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Comment by trjordan | Hacker News Reader

Privacy expires at death. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/26/opinion/l-privacy-after-de...

If you want to take something to the grave, you'll have to be more creative than simply assuming nobody is going to go through your stuff when you die.

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At least on iPhone Touch ID expires too… no need to die, just wait eight hours.

Similarly on the Nexus fingerprint scanners. There's a 48 hr timeout.

All the reasons it will require a secondary method[1]:

• When your fingerprint isn't recognized after a few tries

• After restarting your device

• After switching to a different user on the device

• After more than 48 hours have passed since you last unlocked using your backup method

[1] https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/6285273?hl=en

Or let the phone's battery die. Passcode is required on cold restart too.

Deadman's switch attached to a thermite pile?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bpX8YvNg6Y Might be harder than it looks/sounds.

Just "lost" an hour of my life. Thanks! :)

Or you know a password that isn't written down and strong encryption.

Strong encryption when you die is weak encryption a few years later. Thermite is the way to go

MC Frontalot said this well here: http://frontalot.com/index.php/?page=lyrics&lyricid=41.

And a written down "password".

That's just not permanent or fail-deadly, maybe something like HCl over your documents on death. The thermite might get spread around or fail to ignite.

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