Michigan Limits Cop Phone Searches Citing Health Privacy (1)

Michigan joined a growing list of states limiting the ability of police to broadly search through cellphones, with a court decision raising the alarm that warrants allowing phone access could provide information about private counseling and health care.

Widespread use of apps like Epic System’s MyChart or counseling tools like BetterHelp or Talkspace demonstrate mobile technology is at the center of a collision between Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and a “whole new realm of personal information” the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled Thursday in a divided decision dismissing convictions of a couple alleged to have broken into a ...