Less privacy for smart phone users

   5 September, 2026 

How private is the information on your smart device?

The bad news is: it could be set to become a lot less private than it was.

The NSW Minns Labor government plans to introduce legislation that will give police extraordinary powers to access data from people’s smart devices.

The legislation would allow police to apply for a Digital Evidence Access Order (DEAO) to obtain information from a person’s digital device during an arrest, roadside stop or other detention. As well as their phone, the person targeted will be required to provide PINs or passwords to facilitate that access and non-cooperation could result in imprisonment.

The Cellebrite technology that will be used for this has been developed by Israeli Defence Forces and security agencies to obtain and analyse data from smart phones and other digital devices, including SIM cards and even drones.  

While the Mins government says the legislation aims at ‘giving NSW Police and the NSW Crime Commission the powers they need to disrupt and dismantle organised crimes networks’, the reality is that the privacy of the general public may be affected, too,1 with one police officer reportedly downloading about 20 smart devices each week.2

As Senator David Shoebridge explained, ‘NSW Police can now hack your phone at a roadside stop using Cellebrite, Israeli phone-cracking technology sold to police forces and intelligence services worldwide.’3

‘Most people in NSW would be alarmed to know that the NSW police, using data from an Israeli corporation… can access any message they have ever sent, any photo they have ever taken, their location at any moment, everything they have ever searched and biometric data about who they are,’ said NSW MP Sue Higginson.

‘Police already have powers to obtain digital evidence to tackle organised crime, but they also use this technology against protesters and ordinary members of the community,’ Higginson posted on Facebook.4

Higginson also raised concerns about what would happen to the data collected by the police and how it would be stored or shared.

Perhaps it’s time for a return to the good-old non-smart – some might call them ‘wise’ – phones!

  1.    Ministerial Media release, 18.6.26, https://www.nsw.gov.au/ministerial-releases/minns-labor-government-to-introduce-new-powers-for-police-and-crime-commission-targeting-organised-crime
  2. Paul Gregoire, NSW Police to Be Given Powers to Access and Download Phone Content on the Beat, https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/nsw-police-to-be-given-powers-to-access-and-download-phone-content-on-the-beat/  
  3. Robert Dougherty, Defence connect, 17.8.26, https://www.defenceconnect.com.au/land/18720-concerns-raised-about-new-military-phone-cracking-tech-proposed-for-nsw-police-force
  4. Sue Higginson, 23.6.26, https://www.facebook.com/SueHigginsonMLC/posts/if-the-police-want-to-search-your-home-they-need-a-warrantbut-if-police-want-to-/1002097522453460/










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