Mobile artifacts in search warrants

Mobile devices can contain a wealth of digital evidence. This includes data that reveals a user’s location, communications, intent, and identity. Effectively leveraging this evidence requires a careful, data-driven approach to drafting search warrants. Such warrants must clearly identify the information being sought, where it resides, what process created it, and why it’s relevant. The Mobile Artifacts in Search Warrants reference guide helps prosecutors and law enforcement navigate the complexity of mobile data by providing an index of common artifacts, a description of where these artifacts are likely to be located and sample, modifiable, language to use in affidavits and search warrants:

• Organizes mobile artifacts by artifact name/source, typical file location, and evidentiary value, making it easier to identify what information is relevant to an investigation.
• Provides a framework to help explain how each type of data can either provide evidence of an underlying crime or establish user attribution such as showing who controlled a device at a given time.
• Guides the creation of narrowly tailored search warrants, constrained by specific date and time ranges or the contextual connection of the data to the alleged offense, reducing the collection of unrelated information.

This reference guide equips legal and investigative professionals with the tools to draft precise, effective, and legally defensible search warrants, ensuring mobile evidence is collected efficiently and responsibly.