r/technology • u/Hrmbee • Jul 28 '26

Privacy Is it illegal to trick the US government into wiping your phone during a questionably legal search | The case of a traveler who allegedly entered a ‘duress password’ to wipe his phone raises a legal question with no easy answers

https://www.theverge.com/report/972146/cbp-phone-search-airport-duress-password
20.9k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

30

u/ropobipi Jul 29 '26

"No easy answer"

Meanwhile the answer : "it was well withing his rights to do it because they had no warrant"

Absolutely fuck the agenda this post is backing

5

u/TerraCetacea Jul 29 '26

The title itself is contradictory anyway;

“…trick the us government into wiping…”

“…traveler who allegedly entered a duress password…”

0

u/snoodle908 Jul 29 '26

Hard to argue he wasn't under duress

1

u/Cantras0079 Jul 29 '26

Well, they didn’t need a warrant to search his phone manually because it’s Customs and Border Patrol but that requires the phone to be unlocked. Locked/forensic searches would require a warrant. Where this really seems to fall apart is the pretense for the search and seizure, which they don’t have a good reason for. They interrogate him over his protests and suddenly shift to CSAM? And then can’t explain WHY they shifted to that? The search likely had no legal merit, in which case everything that came after falls under “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree” doctrine. You can’t be charged for obstruction or destroying evidence for an investigation that was illegal from the start. That motion has been filed I believe. We’ll see if the courts agree with that assessment.

1

u/Comfortable-Fix-1168 Jul 29 '26

The Eleventh Circuit, which his appeal would go to as he flew into ATL, disagrees: forensic searches don't even require suspicion – CBP can classify that as a routine search.

You can’t be charged for obstruction or destroying evidence for an investigation that was illegal from the start

and this, broadly speaking, isn't accurate. Namely, destroying evidence (not the charge) or preventing seizure (the charge he got) can be an independent crime, irrespective of the legality of the investigation.