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"Much like a warrant for a home or business premises, why should it not be enforceable for digital things too?" In most (democratic) countries you do not have
by gst 16y ago
"Much like a warrant for a home or business premises, why should it not be enforceable for digital things too?"
In most (democratic) countries you do not have to cooperate with the police if they have a warrant. So they are allowed to search your house, they are allowed to break your lock/door, but you are not obligated to give them the key to your house.
It's already the same with digital things: The police can get a warrant and is then allowed to try to crack my password. But I'm not obligated to give them the key.
- aplusbi 16y agoI'm not so sure that's true. I'm pretty sure that not allowing the police to search your house (given that they have a search warrant) is at the very least considered obstruction of justice (in the US). The difference is in the consequences of refusal. For a home search, it's usually in your best interest to open the door because it's really easy for the police to break it down. For an encrypted hard drive, it's nearly impossible to retrieve the data if you refuse to decrypt it.