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A comment on Police can’t demand you reveal your phone passcode then tell a jury you refused. Parent comment

Re:Police can’t demand you reveal your phone passcode then t... by KronisLV on Saturday October 23, 2021 @01:57AM (#28966117)
> Make sure you always use a password on your devices though. Biometrics are not protected by the 5th Amendment in the USA as the police can legally force your finger onto a touchpad or hold your face in front of a camera.

This seems kind of crazy to me. If passwords being private are okay, why should the powers that be allowed to treat biometrics any differently, at least in the context of unlocking devices? Otherwise, what's to prevent them from intimidating, threatening or torturing you until you give up your passwords as well?

To me, that's just a blatant abuse of power either way and it feels like there should be another amendment to your constitution concerning data privacy.

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Re:Police can’t demand you reveal your phone passcode then t... by kingcharles on Saturday October 23, 2021 @02:03PM (#28970824)
They say the difference is that you have to use your mind to give up your passwords. The 5th Amend. only protects them extracting things from your mind.
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Re:Police can’t demand you reveal your phone passcode then t... by jobigoud on Saturday October 23, 2021 @03:28AM (#28966437)
Using biometrics as password is kind of crazy. Biometrics are login. They say who you are, not some secret you know.
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Re:Police can’t demand you reveal your phone passcode then t... by KronisLV on Saturday October 23, 2021 @04:10AM (#28966607)
And yet it happens, because it's easy.

Is it not the wisest decision ever? Sure.

However, since it's already being done, we might as well create laws around protecting this use case.

For example, from what i know, people in the USA use their SSNs both as identifiers and sometimes as something like a pseudo-password, which seems like a really bad approach, but at the same time should be regarded as the objective and sub-optimal reality, with which we need to cope until a better solution is implemented (if ever).

Saying that the method is bad and shouldn't be considered when it's already in widespread usage is something that we just can't do.

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