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Feds Walk Into a Building, Demand Everyone's Fingerprints To Open Phones (dailyherald.com)

An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes the Daily Herald: Investigators in Lancaster, California, were granted a search warrant last May with a scope that allowed them to force anyone inside the premises at the time of search to open up their phones via fingerprint recognition, Forbes reported Sunday. The government argued that this did not violate the citizens' Fifth Amendment protection against self incrimination because no actual passcode was handed over to authorities...

"I was frankly a bit shocked," said Andrew Crocker, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, when he learned about the scope of search warrant. "As far as I know, this warrant application was unprecedented"... He also described requiring phones to be unlocked via fingerprint, which does not technically count as handing over a self-incriminating password, as a "clever end-run" around constitutional rights.

2 of 432 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Hold down power button and ... by jez9999 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Stop being so pathetic. I'd vote for Trump proudly.

  2. Re: Hold down power button and ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    No, it is a Republic, recite your pledge. More an oligarchy in practice.