Judge forces US Capitol rioter to unlock laptop seized by FBI

They can confiscate keys and use them to unlock filing cabinets and safes, they can even force you to use your fingerprint on a biometric safe, but if it's a combination lock they cannot force you to provide them with the combination. This is protected by the 5th amendment. They have to bring a locksmith out to crack the safe.

Data on your hard drive is the same. They're free to use whatever means they have available to them to access the data, including using your own biometrics (fingerprint/face/whatever). They can't compel you to give up the password though, because that's protected by the 5th amendment.

The fact that they can't crack consumer encryption is their problem, not yours. It's like having an uncrackable safe.

/r/TechNewsToday Thread Parent Link - cnn.com