Curiosity has been known to drive innovation, but recent news shows us that it can also sometimes strip us of our rights. As we continue experimenting with advanced technologies and finding new applications to use them in, we find ourselves losing some of the freedoms our constitutional rights once promised. A recent Virginia court ruling permits police to force you to unlock your phone if you are using a fingerprint sensor.
This loophole in our Fifth Amendment rights says that while passcodes are protected as a form of knowledge, we are required by law to hand over physical evidence or DNA information. Because fingerprints are considered a physical object, police are therefore allowed to force you to give it to them.
Apple’s Touch ID feature is supposed to be a convenient means for unlocking phones without the hassle of entering a passcode every time you want to use your device. After making its debut only a year ago, it didn’t take long for lawmakers to exploit its self-authenticating reliance.
This ruling was linked to a case dating back to February where one man was charged with strangling his girlfriend and allegedly saving a video of it on his phone.
While lawmakers may have good intentions for passing the law as a means for bringing justice to the victim, the truth is that in the long-run, this loophole is going to cause more problems than it solves.
For those of you using a fingerprint sensor, realize that you are now indirectly giving up consent. While you can argue that you shouldn’t have anything to hide in the first place, the truth is that this goes beyond just your cellphone.
Look at this ruling in a different context where this ruling doesn’t seem as justified: home security. With the popularity in biometric readers increasing, this could mean the elimination of warrants being required to enter someone’s home. Additionally, this law is also contradictory to vehicle searches. Asking people to hand over their fingerprint is no different than asking them to hand over their keys, yet one requires a warrant and one does not.
Requiring people to hand over physical objects and DNA has and always should be meant strictly for identification purposes, not gaining access to private information.It is an abuse of power and has the potential to knock down walls that were once put up to protect us against such an invasion of privacy.
While biometric technology is making our lives easier, consumers need to realize that they are putting their once promised rights at risk. What was intended to help sustain our personal privacy is now giving it away. And technology is only expected to continue advancing in this direction toward more medium for biometric reliance.
Recent events involving the virtual leakage of celebrity nudes made it clear that the information stored on our phones is not safe. Now, we see physical means of depriving this security; only it's the people who granted us that privacy in the first place that are the ones taking it away.
Reach the columnist at ralynch3@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @ryguy916
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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