Posted on 10/19/2016 12:29:32 AM PDT by Swordmaker
In whats believed to be an unprecedented attempt to bypass the security of Apple iPhones, or any smartphone that uses fingerprints to unlock, Californias top cops asked to enter a residence and force anyone inside to use their biometric information to open their mobile devices.
FORBES found a court filing, dated May 9 2016, in which the Department of Justice sought to search a Lancaster, California, property. But there was a more remarkable aspect of the search, as pointed out in the memorandum: authorization to depress the fingerprints and thumbprints of every person who is located at the SUBJECT PREMISES during the execution of the search and who is reasonably believed by law enforcement to be the user of a fingerprint sensor-enabled device that is located at the SUBJECT PREMISES and falls within the scope of the warrant. The warrant was not available to the public, nor were other documents related to the case.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
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Passwords are protected speech - keys in any form, even if they are part of your body, are simply keys as far as the courts are concerned.
Or to put it another way... Biometric locks protect you from people, passwords protect you from governments.
Yep ... you can use BOTH biometrics AND password/PIN for max protection.
I can be bribed to allow someone to look through my phone.
just like passwords, Apple should have the ability to specify a ‘duress’ finger and a ‘normal’ finger.
if the user uses their ‘duress’ finger, the phone would back everything to the user’s account and wipe the local data... leaving the phone locked but empty.
of course, the user should also be able to setup their account such that all contents would be encrypted (encrypted tar gzip), if the ‘duress’ finger were used.
the contents would be safe but only retrievable by the owner
Odungo’s storm troopers
Duress finger is a good idea.
In a previous FR post on this subject, I read that you can be legally forced to provide a fingerprint but not be forced to provide a password.
Not without my lawyer present.
I’m sorry that I cannot comply with your request, as I have lost my phone in a boating accident.
Under hillary, such things will become a commonplace.
But was it intentional.
Open the phone, then tell Siri, “Wipe it, like with a cloth”.
Power off your phone. You have to enter the passcode to enable Touch ID after a power on.
>>Power off your phone. You have to enter the passcode to enable Touch ID after a power on.
Another reason for 2am no-knock entries: to prevent people from turning their phones off.
Just disable Touch ID for unlocking the phone. Inconvenient yes, better for privacy also yes.
iPhones are already encrypted to a 256 bit AES standard. All that would be necessary for your idea to work is that the "duress finger" would require the use of the user's passcode. The courts have ruled those are off limits. The user can also force that by merely restarting the phone also. Takes ten seconds. If the police are demanding to come in with a search warrant of this type, hold down the power and home buttons for ten seconds. Turn the phone back on. The iPhone will require the user's passcode before the fingerprint TouchID will work again. Problem solved.
Yet this unprecedented over-reach began with GW Bush’s watch and the post 9-11 ramp-up in federal powers... including eavesdropping and wiretapping.
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