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"If they do have probable cause, they get a warrant which gives them the power to do the search temporarily and only for what they think exists. So if you get a
by gst 15y ago
"If they do have probable cause, they get a warrant which gives them the power to do the search temporarily and only for what they think exists. So if you get a warrant to search your hard drive for something, you are compelled to give them the password just like you are compelled to let them into your house if they have a warrant to search for something like drugs or guns or counterfeit plush toys."
Does US law require me to open the door of my house to the police if they have a warrant?
In lots of countries a warrant allows the police to search your house, but it does not require your cooperation. You may not actively hinder the police from doing their task, but you, e.g., do not need to open the door.
- ChuckMcM 15y ago"Does US law require me to open the door of my house to the police if they have a warrant?" Its a good question, you are required to co-operate with the authorities in the lawful execution of their job. The term 'lawful' is, of course, subject to legal interpretation. Police have arrested people for filming them arresting others, typically the scenario is "They ask the person filming to stop while they are doing their job, person doesn't, they arrest them for interfering with an officer." (sister-in-law is a public defender, I get to hear all the excuses). So far the California lower courts are still fumbling around this issue. I expect it to make it to the ninth circuit sometime later this year or early next year. The question of "Can you make a house that the police can't search without your co-operation?" is a good one, and I'll ask my lawyer friends if that approach has been taken yet. Generally a subpoena is the court ordering you to co-operate and generally you must (or be held in contempt of court). So I expect such cases would go "give us your hard drive" followed by "give us the key", followed by a refusal, followed by a subpoena, followed by another refusal, followed by being in jail for contempt. If you did shred your key so that you literally cannot decrypt the drive, then I would expect you to spend a few days in jail (so that the prosecutor could prove to themselves you are serious) and then they would return your drive after re-formatting it. How they would justify that I do not know but I know that they would try.
- B_ 15y agoIntentionally making your data inaccessible (by encryption or otherwise) without a means of recovering it to attempt to prevent it being used against you in court could be considered destruction of evidence. If convicted of that, expect far more than a few days in jail, depending on how annoyed the judge is with you.
- gcb 15y agoHaving lost the key for several of my spare drivers in the closet... How can that power abuse you describe be avoided on innocents?
- marshray 15y agoBut it wasn't evidence when you encrypted it, right?
- Duff 15y agoTypically, you are in trouble when you destroy evidence when you has reasonable cause to believe that it is evidence. If I delete all of my email today, I'm not committing a crime. But if I find out that my company is being sued for breach of a contract that I was working on, deleting email becomes suspicious.
- encoderer 15y ago
- dmor 15y agoI can tell you what happens if you don't cooperate. They break your door down and they search anyway. Still working on getting ours fixed. There are two ways to avoid this, either build a house with no doors, or don't have one.
- cheez 15y agoIf you don't want to replace your door, I'm sure.