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Sometime during quarantine I had an evening thought excercise about clever password choices in this context. It was a fun game, and would be a cute scene in a m

by jfoutz 5y ago

Sometime during quarantine I had an evening thought excercise about clever password choices in this context. It was a fun game, and would be a cute scene in a movie or a book. Ultimately the password `fuck you cop I'll never tell` is a fun idea, but little value. Complying without appearing to comply might change up the game a bit, but you're still screwed. _edit_ it is kind of fun to think of a password so offensive that it doesn't matter who asks you, they won't believe that's your password. Technically might buy you some time before they figure it out.

cge 5y ago
The way the law is worded (see my other comment), the police can force you to do whatever is necessary to unlock the device by any means at your disposal, not just disclose your password. While this would be technically a terrible idea on their part for a number of reasons, having a clever password would not be helpful.
dane-pgp 5y ago
> a password so offensive that it doesn't matter who asks you, they won't believe that's your password. If they don't believe it's your password, then you haven't really avoided the punishment for not disclosing your password (although you might take some comfort from a kind of moral victory, having told the truth and complied with the letter of the law). Instead of coming up with a password that offends the police, a better approach is to come up with one that interests them, specifically a detailed admission of a crime. For example, the password could be of the form "I killed John Doe, and buried the body in my garden". Assuming your jurisdiction has protections against self-incrimination, and you can convince a judge that your password really does contain such information, they may have to choose between not learning your password, and giving you some sort of immunity deal. Of course, if this approach leads to innocent citizens routinely committing crimes just to come up with a unique password (or worse, criminals baiting police into giving them immunity in return for access to dummy encrypted data) then the only law that will be followed is the Law of Unintended Consequences.
- garblegarble 5y ago
  >Assuming your jurisdiction has protections against self-incrimination, and you can convince a judge that your password really does contain such information, they may have to choose between not learning your password, and giving you some sort of immunity deal. I think it's quite unlikely they'd give immunity, especially when they could just instruct you to unlock the device and hand it over without telling them the password
- pbhjpbhj 5y ago
  I'm assuming the offensive password works in a situation where you have a deadman's handle. So then a month later you can say "I told you my password was '$offensive-phrase' and can prove it was, now you need to release me" (presumably after your lawyer acquires the audio from the interview to back up your assertion).

by jfoutz 5y ago

cge 5y ago

The way the law is worded (see my other comment), the police can force you to do whatever is necessary to unlock the device by any means at your disposal, not just disclose your password. While this would be technically a terrible idea on their part for a number of reasons, having a clever password would not be helpful.

dane-pgp 5y ago

> a password so offensive that it doesn't matter who asks you, they won't believe that's your password. If they don't believe it's your password, then you haven't really avoided the punishment for not disclosing your password (although you might take some comfort from a kind of moral victory, having told the truth and complied with the letter of the law). Instead of coming up with a password that offends the police, a better approach is to come up with one that interests them, specifically a detailed admission of a crime. For example, the password could be of the form "I killed John Doe, and buried the body in my garden". Assuming your jurisdiction has protections against self-incrimination, and you can convince a judge that your password really does contain such information, they may have to choose between not learning your password, and giving you some sort of immunity deal. Of course, if this approach leads to innocent citizens routinely committing crimes just to come up with a unique password (or worse, criminals baiting police into giving them immunity in return for access to dummy encrypted data) then the only law that will be followed is the Law of Unintended Consequences.

garblegarble 5y ago
>Assuming your jurisdiction has protections against self-incrimination, and you can convince a judge that your password really does contain such information, they may have to choose between not learning your password, and giving you some sort of immunity deal. I think it's quite unlikely they'd give immunity, especially when they could just instruct you to unlock the device and hand it over without telling them the password
pbhjpbhj 5y ago
I'm assuming the offensive password works in a situation where you have a deadman's handle. So then a month later you can say "I told you my password was '$offensive-phrase' and can prove it was, now you need to release me" (presumably after your lawyer acquires the audio from the interview to back up your assertion).