re fifth amendment and passwords in article apr magnus acs ohio state edu ashall magnus acs ohio state edu andrew s hall writes i am postive someone will correct me if i am wrong but doesn t the fifth also cover not being forced to do actions that are self incriminating e g the police couldn t demand that you silently take them to where the body is buried or where the money is hidden but they can make you piss in a jar and possibly provide dna semen and hair samples or to undergo tests for gunpowder residues on your hand btw that was why the chemical engineer arrested in the wtc explosion thrust his hands into a toilet filled with urine as the cops were breaking down the door the nitrogen in the urine would mask any residue from explosives i found it interesting the news reported his acts but not his reasons somewhere perhaps a privacy group they discussed the legal ramifications of using a password like i shot jimmy hoffa and his body is in a storage locker in camden a while back the impression i got was that real judges would dismiss arguments that this password is self incrimination as first year law school sophistry the fact that you use a statement for a password has no bearing on the veracity of that phrase you are not being asked to incrimidate yourself e g where did you bury the body you are being asked to provide information necessary to execute a legal search warrant refusing to provide the password is akin to refusing to provide a key to a storage locker except that they could always force their way into the locker of course that doesn t mean you have to help them understand what they find or point out things they overlooked in their search bear giles bear fsl noaa gov
