This is a creepy story, and a troubling result. Bottom line, the court likened a passcode to a strongbox key. Reasoning, if you can be compelled by a court to turn over a strongbox key, you can be compelled to turn over your passcode.
I feel a tide turning here. This case will likely end up in front of the Supreme Court.
thr Progressive movement thought nothing but their vanity was at stake. Now it’s all out war.
I wonder if setting your iPhone to reset after 10 missed attempts and shutting it down prior to arrest (which would require the 6+ digit PIN on boot) and then claiming you never use the PIN, only the TouchID sensor, so you can’t remember it would work?
I expect this will be overturned. I’m not a lawyer but I have seen this compared in the courts in the past to a combination lock to a safe. You can’t be forced to give it up. The difference seems to be whether it is something physical (a key) or something in your mind (a combination). Privacy protects stuff in your mind, I suspect to ensure that the government does not attempt to get it via torture, but I can be wrong on the legal grounds.
Interesting point. Very similar and possibly justified by the fifth-amendment right not to be forced to incriminate one’s self.
One important thing to note. This is fundamentally different from the encryption-breaking that authorities such as the FBI have wanted to compel manufacturers to create. In that case the “key” would work on and could be applied to a range of devices. In this case it is a device-by-device action that is being requested.
I forgot it.