Police Force Man In Norway To Unlock iPhone With Touch ID

One of the debates in the US right now is with regards to encryption, in which the authorities believe that in the event of a crime, they should be able to access information on a suspect’s phone. However tech companies like Apple and Google have made that very difficult by giving the keys of encryption to the user, meaning that even if compelled, Apple or Google can’t access the contents of your phone.

However over in Norway, in which what we can only imagine will set a very interesting legal precedent, it seems that the country’s courts have given the Norwegian police the authority to force the man’s thumb onto the Touch ID component of his smartphone, thus unlocking it and giving them access to its contents to help with their case.

According to the report from local website Bergensavisen (via MacRumors), the police believe that the suspect’s phone contains evidence about where he obtained the drugs that he was caught with. Unsurprisingly the man had refused to unlock his phone at the start, which led to the police asking the courts for the authorization to force his thumb onto the phone.

That being said as pointed out by MacRumors, after 48 hours of disuse, Touch ID will require users to enter a passcode in addition to the fingerprint scan. This means is that if the phone has been sitting in evidence for the past few days, they might need another ruling from the court to compel the suspect to hand over his passcode as well, which we can only imagine is another legal hurdle to clear.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: iPhone, Legal, Security, touch id