A Federal Judge Decided That Law Enforcement Can't Make You Hand Over Your Smartphone Passcode

If you have a smartphone and you haven’t added a passcode to it, you might want to do so. On Wednesday, a federal judge in Pennsylvania decided that people can’t be forced to reveal their passcodes to law enforcement, since it would violate the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, Slate reports.

However, in 2014, a Virginia circuit court judge decided that police could force someone to unlock their smartphone using a fingerprint scanner. Their reasoning was that it’s similar to a fingerprint, cheek swab or handwriting sample, and, unlike a passcode, does not violate the Fifth Amendment.

Law enforcement has argued for ways around the passcode impasse, positing that defendants could enter their passcodes rather than handing them over to the government. Others have suggested cracking passcodes using computers to generate number combinations.