This lazy critique has been around for years, but it’s never been true. Just like the drivers license, you don’t need to unlock the phone.
> When you present your license or ID in person, after you authenticate using Face ID or Touch ID, your ID information is presented digitally through encrypted communication between your iPhone or Apple Watch and the identity reader, so you don’t need to unlock, show, or hand over your device. If your device is locked when you present your ID, it stays locked after you present your ID.
This is also a fundamentally naive criticism because we’re at a point where anyone worried about their unlocked device knows that the alternative ranges from being detained for a few hours and missing their flight, to spending a week or two sleeping on a concrete floor in an overcrowded detention center, to being shipped off to a lawless concentration camp in El Salvador. Keeping your phone locked or powered off is no substitute for returning to a constitutional democracy.
> When you present your license or ID in person, after you authenticate using Face ID or Touch ID, your ID information is presented digitally through encrypted communication between your iPhone or Apple Watch and the identity reader, so you don’t need to unlock, show, or hand over your device. If your device is locked when you present your ID, it stays locked after you present your ID.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/118260
This is also a fundamentally naive criticism because we’re at a point where anyone worried about their unlocked device knows that the alternative ranges from being detained for a few hours and missing their flight, to spending a week or two sleeping on a concrete floor in an overcrowded detention center, to being shipped off to a lawless concentration camp in El Salvador. Keeping your phone locked or powered off is no substitute for returning to a constitutional democracy.