{"id":24608,"date":"2022-07-22T10:02:14","date_gmt":"2022-07-22T14:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/?p=881042"},"modified":"2022-07-22T10:02:14","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T14:02:14","slug":"fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2022\/07\/22\/fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI Successfully Forced A Criminal Suspect To Unlock His Wickr Account With His Face"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"manBased on (admittedly scattershot) case law, the best protection for your phone (and constitutional rights)\u00a0seems to depend<\/a>\u00a0on whatever device owners feel is the most persistent (or dangerous) threat.<\/p>\n

If you, a regular phone owner, feel the worst thing that could happen to you is the theft of your phone, then using biometric features to lock\/unlock your device is probably the most secure option. It means thieves have to have access to both you and your phone if they hope to access far more sensitive data. And it makes even more sense if you\u2019re one of the, oh, I don\u2019t know\u2026 ~250 million Americans who occasionally reuse passwords. This prevents phone thieves from using a seemingly endless number of data breaches to find a way into your phone.<\/p>\n

But if you feel law enforcement agencies are the more worrisome threat, it makes more sense to use a passcode. Why? Because courts have been\u00a0far more willing<\/a>\u00a0to call the\u00a0compelled production<\/a>\u00a0of passcodes the equivalent of testifying against yourself, resulting the rejection of warrant requests and the suppression of evidence.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just criminals who may feel the cops are the worst. Activists, journalists, lawyers, security researchers\u2026 these are all people who may not want interloping cops to easily access the contents of their devices simply by mashing their faces, retinas, or fingerprints into their lockscreens.<\/p>\n

So, since\u00a0courts have decided<\/a>\u00a0(with rare\u00a0exceptions<\/a>) that\u00a0utilizing biometric features<\/a>\u00a0is \u201cnon-testimonial,\u201d that\u2019s the option law enforcement officers will try to use first.\u00a0As some courts see it<\/a>, you get fingerprinted when you\u2019re arrested, so applying a finger to a phone doesn\u2019t seem to be enough of a stretch to bring the Constitution into it.<\/p>\n

But to this point, the (compelled) deployment of biometric features has been used to unlock\u00a0devices<\/em>. In this case,\u00a0first reported by Thomas Brewster for Forbes<\/a>, the FBI went deeper: it secured a warrant allowing it to use a suspect\u2019s face to unlock his Wickr account.<\/p>\n

In November last year, an undercover agent with the FBI was inside a group on Amazon-owned messaging app Wickr, with a name referencing young girls. The group was devoted to sharing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) within the protection of the encrypted app, which is also used by the U.S. government, journalists and activists for private communications. Encryption makes it almost impossible for law enforcement to intercept messages sent over Wickr, but this agent had found a way to infiltrate the chat, where they could start piecing together who was sharing the material.<\/em><\/p>\n

As part of the investigation into the members of this Wickr group, the FBI used a previously unreported\u00a0search warrant<\/a>\u00a0method to force one member to unlock the encrypted messaging app using his face. The FBI has previously forced users to unlock an iPhone with Face ID, but this search warrant, obtained by\u00a0Forbes, represents the first known public record of a U.S. law enforcement agency getting a judge\u2019s permission to unlock an encrypted messaging app with someone\u2019s biometrics.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As Brewster states, this is the first time biometric features have been used (via judicial compulsion) to unlock an encrypted\u00a0service<\/em>, rather than a\u00a0device.<\/em>\u00a0No doubt this will be challenged by the suspect\u2019s lawyer. And, speaking of lawyers, the FBI really wanted this to go another way, but was apparently inconvenienced by someone willing to protect their arrestee\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

Just in case it\u2019s not perfectly clear, law enforcement agencies will do everything they can to bypass a suspect\u2019s rights and often only seem to be deterred by the arrival of someone who\u00a0definitely<\/em>\u00a0knows the law better than they do. I mean, it\u2019s right there in the\u00a0affidavit<\/a>\u00a0[PDF]:<\/p>\n

By the time it was made known to the FBI that facial recognition was needed to access the locked application Wickr, TERRY had asked for an attorney.<\/em><\/p>\n

Therefore, the United States seeks this additional search warrant seeking TERRY\u2019 s biometric facial recognition is requested to complete the search of TERRY\u2019s Apple iPhone, 11.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It looks like the FBI only decided to seek a warrant because the suspect had requested legal counsel. It\u2019s unlikely seeking a warrant was in the cards before the suspect asked for an attorney. The FBI had plenty of options up to that point: using a 302 report to create an FBI-centric narrative, lying to the suspect about evidence, co-defendants (or whatever), endless begging for consent, or simply pretending there was no unambiguous assertions of rights. It was only the presence of the lawyer that forced the FBI to acknowledge the Constitution existed, even if its response was to roll the dice on Fifth Amendment jurisprudence.<\/p>\n

This dice roll worked. But it\u2019s sure to be challenged. There\u2019s not enough settled law to say the FBI was in the right, even with a warrant. What\u2019s on the line is the Fifth Amendment itself. And if passcodes can\u2019t be compelled, then biometric features should be similarly protected, since they both accomplish the same thing: the production of evidence the government hopes to use against the people whose compliance it has managed to compel.<\/p>\n

FBI Successfully Forced A Criminal Suspect To Unlock His Wickr Account With His Face<\/a><\/p>\n

More Law-Related Stories From Techdirt:<\/strong><\/p>\n

With The Hype Bubble Burst, Companies Try Comically Hard To Distance Themselves From NFTs<\/a>
\nCanadian Government Really Wants People To Ignore The Text Of Its Streaming Regulation Bill<\/a>
\nOmnipresent Fentanyl Copaganda Is Turning Normal Citizens Into Fainting Goats<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Physical features and the Fifth Amendment don’t mix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"featured_media":709490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[10223,266,1064,7],"class_list":["post-24608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-5th-amendment","tag-crime","tag-fbi","tag-technology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFBI Successfully Forced A Criminal Suspect To Unlock His Wickr Account With His Face - Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2022\/07\/22\/fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FBI Successfully Forced A Criminal Suspect To Unlock His Wickr Account With His Face - Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Physical features and the Fifth Amendment don't mix.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2022\/07\/22\/fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-22T14:02:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Techdirt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Techdirt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2022\/07\/22\/fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2022\/07\/22\/fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face\/\",\"name\":\"FBI Successfully Forced A Criminal Suspect To Unlock His Wickr Account With His Face - Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2022\/07\/22\/fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2022\/07\/22\/fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-22T14:02:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-22T14:02:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/#\/schema\/person\/4a1bdbf630074fc9f1feca42159f08d6\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2022\/07\/22\/fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2022\/07\/22\/fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2022\/07\/22\/fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2022\/07\/22\/fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"FBI Successfully Forced A Criminal Suspect To Unlock His Wickr Account With His Face\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/\",\"name\":\"Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event\",\"description\":\"A Legal Tech Adoption Guide For Perplexed Lawyers\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/#\/schema\/person\/4a1bdbf630074fc9f1feca42159f08d6\",\"name\":\"Techdirt\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8a4151b2f088dc890067fc9e6faefefce91880d605c40cc46dd473049e5d123e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8a4151b2f088dc890067fc9e6faefefce91880d605c40cc46dd473049e5d123e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Techdirt\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.techdirt.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/author\/techdirt\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"FBI Successfully Forced A Criminal Suspect To Unlock His Wickr Account With His Face - Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2022\/07\/22\/fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"FBI Successfully Forced A Criminal Suspect To Unlock His Wickr Account With His Face - Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event","og_description":"Physical features and the Fifth Amendment don't mix.","og_url":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2022\/07\/22\/fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face\/","og_site_name":"Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event","article_published_time":"2022-07-22T14:02:14+00:00","author":"Techdirt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Techdirt","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2022\/07\/22\/fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face\/","url":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2022\/07\/22\/fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face\/","name":"FBI Successfully Forced A Criminal Suspect To Unlock His Wickr Account With His Face - Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2022\/07\/22\/fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2022\/07\/22\/fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"","datePublished":"2022-07-22T14:02:14+00:00","dateModified":"2022-07-22T14:02:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/#\/schema\/person\/4a1bdbf630074fc9f1feca42159f08d6"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2022\/07\/22\/fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2022\/07\/22\/fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2022\/07\/22\/fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face\/#primaryimage","url":"","contentUrl":""},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2022\/07\/22\/fbi-successfully-forced-a-criminal-suspect-to-unlock-his-wickr-account-with-his-face\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"FBI Successfully Forced A Criminal Suspect To Unlock His Wickr Account With His Face"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/#website","url":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/","name":"Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event","description":"A Legal Tech Adoption Guide For Perplexed Lawyers","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/#\/schema\/person\/4a1bdbf630074fc9f1feca42159f08d6","name":"Techdirt","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8a4151b2f088dc890067fc9e6faefefce91880d605c40cc46dd473049e5d123e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8a4151b2f088dc890067fc9e6faefefce91880d605c40cc46dd473049e5d123e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Techdirt"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.techdirt.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/author\/techdirt\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/205"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24608\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}