Ben Grubb, a journalist in Australia, was arrested after writing a story about a security expert's demonstration of vulnerabilities on social media sites including Facebook. Two police officers showed up at his office, and interrogated him.
The officers were polite and there was even an amusing interlude when the female officer's iPhone rang, disrupting her recording of our conversations, and I gave Coultis some advice about how to set the iPhone to avoid further interruptions.
They seemed to treat me like a technical expert, and sought my explanation of what Heinrich had done. I felt like they were trying to get me to admit that his actions were illegal. I told them it was not my job to decide that - after all, I was only reporting on the matter. It's their job to decide whether what he demonstrated was against the law.
About half an hour into the questioning, Coultis left the room to liaise briefly with other officers. When he returned, he said: 'What we're going to have to do, I'm afraid, Ben, is we're going to be taking possession of your iPad.'
Rule number one, by the way, should this ever happen to you? Don't talk, other than to your lawyer.
Grubb's story: privacy, news and the strong arm of the law (Ben Grubb, in The Age)
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