This was coming. an Appeals court ruled that forcing an arrestee to place his finger on a phone to unlock it is no different that compelling a paper fingerprint record or a DNA sample.
Once again, this is what your physical characteristics are not WHAT YOU KNOW, thus not subject to Fifth Amendment protections.
So the moral of our story. Don’t use biometrics in securing any digital devices if you have data on them that may be misunderstood or used against you in court. Fingerprints or even facial recognition. A longer than 4 digit pin would be best. They can be hacked but take time and a lot of money, even then may not be admissible in court.
If you are using powerful encryption programs to secure your data, then use the appropriately strong passphrase to protect it. Ideally one that equals the entropy of the symmetric algorithm used for that encryption. That way, rainbow tables will take the years of guessing that brute forcing the key will take.
My fave description of a passphrase generator-
http://world.std.com/~reinhold/diceware.html
An overview of current court rulings as to opening or decrypting digital devices and data.
Ridge
So much for the 4th and 5th Amendments. Weren’t we forewarned that our rights would be trampled on by tech?
Stasi-World but without all that personnel required to watch our every move and listen to our every word.
True. It amazes me how willingly the young’uns give up their privacy via devices. Also too, the fourth and fifth amendments kinda got torpedoed during Bush the younger didn’t they?
Yes, but for the most part, those cases were labeled as terrorist related. Ordinary Americans were okay with that because they aren’t terrorists and don’t understand the Bill of Rights or why they even exist. So, they aren’t able to comprehend what a slippery slope on legal rights means.
This was done pursuant to a search warrant.
The issue isn’t whether you need to get a search warrant to look at someone’s phone, it is whether once one is obtained whether you can be forced to unlock the phone.
If the defendant in this case had refuse to unlock their phone, they could be jailed on the grounds of contempt of court.
That’s correct. It can be assumed that forcing an unlock through fingerprint is an extension of normal physical custody procedures.
However, demanding to unlock through intellectual activity is questionable. That strays into self incrimination. As was listed in one of the above links, the case law has become unclear. Some circuits have upheld resisting unlocking phones or encrypted data, others have held defendants in contempt. Before things like the “Patriot” Act and the atmosphere surrounding it, declining to provide passphrases to decrypt data was semi-accepted as a protected right.
R
Yes, the “War on Drugs” and the “War on Terror” have compromised the advances in personal protections and liberties. But over reliance on digital devices and cloud storage has been just as destructive.
Just today, a co-worker was whining because the battery of her iPhone had died and locked up her phone. “do you know how much of my life is on this thing?”
Why is that?
Don’t trust any such device or mega-corporations and their convienetient services with your personal data, or at least as little as possible. A paper file box in the trunk of your car is harder to get at than your iTunes phone back up or you Galaxy 5 with the dozens of exploits Android has had. If you travel extensively with either a tablet or laptop, investigate virtual disk encryption for your sensitive data; or encrypt a USB key/SD card with the data. Plenty of free and powerful programs out there.
Just don’t cross international borders with them. Canadians and Brits may force you to open it before letting you enter. If they take it away for “inspection”, throw it away when you get it back. It will be so loaded with bugs that Orkin could’nt spray enough insecticide to clean it up.
If you do use 3rd party server storage (iTunes, Google, MS, etc…), encrypt with your OWN local program before sending it up to the cloud. Don’t rely on the protections of Dropbox or other services. They can be motivated by greed or court orders to open them.
not to rant, but why should the “watchers” bother doing black bag jobs or court orders to examine your personal records when many just hand them to large corporations to store or pass through their properties on a silver platter?
When burglers use their iPhones to case out joints or record their exploits, Jeeeeze, how stupid can you be? Just shows how deeply these things have been embedded into our lives…if you let them. And how central they are when someone is trying to get at data or track your movements.
(which is the reason why mega millionaires or corprate big wigs still use flip phones).
R
The “watchers” probably haven’t been doing black bag jobs for a decade. They still need to get those warrants if they intend to use the information in a legal action and hide/erase their sneak and peaks to get the warrant.
The concepts of privacy and personal have been/are being eroded so quickly in favor of cool exhibitionism that soon enough those under the age of sixty will have no lived memory that they once existed. Therefore, they won’t miss them when they’re completely gone.
Physical Intervention is still necessary at times, just doesn’t follow the same methods as when J. Edgar was in the building.
It can go from having FedEx/UPS drop off hardware shipments for modification before repackaging and sending on its way to the new cleaning person plugging a USB key into an workstation at night. Not all are done under FISA court rulings. Sometimes quicker to get a local judge and use off the shelf tools than waiting for interagency committees in DC to act. That’s not to mention local LEA and commercial espionage. Much easier now that all the hacking tools are out there for use.
Its just that local LEAs have been concentrating on personal digital devices as that are where most evidence of criminal behavior more likely resides. And they are the ones who are more likely to impinge on Constitutional Rights.
R
The following is definitely not helpful to cut into the GOP dominance in WV.
Roane County 2016 primary result:
UPDATE: Roane County Sheriff resigns from office, pleads guilty to entering evidence locker
North of Charleston so not that familiar with it but not surprised. Cops stealing drugs out of property rooms has been happening for years all around the country. Unfortunately, this caught up with him. Small towns hiring police is a problem. Can’t pay them much. They are supposed to go through the State Police Academy training for local police. If they pass, there is a demand for local police and Sheriff’s dept. officers and they tend to float around; if they aren’t canned for abusing prisoners or get involved in drugs.
R
This is refreshing: WV Gazette Water lab manager gets 2 years for faking reports
This is what should happen to those responsible for the contaminated water that was inflicted on the residents of Detroit.
That is the same Fed Court in Beckley that sentenced Don Blankenship to 1 yr for Upper Big Branch. At least they go this one right.
Having grown up in the coal fields yrs ago, the streams and rivers were extremely polluted, almost running black. Add to that the sight of burning slate dumps which put clouds of stinking smoke over the valleys. Then came the Nixon Clean Air and Clean Water Acts.
The slate dumps were covered over. The first attempts at regulating mine waste water were made. Of course the operators cried big tears saying you can’t mine coal like that and everyone would go bust. That was 1972. They say the same thing with every new report or regulation.
But, the fact is that the streams and rivers are now very clean (or cleanish). A great deal of wildlife have returned or take advantage of the wet lands. They are stocked by the state. I never thought I would see fly fishermen in them. Heavy metals are still in the run off, but at a much lesser extent.
But all that is monitored and enforced by water quality analysis. There are a gaggle of Fed and state agencies that issue permits, and water monitoring is part of the permit agreements. If the contracted Labs are submitting faked reports, then that’s trouble.
How much will that be weakened by new Admin? Unknown. It will take a period for new direction to filter down. And you can be sure, there are organizations, well funded, ready to step into Fed Court the first time they try to gut the pollution regulations.
R