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Comment by wat10000

1 day ago

I think you're right, but the two collide over the question of whether police have the right to be able to access your stuff, or merely the right to try to access it.

In the past, if you put evidence in a safe and refused to open it, the police could crack it, drill it, cut it open, etc. if all else failed.

Modern technology allows wide access to the equivalent of a perfectly impregnable safe. If the police get a warrant for your files, but your files fundamentally cannot be read without your cooperation, what then?

It comes down to three options: accept this possibility and do without the evidence; make it legally required to unlock the files, with a punishment at least as severe as you're facing for the actual crime; or outlaw impregnable safes.

There doesn't seem to be any consensus yet about which approach is correct. We see all three in action in various places.