For better or worse, so much of our lives are conducted through and recorded by our phones and computers that they are now highly valuable black boxes for post-

For better or worse, so much of our lives are conducted through and recorded by our phones and computers that they are now highly valuable black boxes for post-incident criminal investigations. It's a shame that encryption makes it harder for them to jack into the accused's consciousness and simply download some assortment of digital artifacts out of context that can be used to build a narrative against them. Used to be you had to go out and hunt for evidence, but modern investigators prefer to sit back and fish for evidence once it comes to them. Plus there's the value of things like your contacts list...for OC cases, it's a helpful collection of nodes and edges for their graph. They also lose the ability to see what extracurricular proclivities you've been up to. Anything licentious you've ever (or have ever) done will be used to gain leverage over other potential witnesses or simply demonize you in court. God help you if you're embezzling money while carrying on an affair, or you're a furry simply accused of a sex crime. Our digital lives betray the fifth amendment. Even if you won't testify against yourself, the contents of your phone/computer will tell everything...unless it's encrypted. It's the last defense against self-incrimination that we have in this era.