https://www.engadget.com/2018/10/13/police-told-to-avoid-looking-at-iphone-x/
"Police have yet to completely wrap their heads around modern iPhones like the
X and XS, and that's clearer than ever thanks to a leak.Motherboard has
obtained a presentation slide from forensics company Elcomsoft telling law
enforcement to avoid looking at iPhones with Face ID. If they gaze at it too
many times (five), the company said, they risk being locked out much like
Apple's Craig Federighi was during the iPhone X launch event. They'd then have
to enter a passcode that they likely can't obtain under the US Constitution's
Fifth Amendment, which protects suspects from having to provide
self-incriminating testimony."
"There are ways around this system, whether or not they're ethically sound --
the FBI recently forced a suspect to unlock his iPhone X using Face ID. Some
warrants can explicitly offer permission to use face unlocking. Many
investigators won't know about the alternatives, though, and there won't always
be an option to use the accused person's face. There's no guarantee other
countries will allow forced face recognition, either."
"The slide also underscores the challenge face recognition poses for
investigators, especially when there's no fingerprint fallback as with newer
iPhones. Where it's easy to avoid accidentally triggering a fingerprint reader,
you can inadvertently set off a system like Face ID just by raising or tapping
the screen. Like it or not, officers will have to be much more delicate when
they want access to recent handsets -- especially when they aren't guaranteed
wired access."
[end of quote]
Jim Bell
