Along with EFF-Austin, the Texas Civil Rights Project and the ACLU of Texas, EFF urged the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to rule that a person has an expectation of privacy in the contents of their cell phone even when the phone is out of their control or custody.

Hours after police arrested and jailed Granville on a misdemeanor charge, another police officer retrieved Granville's phone from the property room and, without a warrant, searched the phone to look for evidence about a different, unrelated criminal case. The government argued that while the phone was in the control of the police, Granville had no privacy interest in the contents of the phone.

But the Texas high court, recognizing the breadth of information stored on a cell phone, agreed with us, finding that Granville did not surrender his privacy rights on the phone simply because the police had control of the phone while he was locked up.