our fingerprint is not protected
under the 5th amendment, so police in the US can force you
to unlock a phone with a fingerprint, but not a password -
from 2014, those tiny skin ridges we all share were at the
heart of a Virginia court case last week in which a judge
ruled that police, who suspected there was incriminating
evidence on a suspect’s smartphone, could legally force the
man to unlock his device with its fingerprint scanner. While
the Fifth Amendment protects defendants from revealing their
numeric passcodes, which would be considered a
self-incriminating testimonial, biometrics like fingerprint
scans fall outside the law’s scope.
“If you are being forced to divulge something that you know,
that’s not okay,” said Marcia Hofmann, an attorney and
special counsel to digital rights group Electronic Frontier
Foundation. “If the government is able through other means
to collect evidence that just exists, then they certainly
can do that without stepping on the toes of the
constitutional protection.” “The important thing is,”
Hofmann said, “is it something you know, or something you
have?”
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