
Manhattan DA calls for backdoors in all mobile operating systems - noondip
http://boingboing.net/2015/11/18/manhattan-da-calls-for-backdoo.html
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Futurebot
I've read the source document, and it makes a good attempt at explaining the
issue in a mostly balanced way to a less-technical audience, even if it does
gloss over some things. Its recommendations, though, are mostly familiar ones
with familiar refutations. Here's what they're asking for:

"The federal legislation would provide in substance that any smartphone
manufactured, leased, or sold in the U.S. must be able to be unlocked, or its
data accessed, by the operating system designer. Compliance with such a
statute would not require new technology or costly adjustments. It would
require, simply, that designers and makers of operating systems not design or
build them to be impregnable to lawful governmental searches."

And this is the main thing that they find frustrating:

"Case law holds almost universally that a defendant cannot be compelled (by,
e.g., a grand jury subpoena or order of the court) to provide the government
with her or his passcode, because such compulsion would violate the
defendant’s Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination."

I was under the impression that they already have a tool to deal with this
called "hold someone indefinitely until they give the password up."

