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VERIFY: Can Police Force You To Unlock Your Phone With Fingerprint?

QUESTION:

QUESTION:

Can police force you to unlock your phone with your fingerprint but not a password?

ANSWER:

We can verify this is true.

SOURCES:

Mark Rasch, Secure It Experts.--Former Head of Justice Department's Cybercrime Unit---Rasch Technology & Cyberlaw

RESOURCES:

Riley v Calif case

Hubbell case

Security Current

Computerworld

PROCESS:

This question was sent to us by Rick TownShend from Alexandria, Va. The question stems from a meme that says "Your fingerprint is not protected under the Fifth Amendment, so police can force you to unlock a phone with a fingerprint but not a password."

Mark Rasch with Secure IT Experts verified the meme is correct. However, he also gave us more helpful information.

Where it says here police can force you to unlock a phone, the Supreme Court says they have to get a warrant to do so.

The police cannot force you to unlock your phone without one, however, this is still a relatively untested area of Fifth Amendment law, meaning a future case could change the rules.

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