Citizen enforces his own right to the Fourth Amendment and is prosecuted by the government for not letting them try to find incriminating evidence on him. For something. Maybe. Because he looks suspicious.
I hope that lawyer gets it thrown out. I’m not holding my breath. We’ve gone so far into fascism I’m not sure it’ll take anything less than violence to end it.
no he didn’t. They asked for a password that the phone would accept. They weren’t even supposed to ask, but he gave them one. They’re the ones who entered it on the phone. And by extension they’re the ones who erased the phone.
Plus he provided a passcode that unlocked the device I don’t see the issue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampering_with_evidence
Tunick’s attorneys accused the government of demanding access to his phone under the pretext of searching for child exploitation imagery, but without providing evidence to justify its suspicion.
Even if I had more information, I still wouldn’t have the law chops to predict where this may lead.
I don’t have those chops either. Also NAL. The wiki page says Tampering charges require there to be an ongoing investigation, which wasn’t the case here, so I’m thinking it wouldn’t apply. But! I wonder about spoliation. Spoliation before a case is brought, while not illegal per se, can result in negative inference,
spoliation inference is a negative evidentiary inference that a trier of fact can draw from a party’s destruction of evidence that is relevant to an ongoing or reasonably foreseeable civil or criminal proceeding
Negative inference, to my NAL understanding, means the tampered evidence may be taken in the worst light for the defense. Here, it’s all resting on flimsy and politically motivated pretext with no evidence. Still.
Needs an immigration lawyer to give an answer to this, but I’m thinking it may be legally safer to have strong encryption and refuse to unlock, rather than to wipe. Not unlocking isn’t tampering, so no spoliation, but wiping might be. Well, safest of all is to use a burner. But next best, strong encryption + don’t unlock. CBP can confescate the device, but they cannot compel you to produce a pw or unlock code.
From what I’ve gathered, I think you’re right to assume it’s legally safer to refuse to unlock rather than wipe. Also, worth noting that you can be compelled to unlock with biometrics, but not a password. On grapheneOS this means simply shutting off/restarting your device as it requires a pw after a fresh boot, even if biometrics is enable.
you can be compelled to unlock with biometrics, but not a password
Yah, I’ve been trying to get my friends to use a pw rather than biometric unlock, for that exact reason.
I’m batting like 0 for 5, lol. Biometrics are just too convenient I guess. Plus they don’t think it will impact them personally. Which is prob true. I still think it’s best to use the way that preserves more civil rights. I just can’t convince them.
Sheep will always be sheep.
Yeah, people have their own threat model and trade-offs they’re willing to make for security/convenience and it’s probably a lot lower for most people than if they knew more about the landscape and gave it careful thought. It sounds like other mobile devices might reencrypt after reboot. IDK about the pw v. bio, though, but if it’s like Grap.OS just convincing them to reboot their device before going through TSA checkpoints or other areas where their device might get confiscated may improve their security with minimal effort.
FYI if you are using GrapheneOS with the duress password, you can natively backup your phone. Its in settings.
For people that don’t want to be dragging into a civil rights case, can you set up a dummy interface that looks used, but doesn’t have any too important available? Like you only owned the phone for a week?
You can setup different users on GrapheneOS and switch between them.
There is also a “private area” in the bottom of the app list where you can move sensitive apps and password protect them.
Either way, allowing a malicious actor into that profile exposes more attack surface for them to exploit.
Idk. Security is a journey, not a destination.
this is literally what they accuse china of
Sounds like the cops entered the passcode… Therefore the cops erased the evidence.
who knows what would’ve happened if they bothered to get a warrant first.
To step it up even further, if using a duress pin, stick it on a note inside your phone case. Don’t say a goddamn word aside from asking for a lawyer, and when they inevitably find the written code and try it out, that’s entirely on them.
Just say “it’s not my birthday, so don’t try my birthday”
that doesn’t work if they clone it
Would be great if there was a feature that detects a clone and start zeroing itself. Or start flipping bits every few seconds/random intervals in a way that just seems like nand in early stages of failing (maybe even give false drive health data). Though I have zero understanding of the cloning processes, and imagine that it would quickly be something they would have their own detectors and mitigations.
But can’t just stop trying to make it harder/frustrating for anyone trying to access all our digital lives. They already get around our rights with how they just go ask the companies like Microsoft to get people’s Bitlocker keys (which even most people seem to not even be aware of having until Windows breaks).
That’s a good idea
US is a dystopia
“Sorry, my fat American fingers accidentally entered the wrong code, you understand.”
From what I read, upon demand he gave the code to the Investigator, whomst had to watch the phone start to load and then erase it self. What a joy it must have been to watch them gifauh at that
The authorities conducting the illegal search entered the code, so the phone owner could assert that he gave them the right password and they were the ones that screwed it up. It’s a bit late for that argument, but someone could use that in the future and there’d be no way to prove it wrong.
they’re gonna use this case as pretext to ban graphene os
Hmm this sounds like government overreach 🤔
for research purposes, how would one go about setting this up?
I can’t seem to find it in my set up. There is no option for duress pin under device unlock selection
Are you using grapheneOS?
Yep e/OS 3.7.1
E: well I’m a fucking idiot
Eos is not GrapheneOS
E/os isn’t graphene and doesn’t have a duress pin feature.
Lmao, the edited comment
GrapheneOS also has options to turn off USB port so that authorities plugging in devices to try to bypass phone lock can’t be exploited. And user needs to supply password to change the USB options.
Regardless of how it happened, entering a fascist state means that you must be prepared to wipe all your devices before crossing the border. They’ll naturally fabricate justifications to employ totalitarian measures as it’s their directive to do so. If they seize your items and violate your privacy, which they will do, at least there’s nothing but a blank slate. These days I feel it’s more important than ever to have two devices, with one being a basic phone for communication only and the other a smartphone that’s backed up and ready to be wiped at a moments notice, then stuffed into your luggage.
“Entering a fascist state”, means you should turn around and go back the way you came. Why do people assume it’s safe here?
Ideally, sure. I don’t think most people assume it’s safe here, at least not anymore. I’d wager that most people, if they had the option, wouldn’t come here lol it’s not like only tourists are coming through the border.
I’d say the consequences of not coming are easier to endure than being beaten and left to rot in a concentration camp with no due process.
That choice is a privilege in itself. Tell that to those who have loved ones dying in dystopian US hospitals.
The hospitals are noy bad yet, but point taken.
sorry accidentally did a duress oopsie uwu bite me
Would love to see how that happened. Extra points if they are the ones that entered it.
They were:
When Tunick provided his passcode and the authorities entered it, “the screen went blank, flashed several times and the phone appeared to restart.”
