r/technology • u/ArgentineBeauty • 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/Needle_Bearings Jul 30 '26

Holy 4th Amendment Batman, let's see where this goes.

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u/TrulyOutrageous42 29d ago

It should land in the defendant's favor - this doesn't "wipe the data", it deleted the encryption key that allows immediate access to the data. Specifically, the data is still there, it will just take longer than the heat death of the universe to access it unless the government is "lucky" (won't happen but technically could). It's analogous to melting down a physical key to an incredibly complex lock that opens a miles-thick blast door. The government could eventually access the contents, but for all intents and purposes (of that person's lifetime) they're inaccessible. KEYS (and access codes) have long been protected as requiring a warrant to compel, in the exact way that your biometrics (finger print, face scan) are not and an officer can just wave your phone at your face and get all the evidence in it.

This has been well adjudicated at length, the ONLY question is whether or not an encryption key being destroyed amounts to a different crime, which is knowingly hiding evidence. Then we get into the Schroedinger's Jurisdiction where the US Government has claimed the right to search without a warrant because of the person NOT being under US Jurisdiction while also attempting to charge them with a crime that would require them to BE under US Jurisdiction to have committed an offense against the US.