this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2026
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The recent federal raid on the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson isn’t merely an attack by the Trump administration on the free press. It’s also a warning to anyone with a smartphone.

Included in the search and seizure warrant for the raid on Natanson’s home is a section titled “Biometric Unlock,” which explicitly authorized law enforcement personnel to obtain Natanson’s phone and both hold the device in front of her face and to forcibly use her fingers to unlock it. In other words, a judge gave the FBI permission to attempt to bypass biometrics: the convenient shortcuts that let you unlock your phone by scanning your fingerprint or face.

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[–] who@feddit.org 81 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

explicitly authorized law enforcement personnel to obtain Natanson’s phone and both hold the device in front of her face and to forcibly use her fingers to unlock it.

In other words, physical assault.

[–] FishFace@piefed.social 16 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Legitimate law enforcement does every day what would be assault by anyone else. This isn't wrong because it's touching people, it's wrong because the law enforcement agencies are illegitimate, so all uses of their power are illegitimate.

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[–] halcyoncmdr@piefed.social 77 points 1 week ago (2 children)

A reminder if you restart your phone biometrics don't work until you unlock it once with your code.

If you're about to deal with police, turn off or restart your phone so it resets to a Before First Unlock state where your information is encrypted and biometrics do not work.

If your phone allows you to set an automatic restart, set that up.

GrapheneOS by default automatically reboots after 18 hours of not being successfully unlocked. Devices in the Before First Unlock state are effectively not able to be accessed by standard law enforcement solutions. It also lets you set a duress password that will immediately make the storage contents permanently inaccessible, delete the eSIM, and power off the device.

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 20 points 1 week ago (7 children)

If you press the lock button on your iPhone several times in a row, it will force the entry of a pin next time it starts.

Test it out, and learn how to do it quickly if the popo comes for you.

[–] lauha@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

On my pixel I can just hold the power button and click "Lockdown" on the menu and it will force the code

[–] Zak@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I don't like this because it's hard to do quickly without being obvious.

[–] lauha@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Do it very obviously as a fuck you instead

[–] Zak@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

If it's obvious and slow, which it is, someone might be able to physically intervene to stop you.

[–] psoul@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

iPhone users: Hold power and either volume up or down button for two seconds It will lock and ask for your pin, regardless if you shut down the phone or not.

Learn how to do it quickly and blindly, with your phone in your pocket.

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Also change the passcode type to alphanumeric even if you just use numbers. Makes it impossible for them to unlock it with that Mosad software. Though you probably need to make the passcode longer than 6 characters and add in a few letters. Like a 6 number passcode just take days to crack. While a 12 character alphanumeric code takes thousands of years.

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[–] lka1988@sh.itjust.works 28 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Find your device's "lockdown" feature (disables fingerprint/face entry) and enable that in any potentially sketchy situation.

I don't know how to trigger it on iOS, but my Pixel has the "lockdown" mode option on the same window as "shutdown" and "reboot", which can be accessed at any time by briefly holding the power button.

[–] overthere@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

On iOS, you can press the power button five times in a row or hold the power button and volume up button together. Either one of those disables biometric login.

Of course, you need to know that you need to do that and have the chance to do so.

You only need a second or two of warning to disable the biometrics - it’s not as good as BFU state, but it’s better than nothing for sure.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This assumes you have the time to activate it. If someone comes up and snatches your phone before you have time to activate it, it's useless. Just don't use biometrics at all.

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[–] dan@upvote.au 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Wouldn't it be better to just turn the phone off? Seems like it's about the same amount of effort, and it won't have anything unencrypted in RAM any more.

[–] TeamAssimilation 3 points 1 week ago

It’s already in the same screen, both on Android and iOS, so of course it is much better, and not less convenient, to shutdown instead.

I can’t think of any reason not to, besides “I might want to unlock it real quick”, which is exactly what you’re preventing on this scenario.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 25 points 1 week ago

Is this the same Washington Post that was informed of the planned illegal invasion and kidnapping of a foreign state leader 24 hours before it happened and chose to sit on that information in order to protect the president?

How odd to then claim just weeks later that they're "free press" and that the man they helped attack others is now attacking them.

[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Biometrics are a username, not a password.

[–] dan@upvote.au 6 points 1 week ago

Except passkeys are replacing passwords, and a lot of people use their fingerprint as the passkey. It's nowhere near as common to use a physical key like a Yubikey.

[–] overthere@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 week ago

Something you have, something you know, something you are.

[–] E_coli42@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

On LineageOS, hold the power button and click "Lockdown"

[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Android has this too, if you enable it in the settings.

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[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 week ago

Ya that's great but also if you power off you phone, you can't use biometrics once it boots up for the first unlock. If you have time to shut it off first, that is.

[–] Tonava@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 week ago

I've been warning people around me for years about shit like this, and have been promptly ignored or thought delusional. Who's crazy now, huh?? I wish it wasn't this way though, it really sucks to see all my paranoia becoming reality. What's next, state approved, AI controlled drones hunting people on the streets based on AI risk assessment and recognition based on databases collected from stuff like assigned passports and voting records?

[–] Perspectivist@feddit.uk 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Handing out my fingerprint to a tech company has seemed like a really bad idea ever since that tech was introduced to smartphones. Never used it myself. I've just stuck to the pattern lock instead. And don't even get me started on FaceID.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Tiktok's new TOS explicitly states that by using the platform, you grant them a permanent liscense to use your face, your voice, etc, for anything they want.

Training LLM models, selling your biometric data to anybody, anything.

People were right that its a form of invasive spyware, all corpo social media apps are, including dating apps obviously.

But uh, its 'ours' now, its our 'panopticon in your pocket' killer app, so... now its good or something.

[–] azureskypirate@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thank you, I'm so glad I left tiktok a while ago

Side note, creating a bitmoji on Snapchat grants them rights to your likeness and image

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[–] neuromorph@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (12 children)

Andoid implemented a lockout mode that when you activate, disables biometrics, usb access and hides notification.

Its been available since the OneUI update.

You activate by holding power and selecting lockput (where reset would be)

[–] 0x0 9 points 1 week ago (4 children)

OneUi isn't 'android', it's 'samsung'

[–] goombakid@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

It's Lockdown on a stock Pixel.

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[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

iPhone/iPad/iWatch does this when you hold the power button to bring up the “turn off” slider. I’m pretty sure stock Android is similar. It’s great because it can be done in your pocket without even looking. I wish more people knew this, and did it every time they go through a security checkpoint or see a fascist in their periphery.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

For me at least it's tap power button 5 times rapidly, rather than holding it, on iPhone.

Or hold power + volume down

Edit: Do keep in mind that this doesn't reset your phone to Before First Unlock status, so it's still vulnerable to tools like cellebrite. This only disables Face ID until you enter the passcode again. For better protection, you'd want to fully shut down your phone, which MIGHT protect it from unlocking altogether, or it might not. If they can't have it unlocked right away, they can get it in a few months or years since you won't be getting security updates and they do discover new vulnerabilities every now and then.

[–] phx@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

On my android the 5-tap activates SoS mode. Holding power for a moment gives the power off and lockdown option, as does pressing power+volup simultaneously. Power+voldown appears to be screenshot.

Most of these options will still keep the phone "active" though so I'm not sure about USB based hacks. If encryption is enabled I believe that forcing a reboot/shutdown means the data on the phone isn't accessible until after unlocking via PIN/password on boot.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 week ago

Oh yeah, so basically this will only protect from the police forcing you to look at your phone or touch the fingerprint sensor. It doesn't actually reset to BFU so you do indeed have to shut it down fully to be more protected. I probably should've mentioned that in my previous comment

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[–] carrotfox@piefed.social 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Any serious justice system would not accept illegally obtained evidence like this

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 18 points 1 week ago

Eh, I get what you mean, but let me explain how it works in Sweden.

Our courts practice something called "fri bevisprövning", this means that no evidence can be declared unusable, and can be used in court, obviously the evidence has to be documented and validated as being real, but the manner of how it was collected does not matter.

Now, if it was collected in an illegal way, that illegal act is a different case altogether.


To be frank it makes a lot of sense, it stops procedural issues from denying the use of evidence, while punishing the illegal act used to collect it.


Now, I know the US has good reasons for the laws they use regarding evidence, I just disagree that it is the only way to do it.

Graphene can do two factor unlock which is nice.

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