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Mobile returned by Police

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man.united332

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Hi all,

Last year as part of false DV allegations police seized my mobile and now case is dismissed with no charges, i've now received my mobile back from police, just wondering is it ok to use it, is it safe to do so? should i just factory reset it and start using it? its a fairly new mobile cost me around £300

I didn't tell the pin to the police and mobile came back as it is.

what's your advise?

thanks
 
No idea! I would probably reset it to factory settings but make sure you have any logins or passwords made a note of first - you usually have to sign into apps again from scratch after a reset. Last time I did a reset I didn't have an issue with this - I reset any passwords I'd forgotten. The one thing I did have issues with was an authentification app I use - for 2FA. I had to reset all those up again by going to the websites and starting again.
 
I suggest you get a shadow copy of everything on your phone before the factory reset. Keep it safe. It may be useful down the line.
 
I doubt it. You're not intending to do anything criminal anyway are you? If they had, then a factory reset should have removed it anyway.
 
police have dropped the case and it would not be lawful to put software on it to spy on you. They are not interested and at least your got your phone back, so charge it up and use your phone.
 
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I was in the same situation except mine came back minus the sim card and after a few calls,guess what they couldn't find it
 
man.united332 said:
Hi all,

Last year as part of false DV allegations police seized my mobile and now case is dismissed with no charges, i've now received my mobile back from police, just wondering is it ok to use it, is it safe to do so? should i just factory reset it and start using it? its a fairly new mobile cost me around £300

I didn't tell the pin to the police and mobile came back as it is.

what's your advise?

thanks
Click to expand...


What make of phone was it? I take it they had a warrant to do so?

They wouldn't need the PIN. There are devices that plug straight into smartphones that provide instant access to everything on that device.

It's unlikely that they would add anything that allowed them to track your activity beyond what a smartphone can already. They are tracking devices disgused as consumer tech afterall, with the sole purpose of gathering data on our behaviour. We are all aware of that, right??

The Police generally do not have the in-house capabilities for analysing data from electronic IT devices as part of digital forensic examiniation themselves, this is usually contracted out to a company that specialises in such, or at the very least, supplied to a specialist team by the contractor.

Regardless, they all should be abiding by the Extraction of information from electronic devices: code of practice and The College of Policing national guidance on the extraction of material from digital devices to ensure that police officers and staff follow consistent practices when obtaining material from mobile phones, laptops, and other computers.

Do they always? Not according to reports by London-based charity Privacy International who claim to have discovered that Police are downloading the contents of suspects phones without warrants.

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man.united332 said:
Hi all,

Last year as part of false DV allegations police seized my mobile and now case is dismissed with no charges, i've now received my mobile back from police, just wondering is it ok to use it, is it safe to do so? should i just factory reset it and start using it? its a fairly new mobile cost me around £300

I didn't tell the pin to the police and mobile came back as it is.

what's your advise?

thanks
Click to expand...
The short answer seems to be, just treat it as if it were nicked and got recovered, what would you do then. :)
 
That's what I did, but it does nestle in mind have they done anything or are they monitoring but that's my way out there thinking lol
 
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