Post #4069547

2026-07-24 18:06 UTC

New, by me: The Justice Department is prosecuting an American for allegedly providing U.S. border agents with a "duress" passcode that wiped the contents of his phone when they entered it. We've confirmed the phone was running GrapheneOS. Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/24/us-accuses-american-of-allegedly-wiping-his-phone-using-a-duress-password-during-border-search Bypass for ad-blockers: https://web.archive.org/web/20260724175443/https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/24/us-accuses-american-of-allegedly-wiping-his-phone-using-a-duress-password-during-border-search/

Replies (5)

@zackwhittaker@mastodon.social 2026-07-24 18:08

The person's attorney said feds are using a rarely used federal statute, and security experts said they hadn't heard of similar cases. This raises fresh questions about constitutional rights and device searches at the U.S. border. Also: the DOJ's indictment had a notable typo. Read on for more. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/24/us-accuses-american-of-allegedly-wiping-his-phone-using-a-duress-password-during-border-search

Open ##4069827
@siguza@infosec.space 2026-07-24 20:09

@zackwhittaker@mastodon.social the "Untied States" omg I'm wheezing 😂

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@cy@fedicy.us.to 2026-07-24 20:02

Haha surely he simply had just purchased it and forgot about it in the closet on factory settings for the past 6 years perfectly sensible explanation.

Open ##4115817
@cy@fedicy.us.to 2026-07-24 20:09

Or you could go with the prosecutor's much more reasonable claims. That he put child pornography on his phone and then carried it across the border so that when they demanded his passcode, he would give them the passcode to erase the child pornography. And they didn't need a warrant to demand it because he was like 6 inches on the other side of the border so it's OK.

Open ##4155572
@felis_catus_domesticus@toot.community 2026-07-24 20:13

@zackwhittaker@mastodon.social

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