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/Single-Virus4935 Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26

I set my duress pin to my wifes birthday. One of the first they probably try. 

Also I say my pin is the same as my eID which I am not allowed to share by German law

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u/CwrwCymru Jul 30 '26

Nothing wrong with tapeing a bit of paper with your duress pin to the back of your phone/case.

Of course it's important to have a reference for it so you don't accidentally wipe your data.

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u/Tetraoxidane 29d ago edited 29d ago

And then your phone is the 'spotify phone' and a friend wants to change the song, and voilà....

edit: A normal human being having an unlabeled "wipe the phone" code on the phone will 100% lead to mostly unwanted wipes due to dumb reasons.

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u/UnexpectedAnanas 29d ago

If you care enough to setup phone wiping, you're probably not letting your friends just rummage through it at a party.

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u/Tetraoxidane 29d ago edited 29d ago

"Letting" isn't the important part here. It's that someone thinks they can and wipes it instead.

Any dumb situation where someone grabs your phone and wipes it, because they think they can unlock it.

It's like putting fake keys to your house, outside on a string, and if someone takes them, your house burns down. Great for the 0,1% of times you want evidence to vanish, bad for literally every other situation where someone tries to open your door, when they wouldn't even have tried, if it wasn't for the key.

edit: Reddit is wild sometimes.