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-shareposted 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-shareAdvice: if you know you don´t want your phone searched going through customs, don’t bring it! Or wipe it before you go through. I’m 100% on this guy’s side, but we’re not exactly living in a free and open society.
This isn’t new. Journalists coming into the US in the aughts would be harassed by CBT and DHS, forced to open and unlock their laptops (and then delete whatever the officers found unsavory.
So they’d come in with their computers fully encrypted and wouldn’t have the pass key, themselves, so it was impossible to unlock them. If they were detained unreasonably, that became a new story the next morning.
Once through customs, correspondents would call their office and get the key.
But it sucks if you don’t have a whole news agency to back your rights.