355
Activist charged with felony after giving border agent "duress code" that wiped his phone (arstechnica.com)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/news@lemmy.world
31 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

In early 2025, Atlanta resident Samuel Tunick was on his way home following a trip abroad. After landing in the US, customs agents demanded access to his Pixel phone, which was running an alternative version of Android called GrapheneOS. Rather than hand over his data, Tunick used a clever feature of the software to delete everything. Now, he’s facing federal charges.

The first hearing in this case happened last week, according to The Guardian, during which government attorneys and agents claimed that Tunick was subjected to a standard secondary interrogation at an international airport. During that encounter, agents were “looking for anything that’s prohibited.” However, Tunick’s legal team alleges he was targeted for his activism.

Tunick was involved with a group called Defend the Atlanta Forest, which opposed the construction of an enormous law enforcement training facility in the area often known as Cop City. What Tunick didn’t know, according to his lawyers, was that he’d been placed on a watch list for his actions and that Customs and Border Protection had discussed over email plans to detain him upon his arrival back in the US for “suspected terrorism activities.”

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[+] -7 points 3 months ago (5 children)

A tip for those who are worried they may be in a similar situation. This is based upon training at previous jobs as well as helping journalist friends out:

Do not take a burner and do not take a blank device through a border checkpoint (what customs essentially is). You have VERY murky rights in those situations and there are plenty of legal carve outs (in many nations) to essentially throw you in a black site under suspicions. And someone having a factory reset device is right up there with "These students aren't interested in learning how to land a plane" for red flags.

If you have sensitive information on your devices? Remove that ahead of time. Look into methods where you can access it remotely (VPNing into a remote system being the easiest). You want to be able to wipe and recover your device when traveling...

Hell, even if you aren't concerned about protecting sources for a story or concealing your sexuality, it is a good "point" to reach. Because pickpockets exist and your phone could get stolen or even destroyed.

So problem solved. Wipe your phone while you are taxiing and recover it on the cab ride to your hotel! No, don't do that. Because if you get inspected you are raising ALL the alarm bells.

Instead, get into the habit of having a minimal state phone. It is one of the many reasons I discourage people from actually deleting those Facebook accounts (aside from it meaning you no longer have any "right" to images that are tagged as the numeric identity that just happens to be you...). Having a facebook account you haven't posted on in a decade but still keep to get notifications from the local parenting group is a perfectly normal thing. Having a dating app on the phone (assuming you don't have to conceal your sexuality) is a perfectly normal thing to do. Same with having a reddit or an instagram where you thirst after Benedict Cumberbatch's feet. And so forth.

Which is the reality. While this is straight bullshit... it also kinda isn't. If someone is traveling internationally with a fully wiped phone (bonus points for apparently deleting it while customs were trying to get into it...)... that is gonna put you on a watchlist and.. they probably aren't wrong to do so.

Think of your personal devices as being like your car. Some stuff you just toss on the floor of the back seat and cover with a blanket so it isn't super visible from the outside. Other stuff you just don't leave unattended in your car, period. And... if every time you borrow a car you get it fully detailed and change the upholstery... folk are gonna be wondering just how many bodies you have driven out to the desert in that.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
    •
  • [–] 8 points 3 months ago

    Your point is only valid if you trust the government, and you have a right not to trust them. A government you dont trust can use anything on your phone to put some bullshit charge on you, there is no phone, even a minimal phone, that does not have something on there they could use to pin some shit on you. I think you have to plan rules around a possible untrustworthy/fascist government while you have a normal government. Like habeus corpus, right to be forgotten, information requests, etc.

    The current american government seems completely batshit insane of the rails, which is why I am using my privilege to never have to go there, to never go there. Some folk must go there, and they need basic protections against fascist rulers. I think, your point boils down to fascism-light. ' You shouldn't have incriminating stuff on there '... the only way to do that is with a burner.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

    If you have sensitive information on your devices? Remove that ahead of time.

    That is not a reliable solution. I cannot endorse this course of action at all. The bottom line is that it is nearly impossible to actually remove all sensitive data from a phone that was in active use. Also remember, deleting files is not the same as removing them from a computer, they're still there if you know how to look. And having some of that data in the cloud makes you more vulnerable, not less. It means there's a third party to get your data from and guess what, that party already has an existing relationship and agreement with law enforcement. And even if your data were safe in the cloud, just accessing it can leave that data sitting in caches on your device in locations you may not even be able to access (but law enforcement will).

    Pretending that it's possible to make a device safe is dangerous. Just take a burner.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    i find it funny when the people trying to give practical advice are downvoted just because the authorities shouldnt be able to do stuff like this.

    im sure youre not saying border control should be allowed to search a phone without a warrant, youre telling peoole how to keep their info safe when you have a warrantless search take place.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 child)

    Yeah... reddit is REAL stupid. And... I've increasingly come to realize that lemmy might actually be worse. People want to view the world as they want to and don't care about living in the one we are stuck in.

    But, whatever. Maybe someone will see that and act accordingly. I am genuinely proud of, allegedly, having helped a fair few journalism group chats work out best practices.

    ... And, case in point, "you used too many words so it made me think you were acting smarter than me" is very much not information I would volunteer. And yet people do. Oy

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago*

    I didn't downvote, but I found your writing style to be unnecessarily verbose. As in, the comment went on for paragraphs when the point could be made in a few sentences.

    Like maybe: A completely wiped factory reset phone raises suspicions that there was something on there you wanted to hide. But a phone cleaned of sensitive data that still has all the normal benign apps and files would be less likely to get extra scrutiny.

    All that extra explanation could seem/feel like you were underestimating people's intelligence.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent