TORONTO

Hold the ’phone. Your direct line to private telephony has just dropped out.

The Court of Appeal for Ontario has ruled that if a cellphone is not passcode-protected, police can search it without a warrant at the time of arrest.

On Wednesday, Justice Robert Armstrong dismissed an appeal against an armed robbery conviction by Kevin Fearon.

His counsel argued that police searching Fearon’s cellphone as they ’cuffed him had breached his constitutional rights against unreasonable search.

Too bad, the judge decided.

Had Fearon’s phone been locked he would have been safe. Police would have had no alternative but to obtain a search warrant to rifle through its contents.

It was this simple lack of password protection that ensured the Toronto man earned a criminal conviction because of the self-incriminating nature of the data found.

It is also a verdict that will now have far-reaching implications for the general public and their dealings with law enforcement agencies.

“This decision concerns me greatly,” was the response of Norm Boxall, president of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association of Ontario. “Just because you leave your front door unlocked doesn’t mean you are inviting or giving consent for it to be entered.

“The same goes for a personal cellphone; leaving it unlocked or unguarded with a password shouldn’t mean it is liable immediately to be inspected.

“These are amongst the more important possessions in modern society, they contain everything about us.”

The notion that the modern phone contains our digital fingerprints is widespread. It means special protections should be used to guard its contents, maintained Ann Cavoukian, information and privacy commissioner of Ontario.

“My problem with this is that we have to rely on the sophistication of the user as to whether or not they have a lock on their cellphone,” Cavoukian said.

“Many people don’t have that level of sophistication, so that would put them at a disadvantage before the law. Default settings are also set by manufacturers and are rarely protected, so that works against less sophisticated users as well.

“Perhaps in the case that sparked this debate the decision was not unwarranted, but I would hesitate to see it applied across the board.”

And don’t think that hitting delete on your cellphone will protect you in the moments before you are arrested.

That button is just a ‘hide’ button by another name. The information is still there, you just can’t see it. In the police forensic process it can all be recovered, sometimes in just minutes.

The data will include your recent texts and e-mails, favourite websites and all or any pictures you have taken.

That’s not all. The latest iPhone, Android or BlackBerry may also include entire call logs, map search results from the device’s Google Maps app, graphics stored in the browsers’ cache, even keyboard logs are accessible.

All of that can be admitted as evidence in court.

So if you really want to communicate to the world your likes, dislikes and intended actions without leaving a traceable record, you have one option and it doesn’t include your cellphone.

Just open the window. Then yell like hell.