Court Rules Police May Force You to Unlock Your Phone with Your Fingerprint
Bad news for criminals with a hankering to be on the cutting edge of personal tech security measures.
A Circuit Court judge in Virginia ruled last week that criminal defendants do not have the right to withhold fingerprints for the unlocking of electronic devices during information gathering in cases, according to a report by The Virginian-Pilot.
The judge ruled that the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states that no person should be compelled to act as “a witness against himself,” does not fingerprint passwords of the type used on Apple’s Touch ID system, which is built into its new iPhones and iPads.
If you’re a criminal, then, better to forgo Touch ID and stick with the four-digit passcode system, which the court said police could not force criminal defendants to reveal.
The prosecution in Virginia’s possibly precedent-setting case claimed that footage of the defendant allegedly attacking his wife was stored on the defendant’s locked phone. The Virginian-Pilot report said “prosecutors are having a detective look into” whether the defendant’s phone is secured with a fingerprint, since the judge in the case has ruled fingerprint collection “akin to providing a DNA or handwriting sample or an actual key, which the law permits.”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital-oriented civil liberties organization, maintains that a judge or grand jury’s ability to legally obtain passwords from a defendant is not impossible (and it may still be needed in the case of the Virginia defendant’s phone if it’s doubly secured with, say, a PIN and Touch ID), but that process remains “legally complicated.” This means the Circuit Court judge’s position, if it’s not struck down by a higher court, could streamline the typical process involved in gaining access to secured smartphones, tablets, or PCs, assuming they are able to be unlocked with fingerprints sensors.
An article posted to The Wall Street Journal last year took a preemptive look at the potential shedding of Fifth Amendment protection for devices locked with Apple’s then-new Touch ID system. The piece quoted experts warning that a password that is not “in your mind” and that can simply be collected without warrant, as the Supreme Court says fingerprints can be, cannot be seen as “testimony” against oneself.
And so, if we are now in fact seeing the beginnings of last year’s warnings becoming reality, we ask: Will you still be using Touch ID on your iPhone?
We’re sure you have nothing to hide, of course.
Have questions, comments, or just want to tell me something funny? Email me at danbean@yahoo-inc.com.
