Hacker News Reader

You've obviously never heard of the Fifth Amendment. It's actually quite the opposite, the Constitution enhances your right to privacy (by refusing to talk about something) when doing so could be used to prosecute you for a crime.

View on HN

The 5th doesn't give you privacy to anything outside of your thoughts inside your head, which isn't related to anything being discussed here. Everything else in the US is covered by the 4th.

Wrong. For example courts have consistently ruled that you can’t be compelled to unlock your phone or decrypt your hard disk if you’re invoking the 5th

That is a perfect example of how my statement is 100% correct. (many/most) Courts in the US have ruled that you can't be compelled to provide a decryption key only when it is, as I said:

> inside your head

If it is written down, biometric, etc it does not get protection under the 5th. Those realms are not inside your head, and so they are protected by the 4th, and subject to warrant.

"courts have consistently ruled that you can't be compelled to unlock your phone ... if you're invoking the 5th."

This is demonstrably false.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/08/nj-supreme-court...

That’s NJ Supreme Court, not federal court. They’re notorious for getting overruled at the federal level.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com