[dman]

The backups are an interesting thing that you bring up. The cynic in me cant help thinking that even as companies posture about being pro privacy, they do design features in a way where they can subvert privacy with plausible deniability.

For instance the move away from screen passwords to biometric things like fingerprints had me thinking about the fact that from a police pov - if they have a suspect in custody, forcing the suspect to put their thumb on the phone is probably a lot easier than getting them to reveal their password.

Phrased another way, I find it hard to imagine that big companies are able to tell the state to take a hike and get away with it.

[tg180]

If you are thinking about a scenario like xkcd-538, it’s even worse.

Pass-codes and pass-phrases are protected under the 5th amendment, while biometrics are not.

The investigator will get a warrant for the biometric in question, refusing to comply is an offense.

[dman]

Which is why I have been very wary on why almost the entire industry has moved to biometrics. In a way its a cheap way of throwing the privacy gauntlet back to the user rather than standing up to governments.