You may find it more convenient to unlock your phone by pressing your fingerprint on or staring at the phone screen instead of typing out a password. But, some courts have determined that having your phone set to be unlocked via your biometric information will also make it much more convenient for police and prosecutors seeking to gain access to all the private information in your phone.
Jonathan Hofer provides the details in a Thursday Independent Institute article. In a recent decision, writes Hofer, a court concluded that, while phone passwords are protected from forced disclosure because the passwords are “contents of the mind” the disclosure of which would be a testimonial act that may not be forced under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, there is no constitutional prohibition against requiring unlocking of a phone via the use of a body part such as the pressing of a finger on a phone screen.
Read Hofer’s article here.
The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity is a project of Dr. Paul’s Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (F.R.E.E.), founded in the 1970s as an educational organization. The Institute continues and expands Dr. Paul’s lifetime of public advocacy for a peaceful foreign policy and the protection of civil liberties at home. Visit http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org