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Danny Yadron
Sep 12, 2013 2:05 pm ET Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller speaks about security features of the new iPhone 5S.

“A fingerprint is entitled to less constitutional protection than a password known in your mind,” said Hanni Fakhoury, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco.  “If police arrest you and ask you for a password, you could refuse and they’d be hard pressed to force you to divulge the password.”

Of course, police already collect fingerprints after booking a suspect. And the Supreme Court has also held that police don’t need a search warrant to collect fingerprints.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment on the Fifth Amendment implications of Touch ID.

Apple has said that the new iPhones don’t store actual fingerprint images but rather “fingerprint data,” that the phone uses to confirm someone’s identity.

An iPhone fingerprint scan could theoretically create a new piece of police evidence, too. It’s possible the system could be used by police to better establish who was using a smartphone at a certain time. Federal investigators regularly use data about which phone number called another and when.

“The fact someone unlocked the phone could be used as circumstantial evidence to show dominion and control over the phone, much the same way fingerprints are used to prove someone had touched a gun or were at the scene of the crime,” Fakhoury said.

Related: Danny Yadron has details on digits. Previous The Good News About Nokia's Fall Next J.P. Morgan: Facebook's Ad Revenue Going Up


 



Can Your iPhone Thumbprint Be Used Against You?


