I wasn’t going to rant on this, but since it came up today with regard to Apple won’t help the FBI access the cellphones of the Pensacola shooter. First I’m on Apple’s side. I don’t want the FBI who has proven itself to be unworthy of trust to have unfettered access to my phone. This is especially true because they want a built in backdoor. This would be like the FISA court without even having to file a bogus affidavit.

But here’s the reason for this rant. On Saturday I got a new iPhone 11 because the last iOS upgrade for my iPhone 7 screwed it up and made it difficult if not impossible to use it unless it was plugged in. I was due for an upgrade anyway and so for a onetime thirty dollar fee, I was able to get the much newer phone. It is radically different. First there is no home button and so no thumbprint access. Instead, there is face recognition. So anytime I lift the phone in front of my face it opens up. It really is much more convenient.

However, here’s the rub. If the FBI or your wife or your girlfriend wants to access your phone all they have to do is get it and hold it up in front of your face — even if you’re sleeping or dead and it will open. I don’t know how old the shooter’s phone was but if it didn’t have face recognition, it certainly had thumbprint recognition. Turn it on and press his thumb on the home button. The only reason this wouldn’t work is that if he was smart enough to have only allowed access by entering a six digit code. Maybe, but I didn’t want to enable face recognition but it quickly became apparent that that was a pain in the ass to enter the code every time I picked up the phone. I find it hard to believe that anyone using an iPhone on any regular basis hasn’t enabled the easy way.