Police Told to Avoid Looking at iPhone Screens Locked With Face ID

[citysnaps]

Apple has essentially borked biometric authentication by implementing FaceID. Clearly it's pretty much worthless as a trustworthy security feature. So now it's back to entering 7 digit passcodes every damn time. Little did we ever suspect that the constant whining to minimize the bezels would lead to this.
The iPhone is de-evolving.

That might be true if you keep evidence of your criminal activity in your phone, AND, are arrested for a crime, AND, a judge signs a search warrant for law enforcement after being presented with probable cause your phone might contain evidence relating to your crime (assuming you live in the US and not entering the US at a border).

For others, FaceID is a great authentication method that strikes a good balance between security and ease of use.

If, however, you insist on keeping incriminating evidence of crimes you have committed in your phone, it's probably best to disable FaceID and instead use a seven digit passcode.

The good news is that Apple gives you options. Choose the correct option for your particular lifestyle.

 

[gnasher729]

Apple has essentially borked biometric authentication by implementing FaceID. Clearly it's pretty much worthless as a trustworthy security feature. So now it's back to entering 7 digit passcodes every damn time. Little did we ever suspect that the constant whining to minimize the bezels would lead to this.
The iPhone is de-evolving.

Where are you getting this from? There's a security feature that if someone else but you tries to use FaceID, then the feature gets turned off. And police is warned, quite correctly, that by looking at your phone often enough, they could activate this security feature. That's it. Your conclusions are pretty strange.

 

[Weaselboy]

Criminal or not, it's always a good idea to disable Face/Touch ID at border crossings, TSA, & police stoppings, which can be done very quickly by pressing the power button 5 times really fast.

I believe that just starts the SOS call countdown, then if you cancel the SOS call, FaceID will be locked.

 

[826317]

Face ID has only been out a year, less than a year actually.

How often does this really come up? I mean are there that many situations where “bad people” using expensive new iPhones are trying to lock law enforcement out?

All it takes is a cop on a fishing expedition. You get pulled over, he doesn't like you and goes to search the phone.
[doublepost=1539528375][/doublepost]

LOL! Apparently, lots of miscreants populate MacRumors, with an overriding concern about police search and seizure.

There, I fix it:
"MacRumors, News and Rumors that Miscreants Care About" /s

What an absolutely absurd thing to say. Why do you even have a passcode on your phone so? You might not give a **** about privacy, but most of us do.

 

[AngerDanger]

LOL! Apparently, lots of miscreants populate MacRumors, with an overriding concern about police search and seizure.

There, I fix it:
"MacRumors, News and Rumors that Miscreants Care About" /s

I’m having trouble not reading this in Dwight Shrute’s voice.

 

[cmaier]

I disabled all security check on my Iphone. With no passwords, no Face ID, I'm saving so many seconds and if I forget my phone somewhere it can be easily returned to me.
My private data is not worse than average and I have nothing to hide.
With my "unsecured" Iphone 6s, I have a faster reaction time than any 2018 Iphone with Face ID on.

You have nothing to hide? No bank account passwords? No identifying information that can be used to steal your identity by a thief who opens up credit cards in your name?
[doublepost=1539528681][/doublepost]

Bad people tend to buy expensive things

Yes. I know one bad guy who has gold plated toilets in his fifth avenue penthouse.

 

[citysnaps]

What an absolutely absurd thing to say. Why do you even have a passcode on your phone so? You might not give a **** about privacy, but most of us do.

Most people have a passcode to prevent their phones from being accessed by other people; should the phone be lost, or left out on your desk at work, etc. They obviously care about privacy.

Your response above was to a post about the police searching your phone.

 

[cmaier]

Apple has essentially borked biometric authentication by implementing FaceID. Clearly it's pretty much worthless as a trustworthy security feature. So now it's back to entering 7 digit passcodes every damn time. Little did we ever suspect that the constant whining to minimize the bezels would lead to this.
The iPhone is de-evolving.

How is it useless? It enables me to use a very complex password and not have to enter it most of the time. I’m much more worried about the threat model of a criminal taking or finding my device than I am about the police.

 

[Rajani Isa]

All it takes is a cop on a fishing expedition. You get pulled over, he doesn't like you and goes to search the phone.
[doublepost=1539528375][/doublepost]
What an absolutely absurd thing to say. Why do you even have a passcode on your phone so? You might not give a **** about privacy, but most of us do.

To justify searching your phone he’d need to have a very good reason. And just about the only one I could see not getting pegged as illegal search and seizure (without a warrant which a random pull over is unlikely to have) would be an Amber alert - and you being somehow involved.

 

[Mr. Heckles]

I disabled all security check on my Iphone. With no passwords, no Face ID, I'm saving so many seconds and if I forget my phone somewhere it can be easily returned to me.
My private data is not worse than average and I have nothing to hide.
With my "unsecured" Iphone 6s, I have a faster reaction time than any 2018 Iphone with Face ID on.

And someone who finds it now have all of your info and can cause a lot of people for you, family, and friends. Way to go!

 

[maj71303]

To justify searching your phone he’d need to have a very good reason. And just about the only one I could see not getting pegged as illegal search and seizure (without a warrant which a random pull over is unlikely to have) would be an Amber alert - and you being somehow involved.

You forgot to put /s behind that post. Everyday rights are violated by LEO's and to think otherwise is just naive.

 

[JosephAW]

Face iD needs a "wink" mode to lock it.

 

[DontGetTheCheese]

The real point is that a cop shouldn't be able to see your entire life over a traffic stop. Getting into your phone is, for all practical matters, the same thing as searching your home, actually worse because a phone knows so much more about you than you have in your house. Your phone knows where you've been, the websites you've looked at, maybe how fast you were driving and so on and so forth.

I would encourage you to read some place like techdirt.com. It'll expand your horizons on the shenanigans that law enforcement pull.

 

[haruhiko]

Only thing is this doesn’t work on the new iPhones, not sure if it’s a bug or Apple changed it. At least it doesn’t work on my iPhone XS Max.

Power + Volume up button press and hold for 5 secs. Did you not see the first reply in this thread?
[doublepost=1539529644][/doublepost]

I disabled all security check on my Iphone. With no passwords, no Face ID, I'm saving so many seconds and if I forget my phone somewhere it can be easily returned to me.
My private data is not worse than average and I have nothing to hide.
With my "unsecured" Iphone 6s, I have a faster reaction time than any 2018 Iphone with Face ID on.

That's very unwise.

 

[Ramchi]

The only reason my mom has her phone returned to her was because she had it locked and used Find My iPhone - the young kid who stole it quickly realized with it locked that he couldn’t resell it - with a completely open device it is easily resold and I can’t imagine you’d ever get it back.

In my place there was a raquette where stolen iPhones sold in gray market and immediately after selling the iPhones, upon activation customs offivoffi would come after the buyer as the offender and get ransom as charges! This is forcing many mobile thieves little more careful. iPhones sort of thieves free mobile to certain extent

 

[Mr. Heckles]

Face iD needs a "wink" mode to lock it.

Or you blink your eyes 5 times fast, it disables the Face ID

 

[cmaier]

Face iD needs a "wink" mode to lock it.

It sort of has it. If your eyes aren’t open and they point it at your face, that counts as a failed attempt (as long as attention mode isn’t disabled). Of course some courts say you can be ordered to open your eyes...

 

[MacBH928]

What if Apple could do like an encrypted backup in the cloud... then when you cross borders your phone could be brand new with nothing on it and they check whatever they want and once the checking is over, you only have to type in your encryption password and it will download everything from the cloud?

What if your phone is in the luggage, do they look through your luggage and ask you to open your bags and switch on your phone?

 

[cmaier]

I disabled all security check on my Iphone. With no passwords, no Face ID, I'm saving so many seconds and if I forget my phone somewhere it can be easily returned to me.
My private data is not worse than average and I have nothing to hide.
With my "unsecured" Iphone 6s, I have a faster reaction time than any 2018 Iphone with Face ID on.

Ways to own you once I have your phone:

1) log into your on line shopping accounts and buy a bunch of stuff and ship it to a neighbor and take it off their stoop. Or ship it to you just to screw with you.
2) log into your on line banking and go to town
3) log into your social media and make up a story about a medical emergency and request emergency money from everyone.
4) change all your passwords for all this to make it harder for you to undo.
5) send emails or messages to all your friends and coworkers, from your account. Use your imagination as to contents.
6) harvest your personal information and open my own credit cards in your name (this happened to me, by the way, and it’s a real pain. Thanks equifax)
7) use you personal information to transfer title on your house, then take out a mortgage against it
8) delete all your photos, contacts, etc. froM the device and any associated accounts. Shut down your accounts. Just vandalism for fun.
9) steal information about your family, friends and colleagues and use it to spam or harass them. Or to phish them for personal information so I can do some of the above crimes against them, too.

 

[Dorje Sylas]

While your waiting for Apple to make an official method, some clever person/people came up with this Shortcut:
https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/2d68cb1ee7b84f08ace2fd600b9855b5
Based on what MacRumors member rjtyork posted it does the following:
"Just by saying “Hey Siri, I’m getting pulled over”, Siri will pause your music, turn on do not disturb, send your location and a message to pre-determined contacts, dim your screen, start recording video from your front camera, upload that video to iCloud Drive or google drive, and send the video to any contacts you choose."

An interesting use for Shortcuts. I hate to say it, but I'm gonna have to pass that along to some friends who worry about being pulled over "while driving black" or in their case "while driving brown". AZ can be a real **** hole even with Joe Arpaio no longer Maricopa Sheriff.

This kind of Shortcut could be useful for all kinds of other "emergency" situations. Like "Hey Siri, I am being mugged."

 

[arkitect]

Your phone knows where you've been, the websites you've looked at, maybe how fast you were driving and so on and so forth.

I would encourage you to read some place like techdirt.com. It'll expand your horizons on the shenanigans that law enforcement pull.

Question in general:

I see this come up so often that I have to ask.
Which websites are you people "visiting"? Because you all seem quite paranoid that someone will know you've "been there".
[doublepost=1539531256][/doublepost]

Ways to own you once I have your phone:

1) log into your on line shopping accounts and buy a bunch of stuff and ship it to a neighbor and take it off their stoop. Or ship it to you just to screw with you.
2) log into your on line banking and go to town
3) log into your social media and make up a story about a medical emergency and request emergency money from everyone.
4) change all your passwords for all this to make it harder for you to undo.
5) send emails or messages to all your friends and coworkers, from your account. Use your imagination as to contents.
6) harvest your personal information and open my own credit cards in your name (this happened to me, by the way, and it’s a real pain. Thanks equifax)
7) use you personal information to transfer title on your house, then take out a mortgage against it
8) delete all your photos, contacts, etc. froM the device and any associated accounts. Shut down your accounts. Just vandalism for fun.
9) steal information about your family, friends and colleagues and use it to spam or harass them. Or to phish them for personal information so I can do some of the above crimes against them, too.

How can they get into banking apps?
Sure they can go to town on many of the other things you've listed, but tell me how you think the thief can get into someone's banking apps without their password/finger ID etc input?

Edit: I'm not recommending to go passwordless, I keep my phone tightly locked. But…

 

[cmaier]

Question in general:

I see this come up so often that I have to ask.
Which websites are you people "visiting"? Because you all seem quite paranoid that someone will know you've "been there".
[doublepost=1539531256][/doublepost]
How can they get into banking apps?
Sure they can go to town on many of the other things you've listed, but tell me how you think the thief can get into someone's banking apps without their password/finger ID etc input?

Because he stores his password in a plain text note? Or it’s the name of his girlfriend or dog, or his birthdate or some other weak password, and I can find all that information out since his phone is unlocked?

You really think he’s got that all locked down given that he doesn’t use a passcode?

 

[JRobinsonJr]

FaceID isn't trustworthy for who? Criminals?

FaceID is *potentially* not trustworthy by law-abiding citizens when faced with a legal system hell-bent on gaining access. Of course, this is also true for TouchID.

 

[cmaier]

FaceID is *potentially* not trustworthy by law-abiding citizens when faced with a legal system hell-bent on gaining access. Of course, this is also true for TouchID.

It’s also true of a passcode. There is a thin veneer of difference in the US ... You probably aren’t supposed to be compelled to provide a password, but if there is probable cause that you own the phone and it contains evidence of a crime, you can be forced to.

 

[arkitect]

Because he stores his password in a plain text note?

You really think he’s got that all locked down given that he doesn’t use a passcode?

Ah OK I missed that part of their explanation.
That is not very clever.

You really think he’s got that all locked down given that he doesn’t use a passcode?

Well hope springs eternal.