• Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    I love the confidence that a US cop or CBP agent are going to allow you to lock your phone while they’re asking you to hand it to them.

    Biometrics is not security. Biometrics is ease of access. It’s literally designed to make your phone easier to access for you and by extension for a low skilled strong arm attacker or jack booted neo-fascist police state cop or border agent, a high skilled hacker, or a nation state actor. If your intention is to make your device easy to access, congratulations, biometrics is the right choice.

    • deweydecibel@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I love the confidence that a US cop or CBP agent are going to allow you to lock your phone while they’re asking you to hand it to them.

      They’re not ninjas dropping out of trees at random moments demanding your phone.

      What is the scenario that you’re picturing here where the person with the phone had literally no warning and no time to activate the lockdown? Turning your phone off takes like 5 seconds.

      Is it technically less secure? Yes.

      Is there any reason for the vast majority of people to assume they will ever be in an arrest situation where they won’t have adequate time to turn off their phone? No.

      I’m all for being paranoid and cautious but this idea that convenience must always bow to absolute security is an absolute pox on the tech industry. There is such a thing a reasonable risk. You’re engaging in that yourself for even owning a mobile device that some jack booted neofacist could pluck out of your hands.

    • Llewellyn@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      low skilled strong arm attacker or jack booted neo-fascist police state cop or border agent,

      Bless your heart. Those bad people will just beat the password out of you without sweating.