Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Should Apple include a "complete-wipe" with chosen finger feature?

Status
Not open for further replies.
wesk702

wesk702

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 7, 2007
1,809
368
The hood
With Touch ID, it brings new security but doesn't circumvent police from forcing your finger on Touch ID. We have the option of a clean wipe of the password is entered incorrectly 10 times but this wouldn't help when being forced to open our phones.

You think it would be useful if we had the option to wipe the phone if Touch ID is used with a specific finger?
 
it would be nice if they just offered a touchid + passcode unlock.
 
if you're worried about police having access to your phone, just don't have Touch ID enabled. or, as you get arrested, quickly turn off your phone to force the pass code.
 
Well, if you're afraid of being forced to use touchid by the police to unlock your phone, then don't use touchid - seems like a simple solution to me.
 
great. now Facebook is going to get a hold of this and start spreading rumors like that backwards atm pin deal

its been mentioned that if you turn your phone off and turned on, your finger prints won't work and you need to enter your password
 
siurpeeman said:
if you're worried about police having access to your phone, just don't have Touch ID enabled. or, as you get arrested, quickly turn off your phone to force the pass code.
Click to expand...

"Stop! Police"

Reaches into pocket to shut off iPhone

Stop! I'll shoot! Bang Bang
 
wesk702 said:
"Stop! Police"

Reaches into pocket to shut off iPhone

Stop! I'll shoot! Bang Bang
Click to expand...

The family of the deceased suspect will (somehow) find a way to blame his tragic "death by police brutality" upon Apple.

After all, the incident was triggered because suspect was reaching for his iPhone in the pocket. Therefore, somehow, Apple must be at fault. So say the lawyers.
 
wesk702 said:
With Touch ID, it brings new security but doesn't circumvent police from forcing your finger on Touch ID. We have the option of a clean wipe of the password is entered incorrectly 10 times but this wouldn't help when being forced to open our phones.

You think it would be useful if we had the option to wipe the phone if Touch ID is used with a specific finger?
Click to expand...

Are you serious?
You could always eat your phone when arrested, to protect your precious data from the police :rolleyes:

----------
wesk702 said:
"Stop! Police"

Reaches into pocket to shut off iPhone

Stop! I'll shoot! Bang Bang
Click to expand...

Are you often being arrested?
 
JayLenochiniMac said:
So I take it you're a criminal and are worried about that sort of stuff?
Click to expand...

Or, you could be a common, law abiding citizen who gets arrested or detained anyway, maybe because you might have caught a police officer doing things they don't want the public to know they did. Because you know, maybe what they did was wrong or possibly even illegal, and they might want to abuse their authority to compel you to have the evidence deleted.


Or, maybe you are detained for a minor infraction unrelated to your smartphone, but the officer stopping you is just a pervert who wants to collect and distribute your perfectly legal, but private, pictures without your permission.

In any case, it's clear that you don't need be a criminal to be concerned that their perfectly legal, but private, information bight be misappropriated by law enforcement. To deny that is to be completely ignorant. Police are humans too: many are good at being who they are. But some, again being human, are pretty lousy. And it's that latter category that makes privacy and information protection something everyone should be concerned about.
 
Last edited:
wesk702 said:
With Touch ID, it brings new security but doesn't circumvent police from forcing your finger on Touch ID. We have the option of a clean wipe of the password is entered incorrectly 10 times but this wouldn't help when being forced to open our phones.

You think it would be useful if we had the option to wipe the phone if Touch ID is used with a specific finger?
Click to expand...

No, enabling and then using a "wipe fingerprint" would probably put you in legal hot water, as you're now knowingly destroying evidence by deliberately instructing your phone to wipe itself by scanning a specific fingerprint. I think that legally, the safer bet would be to "literally comply" with the officer's instructions (explained below). If the phone locks out TouchID by getting too many bad scans, you haven't destroyed any data. It's just that the phone - for whatever reason - now wants something you can't be compelled to give (a passcode) in order to decrypt that data.

I think the best way around it would be to not enroll the most common fingers used for Touch ID (thumbs, index fingers) and only enroll least common used digits (pinky fingers, ring fingers, or even a knuckle or the tip of your nose instead).

The point here is, the police might be aware that you're using TouchID, but might not be aware of which finger or other part of your anatomy you use to unlock your phone. If they ask you to use your finger to unlock the phone, follow their instructions, and use a finger... just not the right one. Feign being baffled when it doesn't work... maybe your fingers are wet, or chapped? Or maybe they "broke" it when they manhandled you. Who knows what happened?

Anyway, they might get wise after two or three tries, but then they only have two or three guesses left before TouchID stops working, and only a passcode will work... which they currently cannot compel you to give up.


(Note: I'm not a lawyer.)
 
Last edited:
scaredpoet said:
Or, you could be a common, law abiding citizen who gets arrested or detained anyway, maybe because you might have caught a police officer doing things they don't want the public to know they did. Because you know, maybe what they did was wrong or possibly even illegal, and they might want to abuse their authority to compel you to have the evidence deleted.


Or, maybe you are detained for a minor infraction unrelated to your smartphone, but the officer stopping you is just a pervert who wants to collect and distribute your perfectly legal pictures.

In any case, it's clear that you don't need be a criminal to be concerned that their perfectly legal, but private, information bight be misappropriated by law enforcement. To deny that is to be completely ignorant. Police are humans too: many are good at being who they are. But some, again being human, are pretty lousy. And it's that latter category that makes privacy and information protection something everyone should be concerned about.
Click to expand...

So a couple of bad apples are reason to be in fear of not having a "complete-wipe" with a chosen finger? Keep up the FUD.
 
I would have to ask why? If your worried about the police gaining access, Apple has already included the solution for you to just turn TouchID OFF just for unlocking the iPhone and you can use your Passcode.

You just have to decide which is more important to you, the convenience of TouchID, or using a strong passcode (and by strong I mean using more than 4 digits).

IMG_0091.PNG
 
I would find it far more useful to force me to use touch ID (or passcode or something) before shutting the phone off. As it stands someone can nab my phone, turn it off, and sell it for parts. I couldn't track it if I wanted to.

That said, I do see the OP's point. "Just obey the law" doesn't seem like a great argument to me for ANYTHING privacy related. It's rather ludicrous that I cannot be required to unlock my phone with a passcode, but I can with my fingerprint since my fingerprint isn't a passcode. A case where semantics screws the person under arrest. I suspect it won't be that way for long; I imagine a decent case can be made that a fingerprint, in this specific case, is the same as a digital passcode.

It's also worth noting that people can and do get arrested wrongfully (though it may seem right at the time). The more green lights an officer of the law has into looking into my private things regardless of why I am arrested. And this is all coming from a person who has never been arrested, never broken the law (aside from pirating stuff in my college days), and has no plans to do either (of course the future is unwritten).
 
Last edited:
JayLenochiniMac said:
So a couple of bad apples are reason to be in fear of not having a "complete-wipe" with a chosen finger?
Click to expand...

First off, I don't advocate complete wipe in those situations. Fully read before you react with hysterics; it'll save you some embarrassment in the future.

Second, I think it's pretty evident from the multiple links I've provided that it's more than just "a couple of bad apples." And, how many incidents of misconduct are needed to justify a person being able to protect their rights, exactly?

If I'm following the law, and the police are following the law, then it shouldn't matter at all what I'm doing to protect my data, now should it?

Keep up the FUD.
Click to expand...

If it makes you feel better about yourself, being the upstanding patriot you are, to leave your phone unlocked for anyone to see what's in it because you've got nothing to hide, you go right ahead and do that. :)
 
I think it makes more sense to advocate for laws that make being forced to unlock one's phone illegal.
 
scaredpoet said:
First off, I don't advocate complete wipe in those situations. Fully read before you react with hysterics; it'll save you some embarrassment in the future.

Second, I think it's pretty evident from the multiple links I've provided that it's more than just "a couple of bad apples." And, how many incidents of misconduct are needed to justify a person being able to protect their rights, exactly?

If I'm following the law, and the police are following the law, then it shouldn't matter at all what I'm doing to protect my data, now should it?

If it makes you feel better about yourself, being the upstanding patriot you are, to leave your phone unlocked for anyone to see what's in it because you've got nothing to hide, you go right ahead and do that. :)
Click to expand...

I think it's you who should refrain from reacting with hysterics, especially in posting multiple links. They're, like, what out of millions of arrests each year? Pretty much a couple of bad apples or so.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back