It is an unprecedented case. And it risks triggering an unprecedented threat to journalism. The UK police have repeatedly tried to obtain the passwords to the phones of the British independent journalist, Richard Medhurst, the first reporter arrested in London under Section 12: his analyses and comments on Israel’s bloodbath in Gaza – which Amnesty International has characterised as genocide – have been interpreted by the police as support for organisations banned from the UK, such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
The British journalists’ union, the NUJ, and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) publicly condemned his arrest and the use of anti-terrorism laws against journalists “simply for carrying out their work”.
Nowadays you have a duress password on Graphene. So you just claim “i forgot it” and then sadly sob out the duress password when they throw a fit.
I’ve always wanted to be able to have different pin logins on android. Log in 1 is all my shit, log in 2 is a dummy login with shit to show authorities. Log in 3 could be my porn log in.
Another option I would like is a password which deletes all data and bricks the phone.
That’s basically the duress password in graphene os. It deletes all data and e-sims but keeps the os installed
Thanks, good to know.
Seems like 3 should be 2. Cops can’t stand sexuality. They’ll cry and give it back.
Wouldn’t they just immediately realize you’ve only given them the duress password?
Also, they will have imaged the phone already before attempting to unlock it, so the “delete all data” feature would be pretty pointless.
Good point. Best to use the duress password when you believe you are in danger.
Regarding imaging, also good point, but Graphene is considered safe BFU and is supposed to disable the USB port while locked.
I would assume state actors have the ability to read out your storage without needing the USB port. Even hardware security chips like secure enclave or TPM I consider to be likely compromised/backdoored by state actors.
This information comes from Celebrite’s claimings. https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/112462756293586146