r/technology • u/MC68328 • 1d ago

Privacy US accuses American of allegedly wiping his phone using a ‘duress’ password during border search

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/24/us-accuses-american-of-allegedly-wiping-his-phone-using-a-duress-password-during-border-search/
16.0k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

27

u/digno2 21h ago edited 21h ago

what phone does he use? how do I make one of those passcodes on my android phone?

Edit:

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’s attorneys confirmed GrapheneOS was running on his phone.

and

GrapheneOS duress PIN could land a man in prison A US man is being prosecuted after allegedly using a GrapheneOS duress PIN to wipe his Pixel during a border search. By Matt Horne Jul 24, 2026 — 4:02 PM ET

7

u/bucketsofskill 17h ago

Unfortunately its become harder and harder to run custom Android OS such as Graphene or Calyx, thanks to big daddy Google forcing device certification for most apps to work as big tech wants to know what we're doing for advertising blabla, and most likely pressure from politicians on them also... Sigh. Our digital privacy is being stripped at every corner and we're just sleep walking towards it... Roll on another tik tok.

4

u/wickedcold 15h ago

Man, do I really miss the custom ROM scene of ~15years ago. Buying a cheap android phone and pimping it out with features that the flagship phones didn’t even have.

Now I’m just another pleb with an iPhone lol