When facing accusations of white collar crimes like fraud, money laundering, embezzlement and things of this nature, digital evidence may become necessary. The police will want to look at information on your phone, perhaps checking your text messages, direct messages, phone call logs and other information during their investigation.
But unless the police have a search warrant, you do not actually have to let them search your phone. This does not incriminate you or indicate that you are guilty. You simply have an expectation of privacy, meaning the police need to get your consent or they need to get a search warrant to overrule it.
You are not the only one with access to your own data
But the third-party doctrine recognizes that other entities may have access to some of the same information. This reduces your expectation of privacy. If the police are able to get the information from these other parties, then they often do not need a search warrant or your consent.
This is usually true if you have voluntarily turned that information over to the other party. For instance, if you sent messages on a social media site, signing up for that social media platform may allow the company to have access to your direct messages. The police could then get a log of those messages from the company, even if they do not unlock your phone.
Another example is if they want to see where you were at the time that a crime was committed, knowing that the location data on your phone may shed some light on your activities. If you have shared that location data with your cellphone provider or the developer of a specific app on your phone, the police may be able to get the information from them without unlocking your device.
Your legal options
It is important to be aware of how this works because it can dramatically affect how the police gather their evidence. You also need to know what legal defense options you have when facing charges.