When you look at your BlackBerry, you see a gadget full of important email, contacts and other files. Increasingly, authorities see admissible evidence.

In a small but growing number of cases, customs officials and police officers have been carrying out warrantless searches of the contents of laptops, mobile phones and other wireless devices. This spring, the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in California ruled that “reasonable suspicion is not needed for customs officials to search a laptop or other personal electronic storage devices at the border,” including international airports.

And in a handful of instances, courts have supported local police interpretations of legal searches to include browsing through phone call lists and text messages on cellphones when they arrest suspects.

Adam Gershowitz, a professor at the South Texas College of Law, argues law enforcement officials are flirting with a dangerous invasion of privacy under the “search incident to arrest” doctrine, which allows officers to search “containers” on the person of or within the reach of suspects without probable cause.

The rest of the article can be found at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122532444653782321.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

Though now I’m hungry for waffles…