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No, it's not more like making you open a safe. Telling someone the encryption key is being compelled to act as a witness against yourself, which the 5th amendm

• JoeSmithson 7y ago
  No it's not. The information you provide (the password) is not admitted as evidence in the trial. It's more like being compelled to act as a confidential informant against yourself. There's no prospect of this being used to bring about a wrongful conviction through coercing a confession.
  • adgasf 7y ago
    If the key is not evidence then how can they prove that they got the incriminating files from the encrypted drive?
    • JoeSmithson 7y ago
      A forensic scientist would testify that they extracted the files from there. It is exactly the same as when a confidential source gives up an address (for example) the source never gets into evidence.
      • CiPHPerCoder 7y ago
        The whole point of strong encryption is to prevent adversaries (including forensic scientists) from extracting any information without possession of the key. If the key involves a password that you, a human, have memorized in your squishy pink organ, it's privileged under the Fifth Amendment. (This hasn't been tested in court yet, of course. There's no precedent to fall back on.)