this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2024
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Privacy

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The legal situation is more complex and nuanced than the headline implies, so the article is worth reading. This adds another ruling to the confusing case history regarding forced biometric unlocking.

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[–] Lemming421 62 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Reminder that on an iPhone, if you hold the Volume Up and Power buttons simultaneously for several seconds, the phone will vibrate and will require the PIN or password next time you unlock it, not Face/TouchID. This happens whether the screen is on or off, so you can discretely do it in your pocket.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Or just use pin all the time, no face or fingerprint.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (2 children)

And then some random dude takes a peek at you entering said password, and steals the phone :/

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

GrapheneOS has an option to scramble the numbers on the unlock screen. I don't know if that's a base android thing or available on IOS

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Correct. Not sure about iOS either, but many custom roms can, e.g. divestos, probably resurrection remix used to have it back when it was a thing (not sure here, but I distinctly remember having this feature somewhere before graphene)

[–] flames5123 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

In order to turn off the Find My iPhone functionality, you need the Apple ID password, so this isn’t even a real concern. You can even remotely lock the phone with a new password. Apple has made stealing an iPhone and making it work afterwards very hard.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

The idea is usually to access the victim's banking app, or 2fa app, etc, AFAIK.

[–] flames5123 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Both of those require their own password or biometrics, so you couldn’t access those either.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Idk about iOS, but android lets you add a fingerprint using the lock screen password

[–] flames5123 2 points 7 months ago

When changing biometric data on the iPhone, it locks you out of using it in other apps, making you put in your bank/other specific password.

[–] jose1324 20 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Basically every Android also has a variation of this

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Absent an idiotic carrier/mfg skin that disables the feature, you just long-press power then click "lockdown".

Or reboot the device. Rebooting the device will also leave it encrypted if your device has encryption (the PIN/password is needed to decrypt, essentially).

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

So you know what it is? I just tried both volume keys and all I got was TalkBack (Google's screen reader).

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (2 children)

it's called lockdown mode. on my phone you press and hold the power button and select the option. you might have to enable this in settings.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Holy connoli, you are right! I just enabled it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

At least on my phone, rebooting also makes it require PIN

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Yeah, that's right. Which is fucking annoying, to be honest.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

I find it a little useless since you can also shut it down or force restart (continuously hold power button until it restarts)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Nope.

Samsung A50 doesn't have this option.

Will keep an eye out for it though.

[–] jose1324 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Depends on the rom. It's in Android since 9. Samsung definitely has it, but you have to enable it

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

I didn't realize how many people didn't know this so someone should probably post a PSA and quick guide in c/Privacy.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

My Samsung A11 (android 12) has a "lockdown" option when you held the power button. It would turn off all biometrics and hide notifications. You may have to dig in the settings to enable it, though

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

If you don't, just force power restart it. You can search this up online for your model.

https://www.hardreset.info/devices/samsung/samsung-galaxy-a50/softreset-second-method/

[–] Fallenwout 1 points 7 months ago

You need to enable it. "show lockdown option"

[–] Clent 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Without having to look at the device?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago