As I understand it, in the US at least this is indeed the line. Same goes for combination vs keyed locks: you can't be forced to self-incriminate by sharing information, but you can be held in contempt for withholding evidence.
I imagine it gets murky around things like SSH keys, which are technically a kind of password, but too big for a human to remember - and therefore must be "instantiated" in a physical device somewhere.
> I imagine it gets murky around things like SSH keys, which are technically a kind of password, but too big for a human to remember - and therefore must be "instantiated" in a physical device somewhere.
A likely interpretation might be: an SSH key without a keyphrase is like a physical key, and you must hand it over, while a key with a keyphrase is like a combination lock, where you must hand it over but you are not required to state the keyphrase.
I imagine it gets murky around things like SSH keys, which are technically a kind of password, but too big for a human to remember - and therefore must be "instantiated" in a physical device somewhere.