Nepal, Oct. 8 -- Of late, the police have increasingly been eyeing the mobile phones of people they arrest. Whether in the case of former chief justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana, where the authorities are yet to provide a clear explanation for his arrest, or in cases involving people arrested on other serious charges, their particular interest in phones has not gone unnoticed. If the claims of businessman and political activist Durga Prasai are anything to go by, police seized 20 to 25 mobile phones belonging to him, his wife and his assistants in one such arrest.

Phones are not merely devices used to talk or take photographs. They are personal record books containing vast amounts of information about individuals' lives. Accessing them mea...