Online Evidence

I have been watching a lot of CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) lately and I keep telling myself that it is for a review of my Medical Jurisprudence class so that I would not feel guilty about choosing to watch over reading my cases. Now, I realize that there is another use for my chronic habit of watching these crime shows and that is with regards to the manner of collection of evidence that may be used in a court of law.

Of course, the set-up in CSI is the ideal one which, let’s be honest, is not the kind of set-up that would be easily incorporated in the Philippines. Physically, that is. But what about electronically?

The collection of evidence with regards to the internet is quite simple primarily because most of the information that incriminates is published for the whole world to see (I am thinking that without such publication, no injury would occur). However, the difficult part of the process is attaching such online evidence to a real person, and I say real person because the identity of online users are, more often than not, based on a username.

Now, a lot of factors would come into play against the government trying to find out who the real perpetrator is. First, there must be probable cause to actually get a warrant to find out who this person is. Second, can they actually find that person if he is currently not logged on? Third, the law ensures full protection of human rights to the suspected criminal. Also, the counsel for the suspect, if he is apprehended, would challenge the manner of collection of such evidence.

Despite all these challenges, we must not stop trying to perfect the process of online evidence collection because, in the long run and most likely in the near future, it would be needed not only by the government but more importantly to give the people the security they need in knowing that their rights are protected in all areas of human activity.

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Rivera, Jan Michael A.
02-16779