There are, as far as I can tell some weaknesses in that argument, at least from a lay perspective.
- There must be evidence that I can unlock the device for the two situations to be equivalent, and the request must be for specific documents known to exist. If they don't exist all evidence found must be invalidated because the cause for the search was invalid.
- If evidence of ability to unlock the device does not exists, but the assumption is that since it's mine I can unlock it, I think the analogy is slightly flawed. Since the ask is now not about producing a specific thing I'm known to possess, I'm indirectly being asked to produce a document (password), albeit not in material form but typed on a keyboard. Since it's never been proved that I actually am able to open it, the situation is not equivalent, but more like there being a safe in my house that nobody has seen me open, no key is know to exist, but since I own the house I am assumed to be able to open it, and I'm held in contempt because I say I can't or won't open it. It's not too uncommon for a house to contain a safe the current owner can't open, but it does not lead to the same situation since it can usually be forced open. The only difference with good encryption is that the option to use force has become increasingly impotent.
- Unlocking a computer without proper limits and auditing of the search is also more like being asked to give access to any document storage rooms I own or have access to. Reason being that unlocking a device will in many cases give access to more than the bare contents of the drive, giving access to emails, Dropbox, and other logged on applications and sessions. Since parallel construction appear to be a thing, it's ripe for abuse.
Maybe there needs to be a process where independent auditors can, under surveillance of the defendants lawyer produce named documents from seized evidence, as giving police and/or prosecutors blanket access to devices entire content could create lots of opportunities to create parallel construction stories for any content found not under the current warrant, and as bizarre parallel construction is, it appears to have been used.
- There must be evidence that I can unlock the device for the two situations to be equivalent, and the request must be for specific documents known to exist. If they don't exist all evidence found must be invalidated because the cause for the search was invalid.
- If evidence of ability to unlock the device does not exists, but the assumption is that since it's mine I can unlock it, I think the analogy is slightly flawed. Since the ask is now not about producing a specific thing I'm known to possess, I'm indirectly being asked to produce a document (password), albeit not in material form but typed on a keyboard. Since it's never been proved that I actually am able to open it, the situation is not equivalent, but more like there being a safe in my house that nobody has seen me open, no key is know to exist, but since I own the house I am assumed to be able to open it, and I'm held in contempt because I say I can't or won't open it. It's not too uncommon for a house to contain a safe the current owner can't open, but it does not lead to the same situation since it can usually be forced open. The only difference with good encryption is that the option to use force has become increasingly impotent.
- Unlocking a computer without proper limits and auditing of the search is also more like being asked to give access to any document storage rooms I own or have access to. Reason being that unlocking a device will in many cases give access to more than the bare contents of the drive, giving access to emails, Dropbox, and other logged on applications and sessions. Since parallel construction appear to be a thing, it's ripe for abuse.
Maybe there needs to be a process where independent auditors can, under surveillance of the defendants lawyer produce named documents from seized evidence, as giving police and/or prosecutors blanket access to devices entire content could create lots of opportunities to create parallel construction stories for any content found not under the current warrant, and as bizarre parallel construction is, it appears to have been used.