posted in Technology

US accuses American of allegedly wiping his phone using a 'duress' password during border search

cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/49853131

Feels to me like GrapheneOS did exactly what it should, passing the US border test with flying colours!

Funny part about this lawsuit: “With a little planning ahead of time, you can always download the data you need once you get to where you’re going,”

techcrunch.com/2026/07/24/us-accuses-american-of-allegedly-wiping-his-phone-using-a-duress-password-during-border-search/
TechCrunchUS accuses American of allegedly wiping his phone using a 'duress' password during border search | TechCrunchA U.S. citizen has asked a court to throw out the government's claim that he gave over a passcode to border authorities that wiped his phone's data, opening up fresh questions about a person's constitutional rights at the U.S. border.

Replying to @⁨itisileclerk@lemmy.world⁩

I don’t believe you can be compelled to provide a password. That does after all (at the very least) constitute speech. And freedom of speech is also freedom of non-speech, they can’t make you say something.

They will however try to make you do that… In many situations authorities are allowed to lie to you. So that’s sucks. They can tell you that you’re required to unlock your phone, you just have to know that your not actually.

Also they can’t make you say anything, but they can make you do things, like for instance “put your finger here” or “look into this camera”, which is why biometric unlock is unsafe around cops.

Replying to @⁨Cocodapuf@lemmy.world⁩

There’s that one guy who is being held in contempt of the court (to be clear this is not the police asking for his password, but a judge in a court of law) because he won’t give a password to decrypt a hard drive.

They believe it is highly likely that the drive contains sexually explicit material of children, which is why he’s being held in prison until he gives up the password.

Replying to @⁨BlackAura@lemmy.world⁩

I would want to catch pedophiles too, but I seriously don’t believe a damn thing any branch of this government says about anyone.

For all I know he has a video of trumps night out at Epstein island and that’s why they want the password to destroy it.

Obviously probably not but still, I’m supposed to just take the scouts honor of our unhonorable government that this guy totally has this on his hard drive even if they can’t prove it?

They could say this about any of us at any time for any devices password we won’t give them.

I don’t agree with this precedent.