A GrapheneOS Privacy Feature Just Became the Basis for a Federal Indictment

An Atlanta resident, Samuel Tunick, is fighting a federal indictment that treats a privacy feature on his phone as evidence destruction. A grand jury charged him under 18 U.S.C. § 2232(a), a statute that covers destruction of property to block seizure by a government agent.

The root cause of all this was the deletion of a Google Pixel smartphone’s contents during a border search, and the case itself sits in the Northern District of Georgia under case number 1:25-CR-499, before District Judge Eleanor L. Ross.

If Tunick is found guilty, the charge carries a fine, up to five years in prison, or both.

The coercion

On January 24 last year, the CBP placed Tunick into secondary inspection at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as he returned from a trip to the Dominican Republic, putting him through several rounds of questioning and searches.

The officers started off by searching him, checking what he was carrying, and demanding that he fork over the passcode for his phone. All of this was reportedly done under the pretext of searching for CSAM.

He also asked for a lawyer multiple times, but the officers ignored every request, never read him his Miranda rights, and kept questioning him anyway. When he pushed back, they said it was “a whole different ballgame” at the border and that they didn’t need a warrant.

Tunick eventually handed over a passcode.

But, the moment it was entered, the screen flickered blank a few times before the device rebooted itself, erasing its contents in front of the same agents who’d demanded access.

The motion filed by Tunick’s lawyer stresses that his association with Defend the Atlanta Forest, an AGAAVE-labeled outfit, was the actual reason federal agents moved on him, not any crime.

Earlier, a Homeland Security agent had circulated Tunick’s name and photo hours before his flight landed, flagging him for suspected terrorism activity, while FBI and CBP officers coordinated to set up the search.

Despite that, the government has never presented evidence tying Tunick to an actual crime connected to the movement.

What triggered this?

Tunick had what appears to be GrapheneOS’s duress PIN/Password feature set up on his phone. When officers entered the passcode he gave them, it did what it was designed to do, wiping the device the moment the duress code was entered.

If you didn’t know, this feature also triggers at any authentication prompt, not just the lockscreen, and covers every profile on the phone, not only the main one.

In a forum post that reads like a reaction to this case (though they never name it), GrapheneOS said people should carefully think through how they use the duress feature. And that wiping a device in an actual duress situation can carry physical or legal consequences of its own.

Guilty as charged?

Nope! Nothing’s decided yet. A hearing on Tunick’s suppression motion happened earlier this month, but the judge kept it open for more testimony before ruling on anything.

Written arguments are due through the fall, Tunick’s side by September 18, the government’s by October 9, and Tunick’s reply by October 23. Until then, know that the five-year prison term attached to the charge is just the maximum the law allows, not what’s actually coming his way.

As for my views, hearing about a citizen of a country getting worked over like this just to come home, only for it to end in a federal indictment months later feels like something you’d expect from a banana republic.

But that’s how things go in the greatest nation in the world /s.

It makes you wonder how worthless the rights of the average Joe are, while people committing crimes that make your blood boil walk free. 🙃