Instead, we should push for laws and protections around our private devices. The 4th Amendment actually protects our personal effects and imo this biometric loophole is illegal.
As the other commenter pointed out, in the meantime, practice how to quickly lock your phone - and better yet, when in dangerous situations, leave it behind or turn it off.
But how does it not get locked out the same way we do when we fail our passcode 5+ times in a row? Is it just super easy to get around that exponential lock-out for iOS?
Im not sure if anyone other than Cellebrite knows the exact details of what they are doing. (If they can even unlock latest iPhones that are properly secured. I’m seeing a recent article that implies recently unlocked iPhones had biometrics enabled) I wouldn’t be surprised if their techniques involved disassembling the phone, and tampering with every connection of the chips involved, or depowering them in weird ways as they are counting attempts, or even desoldering and transferring the chips to other boards. I suspect that if apple knew and could patch the method, they would.
It’s impressive that it is so hard to get into iPhones imo. People use 6 digit passcodes to lock their entire digital life. That would be considered horrendously insecure for anything that isn’t an iPhone. You can (and should) increase it to a full password. But a lot of people don’t.
In addition, there are additional restrictions where your passcode will be required. For example, if the passcode has not been used to unlock the device in the last six days and Face ID has not unlocked the device in the last eight hours, then you must use a passcode to access the device (in other words, biometric unlock is automatically disabled).
If you've ever wondered why you've had to enter your passcode after a good night's sleep and haven't entered your passcode recently, that's probably why!
Given these built-in precautions, a click-bait headline like this is a bit excessive for most people.
I went to the US on holidays recently and several people sat me down before I left to give me a very serious talk warning me about the police being deadly dangerous to anyone that doesn’t behave “just right”. You know: show your hands, don’t reach for things unless prompted, that kind of thing that I just don’t have to worry about over here — where “here” is most of the rest of the Planet.
The last time I felt like this — that I had to worry about the police as a law abiding citizen — was in communist behind the iron curtain.
You’ve all managed to turn the “land of the free” into a copy of the enemy you made fun of.
I guess Trump is right: the US and Russia should be friends. You’re more similar than different.
runjake•1h ago
It will pop up an emergency screen, but just tap the power button once more to cancel it.
I'm fortunate to be in a position where I don't attract negative attention from law enforcement, but this is still muscle memory to me.
Edit: You can also do the same thing by quickly pressing the side button alone five times.
Edit 2: mcc1ane beat me while I was editing!
mcc1ane•1h ago
tessela•1h ago
runjake•19m ago
telotortium•1h ago
Another thing I've often wished for with kids is a mode that removes all notifications and widgets from the lock screen - the only things you should be able to do is to unlock the phone and emergency calls. You can remove most notifications with the right Focus, but not notifications to control playing music/video apps, for example, nor any other widgets you happen to put on your lock screen.
willio58•39m ago
IANAL but I highly doubt this would hold up in court with even mildly competent attorneys. Anyone can easily accidentally trigger it, I do all the time.
runjake•21m ago
scottiebarnes•27m ago
Not a lawyer, but everyone has a password locked phone and its standard practice for device security. I'm not optimistic for a prosecutor winning on an interference charge.
reflexe•1h ago
[1] https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/updated-cellebrite-iphon... : support matrix from 2024, in many cases only AFU (after first unlock) is supported.