• doodoo_wizard@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    1 day ago

    Another reply did the thinking emoji face at biometrics and that’s good. Here’s why it’s worthwhile to never enable biometrics:

    You don’t know when you’re going to be compelled to use them and you don’t drill on turning them off.

    The whole point of no knock and other police tactics is to prevent you from keeping them from getting what they want. You can’t expect yourself to just never be surprised, that’s ridiculous. Turn biometrics off so getting surprised by the cops doesn’t immediately give them the keys to the castle!

    No one drills enough, but let’s say you’re the one person who does drill enough on turning off biometrics: wouldn’t that practice time be better spent with biometrics off, drilling on shutting your phone down so they have to deal with its much more secure Before First Unlock state instead?

    Turn off biometrics and practice turning your phone off.

      • Anna@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        edit-2
        1 day ago

        In my country police are known to torture people until they sign a confession written by them. So I don’t think disabling biometrics will make a difference. But I’ve still done it.

        • Avatar of Vengeance@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          17 hours ago

          nobody should discount hardware-level hacks either. ultimately GOS is the only way to get decent software on mobile without leaving it exposed in the event of petty theft. people implying it will be a serious roadblock to imperialist state-level actors are naive or even suspicious to me

      • doodoo_wizard@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 day ago

        Yes it absolutely is.

        Every nation has a byzantine system of laws and codes enumerating different ways for police to violate the “rights” that nation has enshrined in law.

        One way to avoid compelled speech (a “right” Americans have but other nations citizens might not) is to simply misremember your lock code as many times as it takes to trigger factory reset.

        Americans don’t need to know that because they can’t be compelled to enter a passkey, but people in countries with no qualms about compelled speech like Germany would be well served by disabling biometrics so they have the option of lying and taking that hit instead of giving up their privacy.

        Do your own research about your jurisdiction, but go ahead and turn off biometrics because it literally makes any group that can control your movement (which in English common law is the basis for the concept of “arrest”, and so likely a situation many different nationalities will face) access to your devices.

          • doodoo_wizard@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            4 hours ago

            The duress pin seems like such a cool feature, but I feel like it flies a little too close to the sun.

            Misremembering your own pin ten times stretches the limit of credulity, but a lawyer could argue that under the circumstances of enhanced interrogation you weren’t able.

            Expressly giving the wrong answer in a place with compelled speech threatens to add a million new legal hurdles to your freedom.

            When you fuck it up ten times they’re gonna try to slap you with those charges anyway but at least you have some defense instead of it being an open and shut case of “he’s recorded entering the evidence destruction button when we asked him nicely to instead let us push the evidence retrieval button”

            For assange types (and I mean people actively under threat by a nation which has a set of charges it’s investigating or planting evidence for, not people who have leaked documents or share his ideals) it’s a good thing, but anyone not dodging the “if I walk out of the embassy they’ll “find” cp on my phone” bullet it seems like more trouble than it’s worth.

            • MalReynolds@slrpnk.net
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              4 hours ago

              Valid in many cases (hence the rubber hose quip), I was merely responding to above. It does have use as a quick way to burn it all down before any requests are made.

              • doodoo_wizard@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                4 hours ago

                Yeah sorry to hit you with a wall of text.

                Between all the people who refuse to use graphene because it’s on pixels and the ones who seem like they haven’t been keeping up with the news or even had any interaction with cops this thread is deeply disturbing and hitting all the buttons that make me wanna say No Don’t Do That!

                Who knows, maybe there’s a good case where someone uses the duress and gets away with it. I think assange did once before…