Norwegian supreme court takes opposite stance to USA - police may not unlock your fingerprint-locked phone by force

[That Norwegian Guy]

In a case that saw appeals all the way to supreme court in Norway, it was ruled that the police may not use coercion to unlock phones of suspects whose phone is set to use a fingerprint scanner. Thus, in Norway, no matter the method of locking your phone, should you come under criminal investigation your data is yours to turn over voluntarily - or not, as the case may be.

 

This is contrary to similar cases in the USA, where the opposite precedent has been set.

 

The man in question had already pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, but authorities were seeking access to his phone in order to look for additional evidence in case of supplemental charges or mitigating circumstances.

 

As the numerous issues around people's rights and responsibilities in an increasingly digital world continue to evolve, more countries should be taking a stance on similar matters. How do you think the die will be cast where you live?

 

Source: VG.no (Norwegian)

[Misanthrope]

Norway might be the last (kind of) sane country on the continent tbh.

[Crimluck]

Yes! Thank you to the supreme court in Norway! Please SHARE some of your sensibility with USA!

[suicidalfranco]

Are all Scandinavian countries this awesome? Or is the rest of the world simply that bad?

[CtW]

neat

[arnavvr]

1 minute ago, CtW said:

neat

Yeah but most phones have a backup passcode unlock, which is pretty easy to crack.

[Nena Trinity]

Norway numba #1!

[Misanthrope]

27 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

Are all Scandinavian countries this awesome? Or is the rest of the world simply that bad?

Seeing how Sweden gave into US pressure and jailed the pirate bay owners, not by a fucking long shot.

[Curufinwe_wins]

Not that it doesn't change things overall, but the reason why in the US fingerprints are obtainable is because they already fall under evidence and indentification for any crime. Thus since they already have your fingerprint on record, you are required by law to use it to administer your lock. 

 

This is the same thing if you have a password written down somewhere... Assuming police have a warrant, you are required to give up that information IF AND ONLY IF it is recorded somewhere that falls under the warrant. If you do not have the password written down anywhere and are only using it via memory, you cannot be forced to divulge it by the 9th amendment (this is in accordance with precedent in US law).

 

The ludicrously obvious way to avoid this issue then if you must record your passwords somewhere is to only do so in an encrypted location with a password you only know by memory and are thus not forced to divulge thus protecting your other passwords as well.

 

These laws are a game and being written by politicians are hilariously easy for rational intelligent actors to evade.

[spartaman64]

11 hours ago, arnavvr said:

Yeah but most phones have a backup passcode unlock, which is pretty easy to crack.

but the police isnt allowed to force your passcode in the first place