a Few buttons, have probably avoided prison. In China, the authorities have forced Colin Cheung, a demonstrator in hong kong, to open his iPhone during an arrest, as reported in the New York Times . The man had to put his face in the face of the phone, which unlocks automatically using facial recognition. But when it is executed, the device was inaccessible, much to the chagrin of the local police. Colin Cheung had pressed several buttons on his smartphone before you get caught. This allows you to disable the opening of the smartphone thanks to the face.
The protester has appealed to the “cop mode” (that could be translated by “fashion police”). This feature, introduced in 2017, with iOS 11, allows you to disable the “Face ID” of an iPhone, the unlocking of the phone via facial recognition. To do this, just push the standby button (top right of phone) and one of those that control the sound level (“volume up” or “volume down”, on the left) for a few seconds. There is a similar operation to disable the “Touch ID”, that is to say, the opening of the iPhone through fingerprints. To do this, it is necessary to press five times on the sleep button. This allows you to switch back to a password classic to unlock the device.
In the range of Apple products, the “Touch ID” has arrived with the iPhone 5s, in September 2013. As to the option of “Face ID”, she landed two years ago, with the iPhone X. The feature that is most recent is deemed to be more accurate and secure. “Touch ID” can register up to five fingerprints are different, so that the facial-recognition technology does not allow two.
France and the obligation to unlock a phone
In China, the authorities have done everything to unlock the phone to Colin Cheung, regardless of his consent. But how is framed the thing in France? At the end of march 2018, the constitutional Council has dealt with the issue in the context of a priority question of constitutionality. The request emanated from “Malek B”, in particular, continued to have refused to give its codes of phone in police custody. According to him, the article 434-15-2, which punishes the fact of not providing “the secret convention of decryption of a means of cryptology that is likely to have been used to prepare, facilitate or commit a crime or an offence”, was unconstitutional. But the Sages ruled: refuse to give their pin to phone in police custody is subject to prosecution.
Malek B and her lawyer then appealed. The man has been sentenced for the other charges against him, relating to drug trafficking. But in June 2019, within the framework of the same case, the court found that the fact that you do not reveal the code to his phone was not liable to prosecution. In effect, the judges have explained that”a code to unlock a phone-use power […] does not allow to decrypt data or messages encrypted and, in this sense, is not a secret convention of a means of cryptology [in reference to the article 434-15-2, which was the subject of the priority issue of constitutionality – ED]”. The lawyer Malek B, Karim Morand-Lahouazi, believes that it is “a big advance”. According to The new yorker , the decision could set a precedent, and thus be applied in other cases.
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