{"id":64542,"date":"2026-07-27T08:36:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T13:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=64542"},"modified":"2026-07-27T08:36:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T13:36:03","slug":"techcrunch-us-accuses-american-of-allegedly-wiping-his-phone-using-a-duress-password-during-border-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=64542","title":{"rendered":"TechCrunch: US accuses American of allegedly wiping his phone using a \u2018duress\u2019 password during border search"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TechCrunch: US accuses American of allegedly wiping his phone using a \u2018duress\u2019 password during border search<\/a> by Zack Whittaker:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\n

The U.S. Justice Department is prosecuting an American for allegedly providing U.S. border authorities with a passcode that wiped the contents of his phone, according to an indictment and media reports. This is thought to be the first known case in the United States where federal prosecutors have charged someone for the alleged destruction of data using a ‘duress’ password built into a phone\u2019s software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to The Guardian, which covered the story earlier this week following the court\u2019s first hearing on Monday, Atlanta resident Samuel Tunick is fighting the charges. Tunick\u2019s attorneys said that it was unlawful for U.S. Customs and Border Protection to seize his phone as he arrived back in the U.S. last year and that any evidence \u2014 including the alleged wiping of his phone \u2014 should be thrown out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case centers on a feature included in GrapheneOS, a custom Android operating system that runs in place of the software on most modern Google Pixel devices. Tunick\u2019s attorneys confirmed GrapheneOS was running on his phone. The software feature allows the device owner to set a passcode that deliberately wipes the contents of that device if entered instead of the user\u2019s unlock passcode.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TechCrunch: US accuses American of allegedly wiping his phone using a \u2018duress\u2019 password during border search by Zack Whittaker:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-border-search","category-cell-phones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64542"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64543,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64542\/revisions\/64543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}