No, you're not paranoid they really are out to get you. Not content with fingerprinting and taking a DNA swab the moment you're dragged across the threshold of the newly-privatised KOPSHOP TM, they're now going to hack into your mobile.

Across sixteen London boroughs the Met have implemented a system that extracts mobile phone data from people in custody. The ACESO “mobile device data extraction solution” designed by military hardware specialists Radio Tactics will allow custody staff to use "intuitive, fully-guided touchscreen desktop data acquisition tool" to print off and retain all the data on a mobile phone. This will include calls and texts made and received, lists of contacts and photos. It will also show where the phone has been. The bad news? - the cops are allowed to retain it forever, whether or not you are charged. The bright side? - guidelines suggest “that data extraction can happen only if there is sufficient suspicion the mobile phone was used for criminal activity.”

At the moment the terminals are fixed but the company is already preparing a mobile version meaning that mobile phone data extraction could be integrated with stop&search in the street.

Now of course if you've got a a contract phone all this info is out there for the police to get hold of anyway – this technology is aimed at anonymously purchased pay-as-you-go mobiles. So what does this mean for the average activist in the street? Well short of wrapping the dog and bone in tin foil and taking a hammer to it before you head out there's a few sensible precautions to take, especially if you're up to something. Don't take your usual phone anywhere you think you might get nicked. Swapping sim-cards isn't enough – both the handset and the sim card have identifying numbers. Don't identify your contacts by their real names in your contacts list. An old-style-phone is going to have a lot less useful info in it than a new-fangled smart-phone.

For more on activist security http://www.activistsecurity.org/

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