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Feds Can't Force You To Unlock Your iPhone With Finger Or Face, Judge Rules (forbes.com)
A California judge has ruled that American cops can't force people to unlock a mobile phone with their face or finger. The ruling goes further to protect people's private lives from government searches than any before and is being hailed as a potentially landmark decision. From a report: Previously, U.S. judges had ruled that police were allowed to force unlock devices like Apple's iPhone with biometrics, such as fingerprints, faces or irises. That was despite the fact feds weren't permitted to force a suspect to divulge a passcode. But according to a ruling uncovered by Forbes, all logins are equal. The order came from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in the denial of a search warrant for an unspecified property in Oakland. The warrant was filed as part of an investigation into a Facebook extortion crime, in which a victim was asked to pay up or have an "embarassing" video of them publicly released. The cops had some suspects in mind and wanted to raid their property. In doing so, the feds also wanted to open up any phone on the premises via facial recognition, a fingerprint or an iris.
If the police put you under surveillance, it's likely they will see you unlock your phone at least a few times.
If they can catch you doing it from different angles, they can probably figure out what the passcode is.
Once they do that, execute the warrant, seize the phone, unlock the phone, then declare victory.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Cops will just lie. Best case they force you to unlock it, find out what you're doing, then get at that from some other angle, such as an "anonymous tip". Parallel construction.
If you're not lucky, they'll beat you and force you to unlock it, then it's your word against 3 seasoned cops saying you unlocked the device voluntarily then reached for one of the cops's gun.
True security requires two of the following..
1. Something that I am (biometrics)
2. Something that I know (password)
3. Something that I have (A physical login token)
You can do three and be a bit more secure if you like.
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