[USA] Appeals court rules that cops can physically make you unlock your phone

AlternativeeEmergency PIN for deleting the Phone

This isn't new. This can also be compelled by the courts. If you want your phone secure, don't have one. If you want it to be expensive to open, use a long passcode, do NOT use fingerprint or face unlock.

What a terrible decision. That's like saying if you have a house key they can search your house.

That's why passwords are safer in this situation. Cops can't compel you to reveal it.

Truecrypt had a false volume for this very purpose.

You have one password to unlock your drive, and one password to fake unlock your drive and instead unlock a volume that looks like your drive, where you store stuff that looks important but isn't your real secret.

iPhone users:

• DO NOT USE FINGERPRINT unless you absolutely have to for, say, disability reasons.

• if you use facial recognition, don’t. Same as above.

• If you find yourselves in a situation with the police, tap the lock button 5 times. This forces a passcode to open the phone and they cannot (yet) force you to enter a passcode.

Anytime I am filming a protest or anywhere near police, I just tap the lock button a bunch of times in my pocket and I can rest easy.

OP can you put the country in the title? Like [US] for example

Luckily GrapheneOS has a duress passowrd feature. Very useful for these situatuons!

Wasn't there a court ruling that forcing someone to unlock their phone was unconstitutional? The fourth amendment seems to indicate a warrent at least is required to search someone's papers, in the modern era that should apply to phones, obviously the constitution is meaningless if they want to do whatever but still.

Edit: in Riley v. California (2014) the Supreme Court unanimously decided that warrentless search of a cellphone during an arrest was unconstitutional.

Laughs in Galaxy S8 where the fingerprint scanner only works if all planets are properly aligned which happens only once in 28 years.

This has been the law for a while, it's just that more Circuits are aligning. Don't use biometrics if you don't want LEO to be able to access your phone. A password is covered by 5A in some circuits and in others it's likely sufficient to just refuse or claim faulty memory due to the stress of the situation. Regardless of the location, the contents of the device are covered by 4A and you may succeed in getting a lot of whatever is found thrown out -- classic you can beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride.

And this is why you never, ever, EVER enable biometrics. EVER. Make a damn password or at least a very long PIN and enter that shit every time.

The 9th circuit court judges really have no fucking clue about technology do they

Worth noting, with the caveat that how criminals are treated could eventually become how everyone is treated on the right slippery slope:

provisions of his parole required him to surrender any electronic devices and passcodes

I've said it before that I'll say it again: Biometrics are a convenience to allow you or anyone else to unlock your phone quickly. Biometrics are NOT security.

DO NOT use biometrics to secure your phone unless you want anyone who has you and your phone to be able to unlock your phone without your permission.

PSA FOR IPHONE:

if you press volume up, then volume down, then hold the power button until the power slider comes on, then it will disable biometrics until next unlock

Biometrics are not secret and should not be used in place of passwords. They are identity like a user name. It's the same problem with orgs trying to use ssn as a security challenge, with all the beaches pretty much everyone's is already public knowledge.

This is why you ALWAYS use a pw/pin.

face based and fingerprint based unlocking schemes is a bad idea.

if you dead someone can still unlock your phone with your corpse

I wish there was a way to require both biometrics and PIN. They're both insecure on their own, but together they're better. Like instant MFA for your unlock. I would enable that immediately, if it was available.

Edit: then a password / passphrase in case one of the other two stops working (as an emergency unlock).

Do not use thumbprint Do not use facial recognition

No matter how desperate companies want you to.... Apple , looking at you

Just use a passcode. Passwords can't be forced from you by police. Judges are a different thing.

iOS users can press and hold the power and volume up button until the emergency call screen appears, then release. You now have to enter your PIN / Password to unlock again and not use TouchID / FaceID. Good luck trying to get me to tell you the code.

Doesn't it boil down to like what you know is safe, what you are can be used?

Like they can't make you give passwords, but biometrics are vulnerable.

What an outrageously evil and dystopian ruling.

This is Graphene OS had a distress code you can enter that will wipe the phone.

I think this would be different for someone not on parole. So like if you're just speeding and get pulled over I believe they would be violating the law/Constitution if they forced your thumb against your phone.

But they probably do it anyway so good idea to follow the lock down above in this thread.

(Also don't use electronics to do crimes y'all.)

“Hey siri, whose phone is this?”

I mean they can try.

Just enter the wrong password a few times

Interesting to see this one pop up again.

Steve Lehto did a good overview of this from a legal perspective

Especially the warrant argument. Dude was on parole, warrant would be an easy get instead of just being lazy.

I forgot my passcode.

What then?

Jokes on them, my biometrics don't work most of the time and I have to enter my pin anyway.

Maybe make that tapping your finger on scanner will actually wipe device?

I can't find a lockdown mode in MIUI.

One way to enforce the PIN unlock in MIUI if you have it with fingerprint unlock is to tap the fingerprint scanner five times with the wrong finger and it will ask for the PIN. After entering the PIN the fingerprint will work again.

can you set your phone to log into a different..desktop, for lack of a better term, if biometrics are used? while your main is hidden behind a passcode?

Per the article, I wonder if they have to "mash" the thumb, or if they can simply press it? 🙄

On iOS: “hey Siri, who’s phone is this?”

Siri talks

Password required to access device. Biometric doesn’t work. You don’t even have to be holding the phone.