Warrantless searches of a mobile phone’s digital contents and privacy interests in Hong Kong

Abstract

This case note examines the latest development on the police’s power to search the digital contents of an arrested person’s mobile phone without a warrant in Sham Wing Kan v Commissioner of Police [2020] HKCA 186; [2020] 2 HKLRD 529. Two issues will be discussed. First, the Court of Appeal’s approach to American and Canadian law in this area will be critically analysed. Second, the safeguards proposed by the Court for a police officer’s warrantless search of the digital contents on a mobile phone will be evaluated. It argues that the Court’s erroneous interpretation of foreign law on the police’s power to search the digital contents on a mobile phone has contributed to the inadequacy of the safeguards proposed by the Court vis-à-vis an arrestee’s privacy rights under the Hong Kong Basic Law and the Hong Kong Bill of Rights.