GrapheneOS duress PIN could land a man in prison

Post by harshreality » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 8:18 AM UTC

type0 wrote: post #10

harshreality wrote: post #6

Providing a duress PIN to wipe your phone when they ask for the passcode? Any realistic person can predict that could have major legal repercussions. Cypherpunks have pondered the legal consequences of blatantly doing things like that for decades. Props to the defendant for volunteering as a test case. He should've powered off his phone before he went through customs, or better yet traveled with a burner phone. It do…

> ... if you interfere or destroy potential evidence, So everything is potential evidence, even any memory in your brain, were're soon be at Johnny Mnemonic situation here.

No, not things in your brain. That's covered under the 5th amendment. Refusing to provide information is not the same as interfering. The portable brain scanner issue is an issue, but the legal system will get around to addressing that if and when it becomes practical enough for police to attempt using it.

The exceptions I know of are things like:

- In some situations you have to ID yourself (not just when you're driving, but that's the usual case, where they have legal authority to ID you, and if you don't have ID you have to provide the equivalent from memory so they can check your identity.)

- Face and Fingerprint unlocks are not things in your mind, they're not testimony, therefore you can be compelled to provide them, though usually by court order. If a cop in the field is forcing you to face- or fingerprint-unlock your phone, that might not be allowed.

- In a few jurisdictions, if it's a "foregone conclusion" what's on your phone, i.e. they know from other threads of the investigation what's on it, but it's just encrypted, they might be able to force you to unlock it in that case, but that's through a court order not during a field investigation.

Re: GrapheneOS duress PIN could land a man in prison

Re: GrapheneOS duress PIN could land a man in prison