Further to a widely circulated video on social media of a mobile phone being confiscated from a lady who claimed to be a journalist, The Morning spoke to Police Spokesperson SSP Nihal Thalduwa who clarified that under certain circumstances, the Police does have authority to confiscate a mobile phone. "The police does not go and take random peoples mobile phones. There was surely a reason as to why the mobile phone was confiscated. Generally a court order is not required if a valid reason is there for the phone to be confiscated or tapped. For example, a court order is not needed for investigations related to terrorism." said Thalduwa. When further inquired about the protection of data on mobile devices and the breach of security and privacy it poses, Thalduwa went on to state that there is a difference between 'data extraction' and 'data retrieval', clarifying once again that to retrieve information such as call records of a particular number from a service provider, a court order is not needed. Whereas, Thalduwa rectified that for data to be extracted from a mobile phone, which includes phone call conversations, images and videos, a court order can be applied for by the police for investigations. Additionally, Thalduwa stated that getting a court order for menial issues might seem tedious, thus only major issues require a court order.