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US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search

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Re: US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search

#731

I suspect that this will ultimately be thrown out for a very simple reason which is that the government will have to prove that a duress PIN was actually entered. That is going to be quite difficult unless the person charged openly admitted it. The reason is because anyone running an os with a duress PIN that has done nothing wrong can be accused of using a duress PIN because the whole point of the duress PIN is that…

I'm a GrapheneOS user. The duress passcode feature will reboot the phone to a "corrupted data" screen, so it's pretty obvious that it's been used to render data inaccessible.

Re: US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search

#733

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We probably need honey pod fake OS systems that boots up if not properly handled displaying some stars & stripes as background image and having the US national anthem playing for any sound the OS is trying to play.

A phone with a backup account, unlocked with duress pin makes sense to me. How hard would it be to admin-allow some apps to work across barriers. E.g., wallet apps work, airline tickets work, but email/socials do not. the issue is that when a phone is unlocked, they can just plug in a USB device and scrape everything off it. The TSA agent may not be eyeballing a facebook account so much as plugging in an exfiltration…

Why does the USB port need to even work anyways? It could just be designed to look like a USB port but fry whatever expensive and proprietary phone hacking device they bought from some scuzzy Israeli ‘security’ company when it’s plugged in.

Re: US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search

#734
I think if I were headed out of country i would make a full backup of my phone, then wipe it and set it up using my old gmail account that i only use for spam and stuff, fwd my reservations to that account. I would not install my normal accounts on it. I would not install my bitwarden either. I would keep everything minimal, use web UIs where possible. then when i return, it looks like I use my phone and didn't wipe it but I also live a boring life.

Small inconvenience for me, but better than dealing with bullies.

Re: US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search

#735

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A phone with a backup account, unlocked with duress pin makes sense to me. How hard would it be to admin-allow some apps to work across barriers. E.g., wallet apps work, airline tickets work, but email/socials do not. the issue is that when a phone is unlocked, they can just plug in a USB device and scrape everything off it. The TSA agent may not be eyeballing a facebook account so much as plugging in an exfiltration…

> the issue is that when a phone is unlocked, they can just plug in a USB device and scrape everything off it That's useless if the backup account and the main account use different keys for the home partition. VeraCrypt (used to?) have this. It was called a hidden volume. One volume, but two keys, two passwords, and two different containers full of data. Technically, the second volume is written into the partition "…

[deleted]

Re: US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search

#736
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For one example of this, around 10 years ago there was a company called Aereo that tried to act as a "cloud television provider". The idea was that they had thousands of tiny antennas hooked up to servers in a warehouse, and they would lease an antenna to each subscriber. This gave an experience similar to cable TV but without Aereo having to pay broadcasters cable transmission fees. The major broadcasters sued Aereo…

This sort of legal workaround can work (see Uber) though. Uber avoided medallions. I guess that proves law is not code!

It depends on how much money you have to grease the wheels.

Re: US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search

#737
post #733

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A phone with a backup account, unlocked with duress pin makes sense to me. How hard would it be to admin-allow some apps to work across barriers. E.g., wallet apps work, airline tickets work, but email/socials do not. the issue is that when a phone is unlocked, they can just plug in a USB device and scrape everything off it. The TSA agent may not be eyeballing a facebook account so much as plugging in an exfiltration…

Why does the USB port need to even work anyways? It could just be designed to look like a USB port but fry whatever expensive and proprietary phone hacking device they bought from some scuzzy Israeli ‘security’ company when it’s plugged in.

[deleted]

Re: US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search

#738

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is first world on a technicality: the first world is defined as countries that were allied with the US during the cold war. If not for that, it'd be classified as developing. It's common to mix up developing/developed and third/first world because they were largely aligned during the cold war. But there is one first-world developing country.

The UK, per capita, is poorer than every single state in the US. https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/articles/gdp-alert-united-... As much as the current situation in the US upsets me, anyone who has spent considerable time within the US and outside of the US cannot believe what you've stated as anything other than a trite delusion. The US isn't just the richest country in the world, it has the second highest purchasin…

https://www.ubs.com/global/en/media/display-page-ndp/en-2026...

Seems to substantially disagree that the average person in the U.K. is worse off than the average person in the U.S.

Re: US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search

#739

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got selected as juror once just hoping to laugh at anything the cops said on the witness stand and let some poor soul go free but it turns out the defendant was just a violent scumbag who stabbed random people in public, and there was a video of it. After we decided he was guilty, they listed other things he had been convicted of and asked if he was a repeat offender... Let's see, shot somebody in the back, robbed…

I don't understand the jury system. If your server is down you don't grab randos from the street to fix it. Hell Americans know this too which is why you have a professional judge and lawyers. And you guys don't have a night watch with pitch forks and muskets to police the village anymore. A jury system is an anachronistic relic.

In a jury system, the judge provides instructions to the jury about how they are supposed to weigh the evidence presented against the requirements of the law. They don't need to be technical experts. The theoretical idea of "a jury of one's peers" (while not perfect) is making a fresh decision based on the merits of the singular case, rather than a judge deciding based on prejudices they've built up over hundreds of previous cases.

Re: US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search

#740

If your threat model means you can’t afford for border security to view your device, wipe the damn thing yourself before crossing the border and restore it from an encrypted online backup on the other side. You’re just carrying a blank phone that you intend to set up and use later, and they can’t force you to install your backup onto a phone. Now, this is sus as hell, and you’ll probably draw all kinds of extra atten…

Those who thought that a duress pin was a good idea for border crossing are probably going to choose this alternative. It doesn't have to be blank - just clean.

Unless you are an activist who is being targeted by a government. A "clean" OS can still have incriminating "evidence" planted on it.
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