> Under the new system, content will be extracted using purpose built terminals in police stations. So the device in the screenshot is a Radio Tactics Aceso, t

> Under the new system, content will be extracted using purpose built terminals in police stations. So the device in the screenshot is a Radio Tactics Aceso, there is one sat across the room from my desk. It has been around for quite a while. They are pretty good pieces of kit; but there is something of a limit in terms of the information they can extract (i.e. because phones are so "proprietary" it's only logical data they can easily recover). > Until now, officers had to send mobiles off for forensic examination in order to gather and store data, a process which took several weeks. Hilarious. Anyway: In a sense this is very old news (over the stuff HN is likely to be interested in); before if your tech was seized and sent of for analysis the data would be retained, no matter what the outcome. I can't remember the exact length of time but it is measured in years. This appears to be extending the technical ability to "acquire" mobile phones down to the police station level. My thoughts: * Despite how simplistic (and the Aceso is brain dead simple to use) they make it, there will still be mass confusion * No one at police station level will understand how to secure digital evidence effectively (no matter how much training they hand out - it took me several years to get to grips with the minutae), I hope they have a plan to mitigate this. * This is all part of the govt. plan to in-source as much of their forensics as possible. Which just ends up putting the technical stuff in the hands of people ill-trained to handle it, and risks more people being convicted * It's not discussed, but I would be interested to see if this means they will be acquiring more data than usual. i.e. does this mean every phone will be analysed, or will they only do it for phones they could (in the past) justify sending off for detailed examination. * In the former case (acquiring everything) how, legally, are they justifying it. As a forensic analyst this whole thing seems to verge on violating every ethical and moral rule I would ascribe too. It increases the chances of abuse by many factors and reduces the effectiveness of forensic mobile phone work. > The cost of leasing the 16 terminals for 12 months and training the officers will be £50,000, the Met said. They are being ridiculously fleeced. I am unsure of the exact volume of phones they might process, but I suspect they could sub-contract it to actual experts for much less. I could process 10's of phones a week, for example. Mostly this is a Radio Tactics press release. Even in the best case scenario they are reducing effectiveness, increasing error rate and costing themselves more money. From my side of the fence this is not the first idiotic thing I have seen the public forces do in recent months - and it won't be the last. As a member of the public I don't feel paranoia and insecurity, but I am certainly cautious about the way this is going. (disclaimer; this sort of thing is what is making my profession redundant) p.s. put a PIN code on your SIM and phone. From a practical perspective that basically renders Aceso useless (they can try and make you give up the PIN of course).