Court Forces Fingerprint Phone Unlock

[John]

On July 26, 2016 3:08:25 AM EDT, grarpamp <grarpamp at gmail.com> wrote:
>http://9to5mac.com/2016/07/25/touch-id-fingerprint-fbi-law/
>http://9to5mac.com/2016/05/02/federal-court-touch-id-fingerprint/
>http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/05/feds-say-suspect-should-rot-in-prison-for-refusing-to-decrypt-drives/
>https://apple.slashdot.org/story/16/07/25/1559208/suspect-required-to-unlock-iphone-using-touch-id-in-second-federal-case
>
> A second federal judge has ruled that a suspect can be compelled to
>unlock their iPhone using their fingerprint in order to give
>investigators access to data which can be used as evidence against
>them. The first time this ever happened in a federal case was back in
>May, following a District Court ruling in 2014. The legal position of
>forcing suspects to use their fingerprints to unlock devices won't be
>known with certainty until a case reaches the U.S. Supreme Court, but
>lower court rulings so far appear to establish a precedent which is at
>odds with that concerning passcodes. Most constitutional experts
>appear to believe that the Fifth Amendment prevents a suspect from
>being compelled to reveal a password or passcode, as this would amount
>to forced self-incrimination -- though even this isn't certain.
>Fingerprints, in contrast, have traditionally been viewed as 'real or
>physical evidence,' meaning that police are entitled to take them
>without permission.

Use a long PIN for your encrypted phone. I've abided by this, despite the extreme convenience of the fingerprint scanner,  since I first read about the 2014 case you referenced..

John
-- 
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.