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Re:FBI tells lawmakers it can't access Dayton gunman's phone by CPLX on Saturday August 10, 2019 @07:32AM (#20661482)
They also can’t access his brain. Neither of these situations are ones I feel compelled to fix.
Re:FBI tells lawmakers it can't access Dayton gunman's phone by throwawaywego on Saturday August 10, 2019 @01:21PM (#20663304)
You can't be forced to give your password (self-incrimination), but, depending on the jurisdiction, the police can force your finger on the unlock screen.

The technology is a bit hush-hush, but it is already possible to read brainwaves, and "interrogate" someone through fMRI. Just thinking about your password may reveal it, if they are allowed to force your brain near a reader.

The first serious (public) ventures into this technology was around 2000. Advances in machine learning then made it possible to read objects and concepts that were not in a training set. It was used and tested extensively in Guantanamo Bay. The legal status is still ambiguous, but I guess that it is used just in very special cases (where the detainment itself may be legally ambiguous, such as at a black site).

The Legality of the Use of Psychiatric Neuroimaging in Intelligence Interrogation (2005) https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/906b/8afdd39ecda3a265987a09... [pdf]

Re:FBI tells lawmakers it can't access Dayton gunman's phone by mentos on Saturday August 10, 2019 @10:27AM (#20662230)
I think this is a great analogy and easy for the layman to understand.
Re:FBI tells lawmakers it can't access Dayton gunman's phone by nlh on Saturday August 10, 2019 @11:28AM (#20662576)
I agree. BUT - the response will be: “well even if we wanted to, we don’t have the technology to read his brain. we DO have the technology to read his phone, but you nerds are keeping it from us.”

(Disclaimer: I don’t agree with this position but I have a lot of friends who think the government can do no wrong)

Re:FBI tells lawmakers it can't access Dayton gunman's phone by andrerm on Saturday August 10, 2019 @01:08PM (#20663231)
And if we had the technology to read the brain we would demand to read everyones brain 24/7
Re:FBI tells lawmakers it can't access Dayton gunman's phone by fortran77 on Saturday August 10, 2019 @10:49AM (#20662353)
It's not a perfect analogy. The problem with the "back door" is that these keys will leak. They always do. It's a big danger to have a weakness in all our devices that we know, eventually, Russia, China, or Iran will get their hands on.