Business LawData Security & Privacy

For Fun: The Unintended Consequences of the ‘GEICO’ Phone App Commercial

Thank god for the world of make-believe.  We know pigs cannot talk or drive cars, but in a poorly imagined metaphor, GEICO, Inc., released a commercial a few weeks back whereby a pig (meant to be us “insureds,” as they are called in the industry) was pulled over for an apparent traffic violation.  The pig downloads his insurance verification documents (a requirement in the State of WA, as well as most other States) through the “GEICO” app on his smartphone.  The pig, very willingly, hands the entire phone over to the citing police officer. 

Obviously, or hopefully,  the legal department at GEICO was not approached by the Technology or Marketing Department at GEICO.  If they were, one would hope they would help those departments understand why such a business venture was not advisable.  By handing over the entire smartphone to the citing police officer, has the pig unintentionally consented to a warrantless search of his smartphone?  This may seem like a benign thought on the part of this Cyber Lawyer (fair enough), but just wait, coming soon to a courthouse near you…Plaintiff gives smartphone to police officer at traffic stop, and winds up in jail on “sexting” charges.  Such salacious facts, makes for fun case law.  Plaintiff will undoubtedly like to thank his/her insurance company for creating such a legal mess.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.