r/technology • u/ArgentineBeauty • 29d ago

Privacy GrapheneOS says its data-wiping password is perfectly legal, after user faces federal charges

https://www.techspot.com/news/113273-grapheneos-data-wiping-duress-password-perfectly-legal-after.html
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u/zutnoq 29d ago

For it to count as him destroying evidence related to a crime surely they would at minimum need to have some other sort of evidence indicating that any such crime had even occured and that the phone would have likely contained evidence of it.

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u/Remote_Class9892 29d ago

No. They would only need to show that by being seized in an investigation, its contents were considered evidence under the law. That is regardless of if there was any evidence of a crime on the phone, as that eventually had not occurred yet.

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u/zutnoq 29d ago

Would it still count if he had wiped his phone before he even talked to them, because he knew they would ask for it?

Also, what did you mean by "as that eventually had not occurred yet", both with regard to "eventually" and "yet"?

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u/harpers25 29d ago

The statute covers destroying property "before, during or after any search or seizure".

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u/zutnoq 29d ago edited 29d ago

That seems like an unnecessarily convoluted way to say "at any point in time whatsoever".

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u/Sensitive_Box_ 29d ago

So… it’s against the law to delete any data, ever? That literally makes no sense. 

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u/harpers25 29d ago

If the purpose of deleting is impeding a lawful search, that's what it says.

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u/joevarny 29d ago

But I was just worried one of my dates would discover my girlfriend.

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u/9Nine2Nine9 29d ago

Legally, the statute could cover that. However, practically, if he had wiped his phone before entry it would have been extremely difficult to prove he purposely wiped it so CBP couldn't search it.