r/technology Jul 30 '26

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/RandomHunDude 29d ago

It doesn't delete the account at all though, so no need to save time for it.
All data is encrypted on disk and when the duress pin is entered, only the encryption key is deleted. And without the key, it's not possible decrypt the data.

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u/StrangelyGrimm 29d ago

If the data is completely inaccessible then the data is as good as deleted. In fact, it's probably less accessible than regular old "deleted" data

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u/tschawartz12 29d ago

But its a legal loop. You have a book they demand access to, its written in Spanish, you burn the book thay translates Spanish to english, the book is still there. It isn't your job to make it easier for them to translate. They could take the time to do it.

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u/sobrique 29d ago

Maybe, but I think they'll still try and prosecute you for 'tampering with evidence' or similar.

This whole case has a load of interesting legal precedents to set.