The highly publicized legal dispute between tech giant Apple and the Federal Bureau of Investigations might be over, but some iPhones and their users are still the subject of recent news. The latest to surface involves a judge from California who ordered a woman to unlock her iPhone using her fingerprint.
The case took place in Glendale, California, where a woman was forced to open her smartphone after a judge demanded her to do it. This is the first time that a federal judge demands a certain device to be unlocked using the owner's biometrics information.
The iPhone in question belongs to Paytsar Bkhcgadzhyan, a 29-year-old alleged identity thief and a member of an alleged Armenian gang member. The FBI was able to obtain a warrant stating that she must open her iPhone using Touch ID just 45 minutes after her arrest. Bkhcgadzhyan eventually pleaded no contest to the charges levied on her, according to ABC News.
Legal and tech experts are still skeptical why prosecutors wanted to unlock Bkhcgadzhyan's iPhone. The case also ignited debate about the prevailing legal stipulations regarding the use fingerprints. Several security experts expressed their concern whether law enforcement authorities have the legal right to force people in unlocking their smartphones using their fingerprint.
The United States Supreme Court ruled that law enforcement authorities are legally allowed to search smartphones, provided that they have a warrant. This gives the FBI authority to order people to unlock their devices. However, it is still unclear whether a judge can make that order.
Some legal experts believe that ordering a person to unlock their smartphone using a fingerprint can be considered a direct violation of the Fifth Amendment, which protects people against self-incrimination.
University of Dayton law professor Susan Brenner told the Los Angeles Times, "It isn't about fingerprints and the biometric readers. The contents of that phone, much of which will be about her, and a lot of that could be incriminating."
On the other hand, there are experts of the law who believe that unlocking a device using a fingerprint scanner does not violate the Fifth Amendment. They believe that placing a finger on the fingerprint scanner is not the same as disclosing the passcode or password of a phone.