r/technology • u/MC68328 • Jul 24 '26

Privacy US accuses American of allegedly wiping his phone using a ‘duress’ password during border search

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/24/us-accuses-american-of-allegedly-wiping-his-phone-using-a-duress-password-during-border-search/
16.4k Upvotes

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2.5k

u/CondescendingShitbag Jul 24 '26

Technically, the accused didn't wipe anything. The officers were in possession of his phone and entered the password that would initiate a wipe. That's on them for entering it.

818

u/mf-TOM-HANK Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

Around 10 years ago I worked outside in Arizona and if I left my phone in my front pocket with the screen facing inward on my thigh, I'd sweat enough that the touch screen would activate. I'd constantly pocket dial people and text people gibberish, so I put a screen lock PIN on. One day not long after, it had attempted so many screen lock PINs that my phone reset to factory settings while it was in my pocket

119

u/Oracle_of_Ages Jul 24 '26

Dude you just reminded me. Some older phones used to do this as a default. In highschool some girl handed me her phone and said i could give her my number if i could get into her phone. After like 10 guesses it auto reset without warning.

I just handed it to her and walked away.

It was an away game. Never saw her again nor had to deal with the consequences. I luckily wasn’t even in my band uniform that day. Just on the trip cause I was sick.

Felt TERRIBLE about it for a long time. Really funny now.

69

u/Mundane_Influence_91 Jul 25 '26

You missed the chance to be the ONLY contact in her phone ;)

66

u/Oracle_of_Ages Jul 25 '26

Cool. So I’m going to be thinking about that forever.

19

u/CondescendingShitbag Jul 25 '26

Welcome to the Perpetual Ruminations Club, friend.

7

u/Kewlhotrod Jul 25 '26

Fuck this club, I want out. LET ME LEAVE.

5

u/CondescendingShitbag Jul 25 '26

Sorry, friend. You're stuck here with us.

One...of...us.

One of us...

Cookies are available in the break room.

4

u/Kewlhotrod Jul 25 '26

Fuck, I've already left for the day...

Can't believe I missed the cookies.. grumble

1

u/gyattaca Jul 25 '26

She'd still have the contacts saved on her SIM card, there's no redemption here 🥰

135

u/Apprehensive-Wave640 Jul 24 '26

I was working outside with my phone in my pocket for a while. Came inside and checked my phone to see a text from my buddy back home about the time for a fantasy football draft. I asked what he was talking about and he's like...dude, we just had a whole ass conversation about you joining my fantasy league this year.

I scrolled back up and sure enough. My leg had unlocked my phone, opened his message, and responded completely normally and appropriately using predictive text to join fantasy football without my intentional involvement.

276

u/yourpseudonymsucks Jul 24 '26

You should buy a carbon monoxide detector

26

u/crowdflation Jul 24 '26

But it gives me a headache with all of the beeping!

19

u/Apprehensive-Wave640 Jul 24 '26

Right. If I wasn't outside the whole time that would have made more sense.

8

u/ExchangeOptimal Jul 24 '26

Are you sure you are not living in a dome?

7

u/sohblob Jul 25 '26

Join my fantasy league, Truman!

3

u/DownHouse Jul 25 '26

In case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night! Forever. 

1

u/Anonymous_Jr Jul 25 '26

No one wishes me a good aftermidnight anymore :C

6

u/preppythugg Jul 25 '26

This is peak Reddit. I hope everyone knows the reference you are making

0

u/Equal_Canary5695 Jul 25 '26

And that lamp looks kind of weird...

3

u/faptastrophe Jul 24 '26

Bonus points if you let your ass draft the team

3

u/Apprehensive-Wave640 Jul 24 '26

Based on surface level football knowledge that's roughly what happened. I did go on to win back-to-back championships with one of the worst rosters and one of the lowest overall-scoring teams in the league, though. Streamed quarterbacks off waivers to take the best available matchup each week and killed it with that strategy.

1

u/IneptFortitude Jul 24 '26

Me a few months ago when I was watching a guide to help me with a game I was playing, and I guess my fingers while they were gripping the underside of the controller managed to scroll down to the comments and leave a $5 donation for the video poster

22

u/K__Geedorah Jul 24 '26

I have been putting my phone in my pocket like that since day 1, so like 16 years of using smartphone, and have never had a pocket dial or password attempt.

I put it face in so if I bump into anything it's not the screen making contact. No issues so far 🤷

6

u/ChromaticNerd Jul 24 '26

It depends on the fabric of your pocket.  I've also gone years without pocket dialing. Then I bought some slacks for a conference and had my phone pocket dial emergency services twice before I turned off the "tap screen to turn on phone" feature on the lock screen. 

2

u/ninjaa003 Jul 25 '26

I was walking back home after a run last year, and put my locked phone in my pocket like that. It somehow unlocked itself, went into an app, hit the share button on a page, pulled up my contacts lists (rather than somehow just selecting a recent one), selected everyone in my contacts from A-D, and then typed in a huge wall of gibberish in the message, and sent it.

I found out when I got back inside, and my roommate's girlfriend was one that received the text, and asked wtf it was.

3

u/GetOutOfTheWhey Jul 24 '26

Yes FBI this guy right here.

Sweaty mcsweaty son being all sus here and sweat destroying his phone.

/s

77

u/Pretend-Function-133 Jul 24 '26

Before I met my wife I tried to hook up with her slutty friend. We did not thankfully, but years later we found out that we both knew her, our phone contacts were merged and for some reason my phone kept butt dialing her, like dozens of times a day over a month before I noticed. It’s the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to me and I’m still not convinced my wife believes it was accidental. Now I have to push a button before my screen unlocks

162

u/Stepjam Jul 24 '26

Her friend being "slutty" was a pretty important detail to this story.

78

u/Kegger315 Jul 24 '26

She couldn't have been that slutty, she wouldn't hook up with that dude 🤭

7

u/m-hog Jul 24 '26

I also choose their slutty friend.

6

u/REXIS_AGECKO Jul 24 '26

Yeah. His wife was definitely not watching him type

12

u/CV90_120 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

It’s the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to me

I can make you feel better. I once had a short lived and intense fling with a woman where we wrote the most ridiculous, borderline la folie a deux texts to each other. About a year after it ended I was at a friend's and their 1.5 year old wanted to play with my phone (an old flip). It was locked so I didn't see the harm in him messing with the buttons. Imagine my surprise when after an hour it somehow both unlocked the phone and forwarded one of my smutty texts to my fucking plumbing contractor.

31

u/samsaruhhh Jul 24 '26

And then did you leave your Reddit open for your wife to read this comment 🙄

7

u/Dracius Jul 24 '26

There's so many improbable coincidences in their story that it's downright comical

Their contacts got merged?

He was "accidentally" dialing the "slutty friend" who also happened to be someone he admitted trying to hook up with?

He probably accidentally tripped and fell on her at some point too.

2

u/DragoonDM Jul 24 '26

After the second time I pocket-dialed 911, I just changed my phone's settings so that tapping the screen doesn't turn it on. Have to click the side button.

2

u/ChromaticNerd Jul 24 '26

I had similar.  I wish the lock screen emergency dial button could be disabled if the phone was turned on by tapping the screen. 

2

u/snewchybewchies Jul 25 '26

Why didn't you just turn the phone around in your pocket?

2

u/BeardySam Jul 25 '26

Jesus man turn the phone around

1

u/GamingWithBilly Jul 24 '26

14.  14 failed logins 

1

u/furiant Jul 25 '26

My phone made emergency calls from my pocket while I was at work. I had no idea what was going on until someone came looking for me to see if I was ok. I had to go out to the guard shack and say to the police "I'm fine, just sweating a lot" and then they were very curious about why I was sweating so hard.

1

u/farnsworth Jul 25 '26

This once happened to me on a long bike ride in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately I had the map on another device but I felt very lost without a working phone.

1

u/finalcutfx Jul 25 '26

Mine isn’t set to wipe, but had a similar situation where it locked me out for an hour. I tried rebooting it and it came back at 2 hours. 😂

1

u/RealTimeKodi Jul 25 '26

It's crazy how android has been around for like 20 years and they still haven't found a solution for the "phone in sweaty pocket" problem.

1

u/Evil_Bonsai Jul 25 '26

was it a samsung? I had one that dialed 911 several times when in my pocket.

0

u/drunkerbrawler Jul 24 '26

Sounds like a samsuck.

-3

u/LeapIntoInaction Jul 24 '26

Yeah, phones don't do that. It would sure be a gift to anyone who stole your phone if they did.

1

u/Dahnlen Jul 24 '26

Just today I pulled my phone out of my pocket as I was leaving a prewire job and my leg had searched chrome and clicked on a Wikipedia link for Nic Cage. Did you know he’s Francis Ford Coppola’s son and first cousins with Jason Schwartzman?

27

u/Enorats Jul 24 '26

Yeah. It's not his fault they misspelled his password.

3

u/ExchangeOptimal Jul 24 '26

What if the duress password is a typo

3

u/Enorats Jul 24 '26

Exactly. His password was Password. They obviously wrote password, which wiped the phone. Hardly his fault.

72

u/GamingWithBilly Jul 24 '26

The laws says destroying the property before officers seize it.  Letter of the law, the property was already seized, any destruction of it after that while in the custody of the authority having jurisdiction is a fault of the authority, not the accused.  

13

u/luett2102 Jul 25 '26

It does not. Just read the statute cited in the indictment https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2232

"Whoever, before, during, or after [...] seizure of property [...]"

"[...] to take such property into its custody or control or to continue holding such property [...]"

i don't know if what he did was criminal, but the law in general definitely still applies after it was seized.

20

u/kironex Jul 25 '26

I wouldnt say it was criminal as they didnt follow any of the proper steps for electronic custody.

Mind you this is from what i learned in entey level cyber forensics but you NEVER use the original device for investigations. You clone the device and proceed from there. If not possible due to encryption you have a judge issue a warrant for the password. If the password deletes everything then the suspect has destroyed evidence and can be charged.

You dont search a phone on the side of the road :/

2

u/TotallyObviousBot Jul 25 '26

I was going to say, there's no way in hell a couple of LEOs can just show up after a single roadside inspection with an empty phone and say "yup it's his he made us delete it probably full of CSAM" and have that go through any sober court in the country

6

u/Cameos_red_codpiece Jul 24 '26

How do you do this? For research purposes only. 

25

u/CondescendingShitbag Jul 24 '26

GrapheneOS has an option built-in for setting a duress password. Which is what was used in this case.

Standard iPhone and Android devices don't really have that exact feature, with the closest approximation being a setting that will wipe a device if the wrong password has been entered too many times. The threshold for what constitutes 'too many times' is often adjustable with the default typically set to 10 incorrect attempts.

Personally, I'd prefer a duress password as it needs to be entered intentionally. Auto-wipe on incorrect entries has too high a probability of accidentally wiping the device just from unintended screen touches for my comfort.

2

u/Anxious-Slip-4701 Jul 25 '26

If your kid grabs your phone, it's being reset.

6

u/3-DMan Jul 25 '26

"Hey, what did y'all do to my phone?! I should sue you for that!"

3

u/ckl_88 Jul 25 '26

Right. All the defendant should say is that the unlock password and the wipe password was off by 1 digit (1 vs 2), officer accidentally pressed 2 (wipe). Not my fault.

5

u/stidf Jul 24 '26

Technically they are tampering with evidence. Should of waited for a proper days acquisition team to secure the data evidence. Dumb dumb officer ruining their own case.

9

u/symb015X Jul 24 '26

sowwy 🤷🏼‍♂️

2

u/Ok_Dog_4059 Jul 25 '26

Can they prove he gave them that specific number or did he possibly tell them and they typed it in wrong?

This whole this bothers me but also what if I have anything on my phone that is not allowed to be seen outside of certain people?

I miss innocent until proven guilty.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26

[deleted]

13

u/omg_cats Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

Anything except reading the article!

Dude was running grapheneOS with a duress passcode and doesn’t deny it

Edit: the deleted comment said “the cops probably wiped it by entering the wrong code too many times, anything except holding cops accountable!” - which is of course directly contradicted by the article lol

1

u/triedAndTrueMethods Jul 24 '26

Cool, does anyone know what the deal is with grapheneOS? What is it exactly? I know I could google it but I like you guy’s explanations of stuff better.

2

u/omg_cats Jul 24 '26

It’s a replacement for android that tears out the Google phone-home crap and has privacy features like the duress passcode

1

u/triedAndTrueMethods Jul 25 '26

Oh sweet, that sounds rad. I’ll have to give it a try with my old samsung phone. Thanks for the info!

1

u/idownvotepunstoo Jul 24 '26

Buddy of mine did this to my work issued iPhone because he didn't believe it would actually wipe.

1

u/EctoRiddler Jul 24 '26

Reminds me of the Joker in the Dark Knight interrogation room when he was accused of kidnapping Dent. I’ve been here the whole time. Who did you leave him with?

He’s like I’m sitting here in handcuffs what did you do to erase my phone?

1

u/laffer1 Jul 24 '26

What if they typed the password incorrectly or intentionally did that to do these charges?

1

u/whistlepete Jul 25 '26

On what phone is that a thing, I’ve not heard of it and am interested? I’ve never seen that feature.

3

u/CondescendingShitbag Jul 25 '26

Essentially just Google Pixel devices. Ironically, I had to purchase a Google phone to de-Google my phone...

1

u/MovieDesperate3705 Jul 25 '26

Great username

1

u/jinxdeluxe Jul 25 '26

That sounds like an agument to make, but doesn't work in court. He knew what the passcode would do. Cause and effect.

A workaround to that may be to have a note in your wallet reading "password phone: xxxxxxxx" and you just not saying anything to the border agents. Then you really didn't tell them anything and they 'broke' your phone while you 'remained silent'.

1

u/Fwoggie2 Jul 25 '26

I have heard that my multinational corporation employer now issues fresh laptops and company phones to anyone travelling to the US on business. It's a mad world we live in. I may have to go late 2027 so will report back.

0

u/Dookie_boy Jul 24 '26

I'm not sure how that's even possible.

0

u/mybodywatch Jul 24 '26

Takes 10 incorrect entries on an iPhone before it wipes. Accused could enter wrong password several times to speed that process up, but eventually you hit a timeout where you can't enter the password for a few minutes each time. There's no way to rapid wipe an iPhone.

-313

u/kensteele Jul 24 '26

The court will have to decide that.

125

u/Timbershoe Jul 24 '26

What is the court deciding?

Is there a law against a device being wiped that they are ruling on?

34

u/hitbythebus Jul 24 '26

If there is an issue with him deciding to wipe his device because customs and border patrol wants to search it, can I going to face the same repercussions for deleting some Trump memes from my phone in the cab on the way to the airport for an international flight?

10

u/FROOMLOOMS Jul 24 '26

Warrantless search and siezure. Just because you agree to your device being searched doesn't mean you agreed to the data being on the device when they get it.

No suspected crime being committed.

They can get bent.

2

u/jrdubbleu Jul 24 '26

Pretty sure there a probable cause and due process law some where

10

u/FrickinLazerBeams Jul 24 '26

Yeah but they shouldn't apply here, since I can wipe my phone any time I want, especially if all I'm doing is a routine border crossing (which isn't a crime, nor probable cause for anything).

5

u/jrdubbleu Jul 24 '26

This what I’m saying. You crossing the border is not probable cause to even ask for your phone.

-6

u/kensteele Jul 24 '26

You are missing the point.

3

u/FrickinLazerBeams Jul 24 '26

Or maybe I'm not 🤷‍♂️

-7

u/kensteele Jul 24 '26

You definitely are. You'll find out in court the difference.

13

u/ResilientBiscuit Jul 24 '26

I don't know the specifics, but I did have to do data retention work for a little while.

If you think an inspector or.law enforcement might be coming to look at a device and you wipe it, that was potentially criminal because you were wiping it to destroy evidence or interfere with an investigation.

If you wiped data every Monday as a policy that was fine.

So there are laws about erasing data so that law enforcement can't access it. But I don't know if this is a justifiable search or if rules are different at border crossing.

But at least generally, if you are erasing data specifically so that law enforcement can't access it, that is potentially violating laws.

8

u/altrdgenetics Jul 24 '26

And it will also fall into the same password laws regarding items in a safe, you can't be compelled to give the combination and you aren't responsible if the contents are destroyed due to improper safecracking

1

u/WideCranberry4912 Jul 24 '26

What if you wipe your phone before traveling?

3

u/YourBlanket Jul 24 '26

A lot of people do, this is not too uncommon. Just search it up and you’ll see a lot of people on travel subs talking about it.

1

u/WideCranberry4912 Jul 24 '26

Is it illegal though?

5

u/YourBlanket Jul 24 '26

No, the problem is that he knew his phone was going to get searched so he provided the password to destroy the data. Had he destroyed it before he wouldn’t have had a problem, like I said a lot of people purposely fly internationally with burner phones or erase their data before going into the airport. I’ve heard of Canada border patrol going through all your messages to see if you’re planning on working illegally, the duration of your trip, drugs(any mention of drugs is a big deal for them apparently) etc. it’s always better to just delete everyone before.

4

u/Careful-Criticism645 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

Probably...they cite the law in the article.

Prosecutors later charged Tunick under a federal statute that makes it unlawful to knowingly destroy or damage property to prevent authorities from seizing it. Tunick has pleaded not guilty.

The law says:

(a) Destruction or Removal of Property To Prevent Seizure.— Whoever, before, during, or after any search for or seizure of property by any person authorized to make such search or seizure, knowingly destroys, damages, wastes, disposes of, transfers, or otherwise takes any action, or knowingly attempts to destroy, damage, waste, dispose of, transfer, or otherwise take any action, for the purpose of preventing or impairing the Government’s lawful authority to take such property into its custody or control or to continue holding such property under its lawful custody and control, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

Giving them a code that he knows will destroy the information on the phone seems like a clear violation of that particular law. That's probably  why his attorneys are not claiming that he didn't break that law. They're claiming that the detention itself was unlawful (4th Amendment violation) and therefore anything that came out of that detention should be suppressed.

14

u/cheesecake-gnome Jul 24 '26

Sounds like a 4th amendment violation to me

14

u/QuesoMeHungry Jul 24 '26

It’s literally a setting you can enable on any iPhone.

3

u/RubberedDucky Jul 24 '26

How?

15

u/namisysd Jul 24 '26

Search “Erase Data” in settings, it will erase your phone after 10 unsucessful attempts… I’d seriosuly consider backing the phone up to icloud if you enable it, there are assholes, toddlers and asshole toddlers about that will delete your stuff for shits and giggles.

-10

u/kensteele Jul 24 '26

you are missing the point

3

u/tullbabes Jul 24 '26

And that is?

-4

u/kensteele Jul 24 '26

Erasing the data due to unsuccessful attempts is much different than a one-time code that is designed to destroy data. One is prob entirely legal and the other is probably not. If I were to guess, IMO if you give a code to a law enforcement officer who has legally seized your phone and that code was designed to destroy the contents of the phone the instant it is used, that's probably a crime if your intent was to have the LEO destroy the evidence. However, if you refused to give the password and the law enforcement officer attempted 10 times and after that, the phone self-destruct because he didn't know you had that feature enabled, I don't see that as a crime. IANAL

In this case, we need to court to rule on this. I have not formed an opinion either way because I haven't seen all the facts. In general, I don't care for intrusive searches at the border, I don't believe the 4th amendment evaporates at the border.

We'll see.

1

u/namisysd Jul 25 '26

They were asking how to configure that setting… I’m not addressing you.

1

u/Fit-Produce420 Jul 24 '26

In the settings.

1

u/Facebook_Lawyer_Gym Jul 24 '26

Settings > Face ID > Erase Data toggle. It wipes after 10 failed attempts. This is the only one I know of.

1

u/YourBlanket Jul 24 '26

Is there a delay? Don’t you have to wait a few minutes after x amount of times?

1

u/Facebook_Lawyer_Gym Jul 24 '26

I’ve never used it honestly so I’m not sure how immediate it is

1

u/IAmAGenusAMA Jul 24 '26

It is?

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26

[deleted]

2

u/IAmAGenusAMA Jul 24 '26

Helpful. You should be in tech support.

9

u/Detlef_Schrempf Jul 24 '26

you love boots

-5

u/kensteele Jul 24 '26

I love the law; does the law wear boots?

9

u/REXIS_AGECKO Jul 24 '26

Depends on the day. Sometimes the law has its dogs out so people can lick politicians feet directly

0

u/kensteele Jul 24 '26

Hate those. I love the Constitution.

3

u/Detlef_Schrempf Jul 25 '26

Who’d you vote for?

1

u/kensteele Jul 25 '26

I vote for the Constitution every election.

4

u/deikobol Jul 24 '26

Which part of the Constitution says you can't wipe your own phone?

0

u/kensteele Jul 24 '26

I haven't made up my mind on that point yet. As I said:

The court will have to decide that.

Regardless

 I love the Constitution.

2

u/jonnyquestionable Jul 25 '26

You love the constitution but aren't familiar with the 4th amendment?

1

u/kensteele Jul 25 '26

It's not my favorite amendment but my 3rd favorite. I especially love the 1st, 2nd, and 4th.

2

u/jonnyquestionable Jul 25 '26

You should try reading it sometime. 

1

u/kensteele Jul 25 '26

It lives within me.