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52 M a y 2 0 1 4 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m that could ultimately be used in court. As a result, many defence lawyers say it is important not only to challenge the admissibility of electronic information, but to ensure the Crown has taken the necessary steps to prove authenticity of the data, well beyond a printout of what was captured. To do that, lawyers must research the technologies behind smartphones, social media sites, and areas such as cloud comput- ing, suggests Michael Naughton, a defence lawyer with omas & Naughton PC in Detroit. "It is important to have a strong knowledge of the breadth of what is stored," says Naughton, who presented a paper on challenging the authenticity of electronic in- formation on smartphones at a Law Society of Upper Canada fo- rensics conference in Toronto earlier this year. "You need to know the lingo, know the technology," he says. at view is echoed by Ricardo Federico, a Toronto defence lawyer and co-chairman of the conference. "e more I know about electronic evidence, the more I can do for my client," says Federico, who believes retaining an expert in these areas is oen essential. During his presentation, Naughton took out his smartphone to take a picture of those attending his panel and then outlined some of the metadata (data about data), captured by the device. "It showed my orientation, facing southeast," says Naughton. Unless the function is disabled, GPS information about the location of a photo, text message, or tweet posted from a smartphone to a web site is uploaded there as well. e sheer amount of personal infor- mation that might be disclosed inadvertently from a smartphone has resulted in some educational institutions such as Yale Univer- sity to issue public warnings and provide online explanations on how to disable the "geo-tagging" function. Just because information or data is obtained electronically does not necessarily mean its accuracy or reliability should be accepted when presented in court, says Naughton. "e pre- sumption of integrity should not be automatic. e further you are from the original source that created the document, the more problems you have," he says. Where the information is stored may also affect whether its authenticity can be proven in court. If the data is on a cloud service provider, then it is not "forensics friendly" according to a research paper published last fall by two computer sci- entists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Ragib Hasan and Shams Zawoad noted in the traditional seizure of a hard drive from an individual's personal computer, investiga- tors have "full control" over the data. Cloud servers contain files from many users — referred to as "multi-tenant" — and have different rules about how the data is stored, creating chain of custody problems, stated the research paper, which was supported in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Even soware used to collect digital evidence should not always be accepted as reliable, says Sebastian Fischmeister, a lEgal rEport/CRiminAl lAw & foREnSiCS GET TOPICAL AND INSIGHTFUL COVERAGE OF CURRENT ISSUES IN THE LAW OF SENTENCING NEW PUBLICATION LALANDE ON SENTENCING NEWSLETTER JULIEN LALANDE Now there is a quick, reliable way to get insightful coverage of important topics in sentencing law. Written by a criminal lawyer, Lalande on Sentencing Newsletter is designed to give criminal lawyers fast access to the relevant topics and latest developments in sentencing law. Every issue of this biweekly newsletter features an introduction to a key sentencing issue or topic, legislative references and summaries of recent and noteworthy cases – followed by commentary and analyses. PROVIDED IN TWO FORMATS FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE Your subscription to Lalande on Sentencing Newsletter includes a print version – and a PDF version that can be emailed to you upon request. As an added bonus for WestlawNext® Canada subscribers, the PDF version includes links to the full text of the cases referenced within the newsletter. To view or download a complimentary issue online, visit the Carswell Criminal Law Practice Community Page at www.carswell.com/subject/criminal. AVAILABLE RISK-FREE FOR 30 DAYS Call Toll-Free: 1-800-387-5164 In Toronto: 416-609-3800 ORDER # A20214-13-65203 $135 Annual subscription newsletter – print + email PDF 24 issues included in the annual subscription November 2013 978-0-7798-6063-0 Shipping and handling are extra. Price subject to change without notice and subject to applicable taxes.

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