In Fourth Amendment law, the authority to grant consent to search allows you withdraw that consent, too, at least before the search occurs. But consider this wrinkle. When the government searches a computer, the forensic process has two distinct steps. First, the government makes a perfect copy of the data (known as an "image") and saves in on a government storage device. Second, the government searches the image rather than the original.
So how does withdrawal of consent work now? There are two key questions.
First, if a computer owner grants consent to search, an image is made, and then consent is withdrawn, does the withdrawal of consent extend to the image? That is, does the owner's control include control of the copy on the government's machine? Or does the government necessarily control the image?
