Why your iPhone-unlocking fingerprint is susceptible to FBI search warrants

Should you be able to plead the Fifth when a judge forces you to use your fingerprints to unlock an iPhone?

That’s the latest ongoing debate in a Los Angeles courtroom after a judge compelled a woman in custody to use Touch ID to unlock an iPhone. Legal experts are arguing that this goes against the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination because the authorities would then have access to potentially-incriminating personal data stored on the device.

The debate started after authorities obtained a search warrant for Paytsar Bkhchadzhyan, the girlfriend of a suspected Armenian gang member, to use her fingerprints to unlock an iPhone seized from a home in Glendale, California. The iPhone in question was enabled with Touch ID sensor technology.

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