Another Judge Rules: Police Can't Force You To Unlock Phone With Fingerprint

A number of U.S. judges have disagreed with the common belief that it's acceptable for police to force individuals to unlock their phone with their fingerprint.

And in a recent ruling in Idaho, a federal judge has again ruled the same, that individuals cannot be forced to unlock their phones this way, citing the 5th Amendment of the Constitution, protecting people from incriminating themselves.

It's not just the finger either, but some judges have previously asserted that you cannot be compelled to unlock the phone using your finger, thumb, iris, face, and any other biometric features, citing the same 5th Amendment protection in the past.

“In its recent decisions, the Supreme Court has made clear that digital searches raise serious privacy concerns that did not exist in the age of physical searches—a full forensic search of a cellphone reveals far more than a patdown of a suspect’s pockets during an arrest for example.” - A. Crocker, senior staff attorney at the digital rights nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation

In the Idaho case, the federal magistrate judge wrote,

“In sum, what the Government would characterize as innocuous is instead a potentially self-incriminating testimonial communication because it involves the compelled use of biometrics — unique to the individual — to unlock the phone,... The Fifth Amendment does not permit such a result.”

It might be believed that it's acceptable to force individuals to unlock their phones because it has become so widely prevalent, especially at the border with people having their cellphones taken and being regularly forced to unlock them, but that doesn't make it right. And there are reportedly civil liberties groups who are currently engaged in suing border agencies because of those liberty violations.

Police have previously been given authority to unlock phones using biometric identification, but now that there are more judges that seem to be pushing back against that trend, and lawsuits being launched over it. Down the road it might discourage authority figures from forcing devices open this way and perhaps in the future we might see some drastic changes to the prevalence of this activity.

Pics:
pixabay