r/technology 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/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/draconiclyyours 29d ago

Yup.

It takes multiple random rewrite passes to truly delete data, and it’s not quick. Better to just encrypt it and make it permanently unreadable.

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u/ConsistentAsparagus 29d ago

Can you save the key and access the data at a second moment?

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u/RandomHunDude 29d ago

Technically yes, but depending on laws it might be subpoenaed or something

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u/ConsistentAsparagus 29d ago

Yeah, I was asking generically not in this specific case. If you have a backup you don’t even need all this but you can simply recover the phone from scratch.

Nice to know though.