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The Minns’ NSW Government has introduced legislation into parliament that would expand the ability of police to compel access to and extract data from citizens’ mobile phones, extending powers currently available only during warranted operations to routine police activities including roadside stops and arrests.
The proposed laws would allow officers to use forensic extraction technology developed by Israeli digital intelligence firm, Cellebrite, to download the entire contents of a phone – including deleted messages, encrypted communications, location history, corporate intellectual property, health data, passwords and biometric information – without the need for a warrant. Such a level data exfiltration would ordinarily be considered a breach, meaning any business with employees operating in NSW needs to take heed – especially as the legislation offers no standards or oversight regarding captured data.
The bill also enables police to access unredacted images from toll road cameras, adds NSW driver licence photographs to the national facial recognition database and doubles penalties for refusing to answer NSW Crime Commission questions to 10 years in prison.
Additional resources:
Michael West Media
Sydney Criminal Lawyers
A deep dive into Cellebrite
Ministerial Release
Expanding the digital evidence access order regime
The legislation builds on the digital evidence access order (DEAO) regime established by the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Amendment (Digital Evidence Access Orders) Act 2022, which commenced on 1 February 2023.
Under the existing framework, police can apply for a DEAO when executing search warrants or crime scene warrants. If the subject of the order refuses to comply, they face up to five years in prison, with the provision expressly overriding the common law right against self-incrimination.
The proposed bill extends this power to situations where a device has been lawfully seized during arrests, roadside stops and other lawful detentions – circumstances that do not require a warrant. It also increases the maximum penalty for non-compliance from five to seven years.
The government has described the bill as covering prescribed serious offences linked to organised crime, including drug supply, the illicit tobacco trade, fire-bombings and public place shootings.
NSW Greens MLC and Justice Spokesperson, Sue Higginson, a lawyer, warned that while the legislation is framed as targeting organised crime, the powers will apply broadly.
“These changes are a matter of concern for every single person that lives in NSW, while couched as targeting organised crime, they will apply to everyone,” Higginson told parliament.
“Most people in NSW would be alarmed to know that the NSW police, using data from an Israeli corporation, can access any message they have ever sent, any photo they have ever taken, their location at any moment, everything they have ever searched and biometric data about who they are.”
How the extraction technology works
When police obtain a DEAO, officers do not manually browse through a phone’s contents. Instead, they connect the device to a Cellebrite Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED), which downloads the phone’s entire contents in one operation.
Higginson explained that the UFED extraction captures messages from encrypted applications such as WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram, along with search history, health data, call logs, contacts and metadata. The technology is capable of recovering deleted messages and images, effectively providing a complete digital history of the phone’s owner.
The new legislation would allow police to compel a suspect to provide access information such as a PIN or face scan. Failure to comply or providing false information would carry prison time.
The government has pointed to “fast-moving organised crime investigations where delays can risk loss, encryption or remote wiping of data” as the justification.
A summary offence under section 76AG of the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002 (NSW) provides that police officers who supply false information in order to obtain a DEAO face up to two years in prison and a fine of $11,000.
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Scale of existing Cellebrite use in NSW
Freedom of Information documents published on the NSW Police Force website reveal that 160 Cellebrite kits have been deployed across NSW police locations as of 30 June 2025. In financial year 2022-23, 13,897 phones were scanned. That figure dropped to 7,765 in FY2023-24 before rising again to 9,132 in FY2024-25.
Criminal Defence Lawyer, Nick Hanna, has suggested that NSW police officers take the approach that any mobile device they can gain access to warrants a Cellebrite scan.
Higginson noted that Hanna reported a NSW police officer testified during cross-examination that she downloads approximately 20 mobile devices a week.
“It can be assumed that police across the 400 police stations in NSW are using Israeli surveillance technology to download tens of thousands of phones every single year,” Higginson cautioned, adding that it is likely not only suspects’ phones being scanned but also devices belonging to victims.
Government positions legislation as organised crime response
The NSW Government has positioned the legislation as a targeted response to evolving criminal networks.
Premier, Chris Minns, argued that criminal syndicates are exploiting encrypted technology, the dark web and intermediaries to distance themselves from the violence they commission.
“Often, the people directing serious offences are nowhere near the crime scene. They’re recruiting others to steal cars, source weapons or carry out shootings while they hide in the background. We are making it harder for those criminals to operate,” Minns remarked.
“We’re giving police stronger powers to access critical evidence stored on encrypted devices that have been lawfully seized, ensuring technology can’t be used to shield organised criminals from justice.”
Minister for Police and Counter-Terrorism, Yasmin Catley, contended that the evolving operating model of organised crime requires updated powers.
“Criminals are increasingly facilitating and coordinating their crimes online, thinking they can distance themselves from the law,” Catley stated. “The NSW Government is giving police every tool to come after them hard.”
Attorney General, Michael Daley, stressed that the measures are designed to keep pace with shifting criminal tactics.
“These are measures that will give investigators strong and effective powers to combat the threats posed by new technologies that can be exploited by criminals,” Daley outlined. “If you try to block the Crime Commission’s work in disrupting and reducing organised crime, you will face significant penalties.”
Toll camera access and facial recognition
The bill would also enable police investigating suspected serious indictable offences or responding to missing person cases to access unredacted images captured by toll cameras on public toll roads. If passed, the government plans a staged implementation beginning with cameras on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Harbour Tunnel.
Minister for Roads, Jenny Aitchison, argued the toll road network generates information of value to police.
“These changes will give investigators access to another important source of evidence when examining serious crimes, strengthening their ability to identify offenders, progress investigations and help keep the people of NSW safe,” Aitchison noted.
Separately, the legislation would enable NSW to participate in the Commonwealth’s national Face Matching Services by allowing Transport for NSW to share driver licence and photo card images through the National Driver Licence Facial Recognition Solution. NSW would join Western Australia and South Australia, which are already connected to the system.
The government has framed the facial recognition component as a measure to prevent stolen identity documents from being used for organised crime purposes.
Higginson took a different view, warning that the database creates serious risks.
“The face of every single person with a licence in NSW will be up for sale to the highest bidder on the dark web if these laws pass,” Higginson argued.
Data retention concerns
One of the central criticisms of the expanded DEAO regime concerns what happens to the data after it is extracted.
Higginson stressed that there is no published policy governing how extracted data is stored, shared or destroyed. Data obtained through Cellebrite scans is retained indefinitely, with no requirement to destroy it once a matter has been finalised.
She pointed to the Brittany Higgins criminal investigation as an example of the consequences. Material downloaded during that case was maintained by police and later surfaced in defamation proceedings.
“They are part of the continuing trend towards personal privacy being diminished in favour of extensive and opaque police powers and a State that will soon have the right to permanently store your entire digital history as a result of relatively minor infringements,” Higginson warned.
There are also no reporting requirements for any government agency on their use of Cellebrite technology, and no known policies or guidelines governing how downloaded data is used or shared.
Cellebrite’s footprint across Australian government
Cellebrite, currently valued at approximately $US4 billion, is one of several technology surveillance companies to emerge from the Israeli Defence Force’s signals intelligence unit, alongside firms such as Paragon Solutions, Cognate and Verint.
The company has won Australian government contracts worth tens of millions of dollars since 2017 for its UFED hardware and software. Federally, Cellebrite has won at least 178 tenders across 28 contracts totalling $8 million, according to AusTender. Victoria Police have signed two consecutive contracts with Cellebrite covering 2017 to 2027 with a combined value of $19 million.
State and territory police forces in Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, the ACT and the Northern Territory all use Cellebrite products. At the federal level, the technology is employed by the Department of Defence, the Australian Taxation Office, the Australian Federal Police, ASIO, the Border Security Force, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and Services Australia, among others.
Tracking the full extent of Cellebrite contracts is difficult. A number of states including NSW, Western Australia and South Australia have classified police technology contracts as confidential. The company also uses a range of local resellers, including Faxtech.
In response to questions on notice by Higginson, answered in March, Minister for Police and Counter-Terrorism, Yasmin Catley, maintained that “the NSW Police Force does not, nor has it ever, engaged Cellebrite to facilitate digital surveillance.”
However, the same response acknowledged that the NSWPF utilises Cellebrite, that contracts are commercial-in-confidence and that expenditure on Cellebrite products cannot be disclosed for the same reason.
Human rights record
Cellebrite has sold products to governments with records of human rights abuses, including China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Russia, Belarus, Serbia, Nigeria, Botswana, Uganda and Venezuela.
US Member of Congress, Malinowski, noted in 2021 that “Cellebrite has been at the centre of numerous accusations and reports on its connections to human rights abuses including the torture of a dissident in Bahrain.”
A November 2025 paper by academics at Deakin University and Canada’s Ontario University found that Cellebrite’s devices have been linked to a military crackdown in Myanmar resulting in the deaths of more than 750 people. The technology was also central to the 2018 trial of two Reuters reporters who uncovered evidence of a Rohingya massacre the year before.
Higginson highlighted that Cellebrite is involved in Israel’s military operations and that most of its employees come from the Israeli intelligence agency, Unit 8200. The company’s technology is used across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
A pattern of expanding police powers
The proposed legislation follows a pattern under the Minns government of expanding law enforcement powers and tightening criminal penalties.
In April 2024, the government created a stricter bail test for 14 to 17-year-olds. In November 2025, it made it easier for prosecutors to challenge the presumption that children aged 10 to 13 lack criminal capacity. In February this year, councils were given power to cut water and electricity to unlawful places of worship. In June, organised crime laws lifted the maximum penalty for recruiting a child into crime and extended asset forfeiture from one year to five.
“Barely a week has gone by since Labor’s Chris Minns came to power where we haven’t had some knee-jerk law and order measures introduced that have punished the community, bolstered the Police Force and secured the Premier more personal power,” Higginson observed.
The legislation includes a $127 million investment in the 2026-27 NSW Budget, comprising $109 million for ICT infrastructure and cybersecurity enhancements and $17 million for the NSW Crime Commission.
Whether the opposition would block the bill appears unlikely. The Coalition, under Leader, Kelly Sloane, has traditionally supported law-and-order measures.
Last Updated on August 11, 2026 by Nick Ross
