The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has expressed concerns over the legality of the cellphone scanners that Michigan State Police can use to extract personal information from cell phones.

The Michigan State police acknowledge that it has such a high-tech device that can download any cellphone’s entire contents such as text messages, call logs, photos as well as web history, but it claims that the concern were unfounded as it made use of the device either with a warrant or the consent of the cellphone owner.

On the other hand, the ACLU says that it wants to determine whether the use of the device is violating the 4th Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

Responding to the ACLU’s concerns, state police spokeswoman Tiffany Brown said, “The department's internal directive is that the DEDs only be used by MSP specialty teams on criminal cases, such as crimes against children.”

Brown added that the so-called DEDs were not being used to extract anyone's personal data during routine traffic stops.

On Thursday, the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking the police department to reveal how many times they had used the data extraction devices.

In Michigan, any agency receiving a Freedom of Information Act request has to respond within five working days, but it can ask for additional 10 days to fulfil the request.