this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026
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Privacy

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The recent federal raid on the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson isn’t merely an attack by the Trump administration on the free press. It’s also a warning to anyone with a smartphone.

Included in the search and seizure warrant for the raid on Natanson’s home is a section titled “Biometric Unlock,” which explicitly authorized law enforcement personnel to obtain Natanson’s phone and both hold the device in front of her face and to forcibly use her fingers to unlock it. In other words, a judge gave the FBI permission to attempt to bypass biometrics: the convenient shortcuts that let you unlock your phone by scanning your fingerprint or face.-

It is not clear if Natanson used biometric authentication on her devices, or if the law enforcement personnel attempted to use her face or fingers to unlock her devices. Natanson and the Washington Post did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The FBI declined to comment.

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[–] davetortoise@reddthat.com 34 points 1 day ago (4 children)

This sounds like a convenient way to have all your locally saved photos wiped by your kid

[–] this@sh.itjust.works 27 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Always back up anything you don't want to loose.

[–] partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

How should I protect the backups? Same story?

[–] redparadise@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 18 hours ago

Off site backups on some random cloud storage with client side encryption is likely best bet, one needs to have at least one off site backup anyways.

[–] this@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 day ago

Your backups aren't nearly as likely to be subject to an immediate civil forfiture as a phone is. Cops don't need a judicial warrent to take your phone, but they do need one to search your home legally, and if you do your offsite backups in another country, they would need the cooperation of the local authorities of that country. Strong encryption can provide a relatively safe barrier for offsite backups.

Also, it's possible to have some things that may only exist on your phone and not your server/backup system(easy biometric unlock for a password manager, or encrypted chat logs, to name a few examples).

[–] FirstCircle@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 day ago

You mean you're not having your photos automatically, immediately encrypted and backed up on remote servers? ente.io will do that for you and their free plan comes with 10G of storage which is quite a few pics.

[–] discocactus@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

In this economy??!

[–] daisykutter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

These practices and tips are not for everyday people but for high targets and work devices

[–] partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Actually, these tips are for every day people (just not people whose kids can get to their phones). High targets get their ram frozen with liquid nitrogen, their PSU spliced into a battery pack, and the entire system-state backed up for retries.