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From the article: > "Irish police will have the power to compel people to provide passwords for electronic devices when carrying out a search warrant under new

From the article: > "Irish police will have the power to compel people to provide passwords for electronic devices when carrying out a search warrant under new legislation." This is not unique to Ireland, we see this here in the US as well.

kingsloi 5y ago
I'll likely already know the answer (jail time?), but what if you were to "forget"? I have some long passwords that I keep out of password managers for private stuff that I don't want to be leaked from a password manager leak or w/e. I can remember them, but had a really hard time remembering even the start of most of them after not using them for a few weeks.
- jagger27 5y ago
  There have been times that I’ve had to close my eyes and completely rely on muscle memory to enter a long password. Last time it happened was after a 2 week vacation. That kind of timeframe isn’t abnormal for the speed of law.
  - tediousdemise 5y ago
    Impressive! After all these years I still need to look at the keyboard.
    - jagger27 5y ago
      I find it somewhat disconcerting that my fingers remember my passwords better than my brain does!
      - dkersten 5y ago
        Muscle memory still happens in the brain. A better description might be unconscious memory. I believe the proper term is "procedural memory". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procedural_memory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procedural_memory
  - spentu 5y ago
    This happens to me a lot. I need to have access to keyboard for being able to type some older password. Same thing with pin codes.. Funny how brain works.
hwbehrens 5y ago
> [...] we see this here in the US as well. This is only true when the revealed information is a "foregone conclusion", specifically when it "adds little or nothing to the sum total of the Government’s information." Here is a good treatment on the subject: https://harvardlawreview.org/2021/04/state-v-andrews/ https://harvardlawreview.org/2021/04/state-v-andrews/
jhauris 5y ago
This is something that varies state to state. Quick search shows that Pennsylvania considers giving up a password as self-incriminating testimony (protected by the 5th amendment), while Massachusetts does not. They can generally force you to use biometrics to unlock or give them a physical key anywhere, however. This seems to be an actively developing area of law around the world.
- vmception 5y ago
  Hold power button on iphone and it disables biometric without turning off the device They might still have a way to image it though, depends on the day as the imaging software always gets thwarted
  - vmception 5y ago
    Power+volume whoops Also believe it depends on the model but the 12 pro does it like this and a few models before
- aaron-santos 5y ago
  On the subject of the fifth amendment, there was a (possibly) non-serious theory that having one's password be the admission of guilt to a crime would serve as protection as revealing the password would actual be self-incriminating. Like most legal theories on the internet, it (probably) isn't true.

kingsloi 5y ago

I'll likely already know the answer (jail time?), but what if you were to "forget"? I have some long passwords that I keep out of password managers for private stuff that I don't want to be leaked from a password manager leak or w/e. I can remember them, but had a really hard time remembering even the start of most of them after not using them for a few weeks.

jagger27 5y ago
There have been times that I’ve had to close my eyes and completely rely on muscle memory to enter a long password. Last time it happened was after a 2 week vacation. That kind of timeframe isn’t abnormal for the speed of law.
- tediousdemise 5y ago
  Impressive! After all these years I still need to look at the keyboard.
  - jagger27 5y ago
    I find it somewhat disconcerting that my fingers remember my passwords better than my brain does!
    - dkersten 5y ago
      Muscle memory still happens in the brain. A better description might be unconscious memory. I believe the proper term is "procedural memory". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procedural_memory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procedural_memory
- spentu 5y ago
  This happens to me a lot. I need to have access to keyboard for being able to type some older password. Same thing with pin codes.. Funny how brain works.

hwbehrens 5y ago

> [...] we see this here in the US as well. This is only true when the revealed information is a "foregone conclusion", specifically when it "adds little or nothing to the sum total of the Government’s information." Here is a good treatment on the subject: https://harvardlawreview.org/2021/04/state-v-andrews/ https://harvardlawreview.org/2021/04/state-v-andrews/

jhauris 5y ago

This is something that varies state to state. Quick search shows that Pennsylvania considers giving up a password as self-incriminating testimony (protected by the 5th amendment), while Massachusetts does not. They can generally force you to use biometrics to unlock or give them a physical key anywhere, however. This seems to be an actively developing area of law around the world.

vmception 5y ago
Hold power button on iphone and it disables biometric without turning off the device They might still have a way to image it though, depends on the day as the imaging software always gets thwarted
- vmception 5y ago
  Power+volume whoops Also believe it depends on the model but the 12 pro does it like this and a few models before
aaron-santos 5y ago
On the subject of the fifth amendment, there was a (possibly) non-serious theory that having one's password be the admission of guilt to a crime would serve as protection as revealing the password would actual be self-incriminating. Like most legal theories on the internet, it (probably) isn't true.