Chipping Away

A Facebook friend shared some advice yesterday for those of us going to Inauguration-related marches. If you've got your smart phone set up to unlock with your fingerprint, she said, turn that off for the day because the police can't compel you to provide an unlock number, but they can compel your fingerprint.

I didn't believe it when I saw it, but lo and behold, this was in today's newspaper:


How is that even possible?

Compelling fingerprints for forensic purposes, okay, I get the parallel to compelling a blood or hair sample. But fingerprints used to unlock a phone are not the same. They are more like a key, and police can't compel keys to your house, can they?
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Here's an earlier post that contained some thoughts and links on the nature of cell phones, legally, relative to the Fourth Amendment.