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Activist charged after phone duress password triggers wipe at airport
Prosecutors say the wipe during a Jan. 24, 2025 Hartsfield-Jackson border search amounted to destruction of property, a rarely used federal charge under 18 U.S.C. § 2232.
Decrypt reports that Samuel Tunick, an Atlanta activist, became the first known American charged under federal law after allegedly using a duress password during a warrantless border search at Hartsfield-Jackson airport on Jan. 24, 2025.
The phone feature at issue is built into GrapheneOS, a hardened Android operating system released for Google Pixel phones. Decrypt says that when the duress code is entered, it deletes encryption keys and triggers an immediate, irreversible device wipe.
Federal prosecutors are expected to argue that Tunick’s actions violated a rarely invoked statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2232, which makes it illegal to knowingly destroy property to prevent authorities from seizing it. Decrypt adds that a federal judge is expected to rule on a motion to suppress no earlier than the end of October.
Tunick’s lawyers, according to Decrypt, contend the government’s attempted access to his privacy-focused device occurred in the context of a warrantless demand under the border search exception, and that the same kind of smartphone monitoring limits have appeared in prior court disputes involving GrapheneOS.