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Police can Compel Fingerprint Unlocking of Phones - in Virginia

posted by janrinok on Tuesday November 04 2014, @02:09PM   Printer-friendly
from the slippery-slope-again dept.

J053 writes:

According to The Virginian-Pilot, Judge Steven Frucci ruled that making suspects provide their passwords so police can snoop through their phones is a violation of the Fifth Amendment because it would force suspects to incriminate themselves. But in the same ruling, the presiding judge decided that demanding suspects to provide their fingerprints to unlock a TouchID phone is constitutional because it’s similar to compelling DNA, handwriting or an actual key—all of which the law allows.

Note that this ruling only applies in one Circuit in Virginia, but the logic would seem to apply. So, use passwords/passcodes on your iDevices!

 
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by CRCulver on Tuesday November 04 2014, @05:20PM

    by CRCulver (4390) on Tuesday November 04 2014, @05:20PM (#113005) Homepage

    I don't see how this can pass the 4th ammendment. The very first thing on the list of things to be secure in is "their persons." If they got a warrant, that would be one thing.

    It has been some months now since a Supreme Court ruling that police need a warrant to search cell phones. Please try to keep up. This particular ruling concerns compelling defendents to provide their fingerprints in order to unlock a phone that police have already decided to search on the basis of a warrant.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @07:58PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @07:58PM (#113035)

    Seems ambiguous to me. The police got themselves a warrant to search the phone, they did not get a warrant to force the defendant to unlock it for them.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @10:07PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @10:07PM (#113075)

      Please clarify. Does a warrant compel compliance?
      If the police have a warrant to search your house are you required to give them the keys? How about to your safe?