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.
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.
Sections
Compare jurisdictions
England & Wales, Scotland, Australia and the United States, side by side.
United Kingdom
England & Wales.
Scotland
Authored from Scots law, not translated.
Australia
Federal and state powers.
United States
Federal and state law.
Situations
Quoted law, codes and guidance for particular situations, each page scoped to its jurisdiction.
What is on your phone
What a modern phone actually holds, and what deleted does and does not mean.
Protect yourself
Passcodes, lock state, borders, and what statutes say about destroying or concealing evidence.
Tools
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.