posted in Technology
U.S. Citizen Who Deleted Phone’s Data Says His Prosecution Puts Privacy at Risk
www.nytimes.com/2026/08/21/us/politics/samuel-tunick-deleted-phone-felony.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8FA.T83N.rt6VsIiSCYb2&%3Bsmid=url-share
Replying to @sanitation@lemmy.today
You know, since we are entering into a lot of legal weirdness here, how about this:
You give the cops TWO passwords. You tell them one is the duress password, and the other is the password that will unlock the phone.
Desperate and without a warrant, they try one. Wrong try! Phone is wiped.
In reality, both are duress passwords but they would have to prove that. (GoS only currently supports one duress password)
Yes, it’s ridiculous, but everything about this is ridiculous.
Nah, write the duress password on a piece of paper and keep it in your phone case. Then keep your mouth shut. Let the cops find it and try it themselves.
Replying to @impairedimperator@lemmy.zip
This is actually a really good idea. It would also work if your phone got stolen.
Replying to @SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
aand it would make the stolen phone ready to use by the thief, because I guess graphene os does not implement factory reset protection, because that traditionally relies on login to a google account
Replying to @WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works
The guy in the story we’re discussing found a way to make a duress password work using graphene.
Replying to @SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
“found a way” it is a feature, you can set it up in the settings. there is not much figuring out in that. but if you turn that on, and your phone legitimately gets stolen, now the thief can sell it for good money, because it is still usable. there is no easy toggle for that in the settings.
Replying to @WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works
Well yeah the thief can sell the hardware, but the data is wiped. Not expecting it to be a self destruct feature.
Replying to @SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
my point is this feature does not work that well against actual petty thieves, because all other phones actively disincentivize phone theft by making it very hard or impossible to make usable without access to the owner’s real account, and this one doesn’t. if you as a thief know that a pixel phone runs grapheneos, it is more valuable than others because you know you can just wipe it and it is usable again.