14 DAY TRIAL // Apple’s iCloud is ruthless with people who use iDevices that don’t belong to them. Over the years, it has helped jail hardened criminals, has made a laughing stock out of iPhone thieves taking selfies, and has helped law enforcement to solve dozens of cases that had no leads.
This time around, iCloud has exposed a police officer who took the liberty to send a DUI suspect’s nudes to himself after seizing her iPhone. He even sent the photos to another two police officers.
“Her body is rocking”
Officer Sean Harrington of the California Highway Patrol in Dublin, CA, has been charged with two counts of computer data theft after stealing nude photos from detained women whose iPhones had to be seized during questioning and X-ray scanning procedures.
Harrington reportedly sent the images to himself, as well as to two other colleagues, along with messages like “her body is rocking” or “Taken from the phone of my 10-15x while she's in X-rays. Enjoy buddy!!!”
iCloud blew his cover
One of the women whose racy pictures were stolen learned of Harrington’s actions after seeing the sent messages on an iPad, which was connected to the same iCloud account.
"Obviously, something harmful was done,” said Contra Costa deputy district attorney Barry Grove. “This was an extreme invasion of privacy to these young women.”
“It's far from a game,” Oakland-based DUI attorney Francisco Rodriguez told NBC Bay Area. “It's a betrayal of the public's trust.” Even Michael Rains, Harrington’s attorney, agreed that “This behavior is really not defensible,” Rains said. “It is impulsive, immature and inappropriate in every sense of the word.”
Cop resigns, faces more than 3 years in jail
Harrington immediately turned his badge over after the news broke out and said he was willing to face what was coming to him. The naughty cop is looking at more than three years in jail for his childish actions.
Attorney Rick Madsen, who represents one of the victims, said, “It's going to lead to another level of mistrust and skepticism to the motive of law enforcement in general.”
As noted above, iCloud has been responsible with uncovering many such felonies, including device thefts. Many people are still unaware how cloud-centric the iPhone is. While some advocate that the cloud is one of the biggest threats to our privacy, it’s cases like these that prove it can be quite beneficial.
In related news, last week it was revealed that a person who is detained by the police cannot be forced to hand over their iDevice’s passcode, though law enforcement can require them to unlock the device with their fingerprint (provided that it is Touch ID-enabled).