Nepal, Oct. 25 -- Police have your phone. They tell you to unlock it. You say no.

Investigators may call that 'non-cooperation', but a label doesn't settle anything. What matters is whether the demand had a legal basis in the first place, and whether forcing you to comply would violate your rights.

Seizing a phone and forcing its owner to unlock it are two different things. Having the power to do the first doesn't give you the second. Your phone holds private conversations, bank records, work emails and a record of where you've been, and police would love to see it all. Getting in can be the difference between knowing what happened and guessing. No one is suggesting police shouldn't investigate. The narrower question is whether chasing ...