<story><title>Suspects can refuse to provide phone passcodes to police, court rules</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/12/suspects-can-refuse-to-provide-phone-passcodes-to-police-court-rules/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>snickerbockers</author><text>Has there ever been a court case related to encrypted data or secret codes without a computer being involved?  If the cops get a warrant to tap a phone line and they hear me speaking with an associate using some sort of coded language (as spies and criminals often do on TV) can i be compelled to explain to them what all the little codewords actually mean?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hutzlibu</author><text>&amp;quot;can i be compelled to explain to them what all the little codewords actually mean&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I would like to think not, as usually you cannot be made to compell against yourself. The famous right to silence.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Right_to_silence&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Right_to_silence&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Which was the base of this court case (and I think it is troublesome, that it had to be debated at all)&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;One of the major issues in the law of digital evidence investigations is how the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination applies to unlocking phones&amp;quot;</text></comment>
<story><title>Suspects can refuse to provide phone passcodes to police, court rules</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/12/suspects-can-refuse-to-provide-phone-passcodes-to-police-court-rules/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>snickerbockers</author><text>Has there ever been a court case related to encrypted data or secret codes without a computer being involved?  If the cops get a warrant to tap a phone line and they hear me speaking with an associate using some sort of coded language (as spies and criminals often do on TV) can i be compelled to explain to them what all the little codewords actually mean?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>yencabulator</author><text>Cryptography predates computers, so the only real question is has it shown up in &lt;i&gt;public&lt;/i&gt; court records or not. I&amp;#x27;d expect plenty of history in treason charges against caught spies, but whether the records are public or not is a different question.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Book_cipher&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Book_cipher&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Codebook&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Codebook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Poem_code&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Poem_code&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>