United Kingdom
- Can police take my phone, and what happens to it?England & Wales
What UK police can seize under PACE, when they can demand your data in readable form, how long they can keep it, and how to ask for it back.
- What happens when police examine a seized phoneEngland & Wales
A seized phone needs no separate warrant before its data is examined — the ICO found extraction practices going well beyond what the law clearly allows.
- The RIPA s.49 notice: when refusing your password is a crimeEngland & Wales · Scotland · Northern Ireland
A s.49 RIPA notice makes disclosing your device password a legal duty — refusing is a criminal offence carrying up to five years. The law, quoted.
- Stopped at a port or airport: Schedule 7 and your phoneEngland & Wales · Scotland · Northern Ireland
At a port or airport under Schedule 7, there is no right to silence and no suspicion needed — refusing to unlock your phone is a criminal offence.
- Police asking a victim or witness for their phoneEngland & Wales · Scotland · Northern Ireland
Since 2022 there's a formal process for extracting a victim or witness's phone data — and a legal, written right to refuse. The law, quoted.
- How long police can keep your phone dataEngland & Wales
How long UK police can hold onto your phone data: PACE, the Data Protection Act and the extraction Code, none of which set a fixed number of days.
- The Crime and Policing Act 2026: online accounts on a seized phoneEngland & Wales · Scotland · Northern Ireland
The Crime and Policing Act 2026 will let police extract online accounts accessed from a seized phone — but sections 173-180 are not yet in force.