Privacy concerns are perhaps some of the most important battles that are unfolding right now. We live in an age of increased demand for privacy while using services that do their best to assure us that our information is private, but they themselves have full access to just about every little thing that we do. Facebook tracks just about everything that we browse, like, upload, or read, while Google tracks what stores that we go to both online and in person. A lot of the technology that we do have might have security features, but they are feeling increasingly cosmetic in the face of expanding legislation.

The latest in the battle of phone encryption and exactly what can be asked of the end user when it comes to legal cases is unfolding before our eyes, according to Engadget. An LA court and the FBI weren’t going to wait to see what the consensus was on this. Instead, a warrant was issued in an identity theft case, and the accused was forced to place her finger on the print reader to unlock her iPhone. This is exactly the kind of thing that Apple has been fighting against. The FBI feel confident enough in their right to demand this, so here we go, we have precedent now.

There are definitely a few sides to this debate and each one makes a lot of sense. If data was instead physical property inside of a house and there was a search warrant for the house, police would have that evidence. On the other side of the coin, where is the line for such invasions of privacy? This will undoubtedly continue to unfold and we’ll find out what the line is soon enough, good or bad.

(Via Engadget)