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

[Max(IT)]

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.

What a collection of BS you just quoted....
I'm a 43 years old citizen, I've never been arrested in my life, and even if that could happen, there is nothing in my phone that could be used against me in a legal way.
On a side note, I know and work with many police officers. They are not different from you and me (well, from me for sure....).
If they are searching my phone, is for fulfill their duty, and I'm going to collaborate 100%, because their duty concerns my protection.

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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.)

Give me a break.
Read again what you just wrote
What a silly advice you gave....

I can imagine how comfortable could be to unlock your phone with the pinky finger on everyday use just in the eventuality a cop arrest you in an hypothetical future

You basically are trying, with very poor results, to teach him how to cheat law enforcement officers. What a good citizen you are.

 

[maflynn]

[MOD NOTE]
Since we've entered PRSI territory and the OP has his answer, its time to close ths