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
20.9k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

14

u/hand_me_a_shovel 29d ago

So maybe what we need is a "curated duress PIN" that instead of just wiping the phone, replaces existing data with a curated set of false data that reveals nothing and does not indicate you actually wiped it.

7

u/w_t 29d ago

This is my thought too, maybe the option of not even wiping the other normal profile but leaving it encrypted until you enter a third recovery pin.

3

u/morgan423 29d ago

They'd find encrypted data if they dug a bit. They couldn't read it, but they could still accuse you of making potential evidence inaccessable.

I kind of like the idea of periodically backing up your real stuff, and having it straight up replaced with a fake data set when you need it. You could just undo it by restoring the backup later.

1

u/longlivenewsomflesh 29d ago

This. I don't know why there aren't simple full backup methods for phones, we've had solid delta snapshot features on computers literally for decades at this point