU found the charge outrageous.

This is the kind of equipment (shown opposite) Michigan State Police are using; a portable unit capable of reading the non-volatile flash memory in your phone. It doesn't matter what brand of phone you have, since all cell-phones use the same hardware technologies.

The flash memory image; a digital copy of everything in your phone, can then be read by a PC-based software program that can parse the various logs your cell-phone keeps. That includes all the transceiver cells you've been in, logs of your GPS positioning, calls, some kinds of deletions, your contacts, notes, appointments, etc...

The legal theory on which the police feel they can collect and archive these cell phone memory images is not something I am qualified to comment on, but the current trend towards a "Big Brother" government built on the pretext of "fighting terrorism" suggests we are going to see more of this, not less.

What will major cell phone providers will do in response? Likely nothing since consumers have no meaningful alternative and "cooperation" with the government is so much more profitable than corporate social protest.

Practical counter-measures include encrypting your phone, which is beyond the capabilities of the UFED software, but this only prevents casual browsing of your personal files--not logs. The police will still have a complete record of your calls and movements. Of course, if you are a crime lord or terrorist, the encryption will be a simple obstacle to overcome since the police do have power decryption tools at their disposal.

Ultimately, your best protection is the same advice extended to people who have company email accounts--understand that anything you write is effectively public pronouncement. Don't run your life out of your cell phone.