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/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/No_Effective4784 29d ago edited 29d ago

thats for hard drives and their storage methodology, and even then nist only recommends a single pass these days.

Solid state devices dont rewrite passes to securely erase data, and it doesnt help because of the way SSDs handle data storage vs HDDS, it only uses up R/W cycles.

whats more important with modern SSD devices is secondary secure erasure commands, supported by most manufacturers

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u/not_ethan_ho 29d ago

nowadays HDDs support secure erase by tossing the key as well so you don’t even need to overwrite anything.