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Don’t ever hand your phone to the cops. “Handing your phone to a police officer grants law enforcement a lot of power over some of your most intimate personal data.”

Discussion  2 comments

Andrew Lilja

John Gruber has written about this extensively, and he discusses how to hard-lock your iPhone so that a face or fingerprint can't unlock it. You should always do this in any interaction with the police (or anyone else you don't trust), because:

The Fifth Amendment typically protects giving up passcodes as a form of self-incrimination, but logging in with biometrics often isn’t considered protected “testimonial” evidence.

bmike

So many bad articles are not even going to check how Apple implements this.

When presenting a driver’s license [….] Users do not need to unlock, show, or hand over their device to present their ID.

- https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/08/drivers-licenses-and-state-ids-in-apple-wallet-are-coming-soon-to-california/
- https://learn.wallet.apple/id

Yes, don’t hand your phone ever willingly to strangers when unlocked. Yes, learn how to squeeze the buttons to hard-lock your phone. Yes, learn your rights and when not to talk to police and voice “I do not consent to a search.” Digital ID solutions don’t have to be designed to trip people up.

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