Saturday, October 6, 2018

Securing your phone from law enforcement

With fingerprint unlocking and now facial recognition as a mechanism for securing your mobile phone, phone security against loss and theft has increased markedly.

But, these fingerprints and facial recognition provide little to no protection against law enforcement. Essentially, because your face and your fingerprint are public -- visible to everyone -- you have no right in the law it seems to keep devices secure through these mechanisms.

Law enforcement and even customs officials, however, have limited authority to order you to open your mobile devices via a pass code. The trick is how to de-activate your fingerprint or facial recognition ID quickly.

On iPhones and iPads, one way is with this voice command: "Hey Siri, whose iPhone is this?" (you need to say iPhone even when speaking to an iPad). The mobile device will now require a pass code to unlock.

No comments:

Post a Comment