tl;dr
To keep my phone secure from the government, I am looking for a way to trigger the stronger protection of the password unlock. Preferably with an app, or a physical key press. I want to be able to quickly lock the phone in such a way that the full password is required to unlock it, while still keeping biometric unlock turned on for normal locks. Right now the best option is to restart the phone, but this requires holding down the power button, tapping restart, then tapping confirm. On the Galaxy S8, powering off the phone is even worse. It requires holding down the power button selecting "power off" then entering the password or fingerprint to power the phone down! Is there any quicker method?
Details:
I have a Galaxy S8+, but this question applies to any newer Android phone that has some form of biometric security (fingerprint, facial recognition, iris scanning, etc). The S8+ has all three, and the iris scanning appears to be the most useful.
Over the past few years, there have been a number of US court cases that have established that law enforcement and other government agencies such as US Customs can require you to provide biometric data, such as a fingerprint, to unlock your phone. In most cases, this requires a warrant. The idea is that since you have no common expectation of privacy for your fingerprint or facial features, you can be legally compelled to give up this information, and it isn't something that is protected under the 5th Amendments protection against self-incrimination. However, passwords or pin numbers are inherently private and absent some very strong requirements, you can assert your Fifth Amendment rights and *cannot* be compelled to reveal them.
Our phones contain a tremendous amount of sensitive and personal data, and regardless of whether or not you have anything to hide, I don't want to allow the government access to my data. Thus, I would like to have my phone secured with a pin number or password.
To be secure, I use a fairly strong password and have my phone encrypted. However, I dislike having to enter this password every time I unlock my phone, so I have biometric security enabled. This allows me to unlock my phone with either a fingerprint or iris scan. When my phone is restarted or powered on, the full password is required. When it is simply unlocked, I can use either the password or biometrics.
To keep my phone secure from the government, I am looking for a way to trigger the stronger protection of the password unlock. Preferably with an app, or a physical key press. I want to be able to quickly lock the phone in such a way that the full password is required to unlock it, while still keeping biometric unlock turned on for normal locks. Right now the best option is to restart the phone, but this requires holding down the power button, tapping restart, then tapping confirm. On the Galaxy S8, powering off the phone is even worse. It requires holding down the power button selecting "power off" then entering the password or fingerprint to power the phone down! Is there any quicker method?
Details:
I have a Galaxy S8+, but this question applies to any newer Android phone that has some form of biometric security (fingerprint, facial recognition, iris scanning, etc). The S8+ has all three, and the iris scanning appears to be the most useful.
Over the past few years, there have been a number of US court cases that have established that law enforcement and other government agencies such as US Customs can require you to provide biometric data, such as a fingerprint, to unlock your phone. In most cases, this requires a warrant. The idea is that since you have no common expectation of privacy for your fingerprint or facial features, you can be legally compelled to give up this information, and it isn't something that is protected under the 5th Amendments protection against self-incrimination. However, passwords or pin numbers are inherently private and absent some very strong requirements, you can assert your Fifth Amendment rights and *cannot* be compelled to reveal them.
Our phones contain a tremendous amount of sensitive and personal data, and regardless of whether or not you have anything to hide, I don't want to allow the government access to my data. Thus, I would like to have my phone secured with a pin number or password.
To be secure, I use a fairly strong password and have my phone encrypted. However, I dislike having to enter this password every time I unlock my phone, so I have biometric security enabled. This allows me to unlock my phone with either a fingerprint or iris scan. When my phone is restarted or powered on, the full password is required. When it is simply unlocked, I can use either the password or biometrics.
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