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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Georgia State University has rescinded a job offer given to a high profile activist who is currently fighting a case in which he allegedly wiped a security-focused Android phone before Customs and Border Protection (CBP) could search it. The case, which 404 Media first covered and has now received widespread and national attention, has important ramifications for privacy and when someone can still be charged with an offense even if authorities don’t have suspicion of any specific crime.
Earlier this month, activist Samuel Tunick and a group of supporters delivered a “demand letter” to the university. That letter, which Tunick shared with 404 Media, says he explained to the university he was facing a pending charge, which he describes as “an instance of textbook political repression, and a high profile civil liberties case.”
While delivering the letter, supporters held signs saying, “GSU sides with Trump,” and “Digital Privacy Under Attack!”
Remember folks, have your wipe pin be close enough to audibly sound like your unlock pin, refuse to write it down. And freak out when it gets wiped.
I was thinking.
You could put the wipe pin on the back of your phone “because you often forget your pin”.
If it’s entered without your consent… Well it was without your consent 🤷♂️
Would the LEO that wiped your phone go to jail for destroying evidence
If be too paranoid about a friend or family member wiping it by accident
On the inside of the case? A friend or family member isnt likely taking it off.
You do realize that you will be explaining this to a judge/jury after spending tons of money on lawyers or, more likely, they will Aaron Swartz you and you will take a plea deal to only serve some time in jail? Or do you think the TSA will just let you go?
What would you have to explain? You literally didn’t wipe it. The cops did and they can explain what happened.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/07/activist-charged-with-felony-after-giving-border-agent-duress-code-that-wiped-his-phone/
Tunick provided this code to an agent, who entered it on the phone, after which “the screen went blank, flashed several times and the phone appeared to restart.
In the very case we are discussing here the guy gave the code to the cops and they wiped it. And guess what? He lost a job offer and has to explain what happened to the judge.
Learn the facts, learn the law, learn the reality of US right now and then advice people on the internet.
Hmm fair enough
In that situation the user deliberately gave them the duress pin.
In what I describe, the cops don’t ask, they just try your pin assuming poor opsec.
And in your scenario the cops understand the difference and just give up and don’t prosecute you? Good luck with that.
That’s just another fantasy scenario which will in no way protect you from being charged. It may or may not save you from jail but you will still lose time, money and job offers.
The only way to do in a situation like this is to fully comply. So:
if you only have to protect your data store it in the cloud and simply uninstall cloud client before going through security
if you have to protect chats, contacts, browsing history etc. split your communications between two phones. Make sure the dummy phone is actually used (has apps, calls history, chat history, browsing history, pictures). Keep all sensitive communication on one phone and never take it through security
Unlock and show your phone. Let them scan it. Make sure it looks legit but has no sensitive info. All other games will get you in trouble.
Nah, I’ve worked enough cases, the pluasbile deniability is through the roof with this barring you actually having super shady shit on your phone they can prove through parallel channel.
Its like you are telling OJ. yeah sure I guess if the glove doesn’t fit or something but that’s a fantasy
You do realize the guy from the article already lost a job offer, right? How is plausible deniability working out for him? Seeing how he already lost a job offer? Is the jury going to give him this job back? Will they pay for his lawyers?
I’m good, they can put me in jail and take over my $750,000/yr dialysis bill.
if what ICE does is any indication, they’ll just put you in jail, not deal with any medical issues, and you die
That’s exactly it. Wiping ‘evidence’ in front of law enforcement means instant jail. In certain areas of the world it’s far worse punishment. I have a feeling a lot of people here have never visited Russia, even in the most ‘friendly’ of times.
like they’re not gonna just plant evidence
ICE shot a guy in the middle of the street while being filmed from 5 different angles and no one was even charged. If they are targeting you specifically you’re fucked and no amount of fake PINs and acting will save you. If they are not targeting you the best thing you can do is not to draw attention.
then if theyre gonna do whatever they please i should just… wipe my phone so they dont get access to my info and contacts and shit?
Of course, if you know you’re fucked either way you can do whatever you like. In some places activists can operate in public but in places like US, Mexico or Russia you either operate in secret or risk repressions, no way around it. I mean, you wouldn’t expect the law to protect you from the government in Russia, why would you expect it in US?
What of instead you finger print erased it? Your pin is the real unlock. And it always asks for the fingprint first but you have to press elsewhere to switch to pin mode.
Also it takes three fingerprint attempts, which look like they fail, to read, and on the third one the wipe happens.
You’d run into the same problem this guy is unless they forcefully took your fingerprint. He offered the code and they entered it, which i think would be different than them taking your hand and forcing you to place it on the phone.
right that’s sort of my thinking. since fingerprints are NOT currently protected by SCOTUS precedent, they can indeed compel you to provide it to unlock a phone. So, resist a little to make it look real, then let them try it and you can claim “I didn’t want to give you my finger print”
I’m not saying it’s perfect, but it’s harder to claim you did it on purpose since it’s wiped and they can’t prove* the pin option was the only safe option.
* Sure they can know it’s a graphene option because that’s public knowledge, but proving you enabled it vs. a standard 3-failed finger print attempts wipes the phone security setting.
There is talk about having the option for the dures pin lead to a separate image.
The current correct way to set up those profiles is to have a default one that looks lived in but contains nothing you wouldn’t mind explaining.
Then you create a burner profile that you simply delete if the water is too hot. This is the profile you use 90% of the time.
This way your phone looks normal when seized because the default profile still has your stuff in it (banking apps, dating apps, a few games, whatever).
I just have a couple apps that can be deleted if I’m flying and then redownload when safe. This one included.
I’m just going to use a flip phone that can hotspot.
I’m trying to decide which numbers sound alike. I guess you can get around that with alphabetical passcodes and just “mix up” an M and N
Easy, “I said ‘two fives’, as in ‘55’, not ‘two five’”.
You’d probably want to have an audio recording of that one.
They’ll side with the cops if it comes to a he said she said.
Sixty/sixteen, ninety/ninteen perhaps.
Ah good idea
“nine” and “five” could be easy to mix up.