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Stop Using Your Face or Thumb to Unlock Your Phone
(gizmodo.com)
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this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2024
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You can turn that and Face ID off on iOS by mashing the power button 5 times- it locks everything down.
I've always wanted a setting to create a lockdown key and an unlock key. So something like middle-finger to unlock but index-finger to force it into PIN/password only mode. So you can have some convenience of a quick unlock but if an authority figure asks or forces you to unlock it you can one-tap lock it down.
That would be awesome.
In GrapheneOS, a single wrong fingerprint disables fingerprint unlock until the password is entered.
⚠️ WARNING: On android, mashing the power button 5 times calls emergency services.....
On android you can add a 'lockdown' mode to the power menu.
Thanks for this, didn't know this was an option.
There are two ways you can do this on Android currently, but they're not as quick. You can try to unlock with the wrong finger 5 times and it will stop allowing fingerprint unlocks. Or, you can hold down the power button for 10 seconds and the phone will reboot and also disable fingerprint unlocking.
Android has a similar feature. It's called "Lockdown mode" on the shutdown menu. Locks the phone and turns off any biometric unlocks.
Except it doesn't activate by mashing the power button 5 times. On my Pixel 8, that activates the emergency dialer that will automatically call 911 if you don't cancel the prompt in 5 seconds. I did not know that before. Probably a better use for that feature. It also points out the different ideologies of Apple vs Android.
It does the same thing on iOS, but face/Touch ID is disabled after.
You can turn off the 911 “feature.” Don’t ask me how I know 😅
My wife's pixel 3(?) with a flaky power button had us wake up to cops knocking on the door because of that feature.
You can turn it off somewhere in the settings
On iOS, for SOS, Medical ID, and "slide to power off" you hold power and a volume button. That also disables biometric ID.
Push and hold to get the power menu on my 7.
On my 8, that just activates the Google assistant. To get to the power menu, you have to press power (oddly named button, to be honest) and vol up at the same time. But these are active acts that you have to think about and verify to make sure they did what they are supposed to. Mashing the power button 5 times is succinct. I don't have to guess how many seconds I've waited. I don't have to feel to make sure I'm hitting the vol up instead of vol down accidentally. I count 5 times, 6 to make sure, and I can drop it while being certain that it's going to call 911. That's what I want in an emergency. A quick distinct action that requires no guessing to make sure it works. It makes sense once you stop and think. Nothing else about the power button makes sense, but at least that part does.
Try system - gestures - press power button. I have the choice of the power menu or the digital assistant.
"Oh shit, what's happening? NO NO NO!"
Yup, can confirm.
On my Pixel 7 Pro, I press the power and volume up buttons simultaneously, then I can click Lockdown. Now my passcode is required to unlock the phone.
On my ditto (running GrapheneOS), the Lockdown option is accessible through the regular power button menu. When I press power+volumeUp it switches to silent mode. I don't know if/where I changed this, since I can't find the options when searching in settings.
EDIT: I just found it - in Settings > System > Gestures > Prevent ringing. I can either set power+volumeUp to mute the phone, or vibrate only. Nothing about the Lockdown option, but having it in the regular power button menu is good enough for me.
If by "regular power button menu" you mean holding the power button for a couple seconds, that was changed at least on pixel devices to bring up some bullshit called "Gemini", some AI from googie that I never got a chance to say no to. Power + volume up is now how we get to the power menu, because of course they would change the function everyone uses occasionally to a more obscure combination without notice
I was mowing my lawn and learned about that feature. A nice ladies voice came through my bluetooth headphones asking if I needed help lol. You can change what the button spam does and I changed it to call my mom instead.
In a getting pulled over situation, this works. But do it before you go protest anything. Or better yet, leave your phone at home. You don’t want to be reaching for something while a cop is pointing a gun at you and saying “Hands up!”
Not to mention it's pretty regular to track who is participating by checking the towers in the zone all the people are participating.
Or get a geofence warrant
☞ EFF / Surveillance Self-Defense / Attending a Protest
That's terrifying. So once we have tech to forcibly see inside the brain, that will be legal too?
You think it wouldn't xD?
“You shouldn’t be worried if you have nothing to hide” 🤷♂️
Tap for spoiler
/sProbably. Wouldn't it be good to have the truth during investigations?
However I think that we really need refine when warrantless searches can occur. Right now many searches seem to be done with very little evidence to justify them. I think this protection should apply to your mind and phone just like it applies to your house. This probably also needs to be considered at border crossings. Right now they have basically unlimited rights for searching what you have on you with little to no evidence.
We should probably also rethink about how the information is shared when there is a warrant. Right now during a trial a huge amount of personal information can be made available. Maybe if it was easier to get precise information less would be needed.
Well, yeah, but the mind is fallible. That's why eye witness testimony usually only gets a case so far, people tend to forget specifics and fill in the gaps without realizing they did.
That is important to remember but it is sort of orthogonal to the point being made. Assuming that mind-reading worked perfectly you can find the truth about what the person believes. In most cases if they think they murdered the person and the gun is hidden behind the oak in their backyard it is beyond a reasonable doubt. I think it is still useful to have the truth about what that person believes, even if we have to remember that their beliefs are fallible.
to be fair to the current justice system, a lot of times you can just hit the courts with "excuse me sir, this was unwarranted" and assuming it was actually unwarranted, they should overthrow it immediately.
Do you have to mash it? Or will pressing it normally work?
The only thing I'll mash is that subscribe button
NO
Assuming you have the access to do this, e.g. awake, conscious, not handcuffed, etc. It's safer to just always use a PIN in the first place.
You can also just long press a volume button with the lock button (with a FaceID phone). I find this harder to mess up under stress.
On Graphene/Calyx you can auto-restart the phone after a given time period if it hasn't been interacted with. Recommend turning this on for all users.
What's the name of this feature for GrapheneOS? I'm not finding it.
Try searching for auto reboot, or some sort of extra security settings menu.