Slashdot reader FlatEric521 tipped us off to an interesting story (from the News Service of Florida):
When police responded in 2018 to a call about a shattered window at a home in Orange County, they found a black Samsung smartphone near the broken window. A woman in the home identified the phone as belonging to an ex-boyfriend, Johnathan David Garcia, who was later charged with crimes including aggravated stalking.
But more than three years after the shattered window, the Florida Supreme Court is poised to hear arguments in the case and consider a decidedly 21st Century question: Should authorities be able to force Garcia to give them his passcode to the phone?
Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office appealed to the Supreme Court last year after the 5th District Court of Appeal ruled that requiring Garcia to turn over the passcode would violate his constitutional right against being forced to provide self-incriminating information… The case has drawn briefs from civil-liberties and defense-attorney groups, who contend that Garcia’s rights under the U.S. Constitution’s 5th Amendment would be threatened if he is required to provide the passcode.
But Moody’s office in a March brief warned of trouble for law enforcement if the Supreme Court sides with Garcia in an era when seemingly everybody has a cell phone. Police obtained a warrant to search Garcia’s phone but could not do so without a passcode. “Modern encryption has shifted the balance between criminals and law enforcement in favor of crime by allowing criminals to hide evidence in areas the state physically cannot access,” the brief said.
of this story at Slashdot.
Source:: Slashdot