In early 2025, Atlanta resident Samuel Tunick was on his way home following a trip abroad. After landing in the US, customs agents demanded access to his Pixel phone, which was running an alternative version of Android called GrapheneOS. Rather than hand over his data, Tunick used a clever feature of the software to delete everything. Now, he’s facing federal charges.
The first hearing in this case happened last week, according to The Guardian, during which government attorneys and agents claimed that Tunick was subjected to a standard secondary interrogation at an international airport. During that encounter, agents were “looking for anything that’s prohibited.” However, Tunick’s legal team alleges he was targeted for his activism.
Tunick was involved with a group called Defend the Atlanta Forest, which opposed the construction of an enormous law enforcement training facility in the area often known as Cop City. What Tunick didn’t know, according to his lawyers, was that he’d been placed on a watch list for his actions and that Customs and Border Protection had discussed over email plans to detain him upon his arrival back in the US for “suspected terrorism activities.”
i find it funny when the people trying to give practical advice are downvoted just because the authorities shouldnt be able to do stuff like this.
im sure youre not saying border control should be allowed to search a phone without a warrant, youre telling peoole how to keep their info safe when you have a warrantless search take place.
Yeah… reddit is REAL stupid. And… I’ve increasingly come to realize that lemmy might actually be worse. People want to view the world as they want to and don’t care about living in the one we are stuck in.
But, whatever. Maybe someone will see that and act accordingly. I am genuinely proud of, allegedly, having helped a fair few journalism group chats work out best practices.
… And, case in point, “you used too many words so it made me think you were acting smarter than me” is very much not information I would volunteer. And yet people do. Oy
I didn’t downvote, but I found your writing style to be unnecessarily verbose. As in, the comment went on for paragraphs when the point could be made in a few sentences.
Like maybe: A completely wiped factory reset phone raises suspicions that there was something on there you wanted to hide. But a phone cleaned of sensitive data that still has all the normal benign apps and files would be less likely to get extra scrutiny.
All that extra explanation could seem/feel like you were underestimating people’s intelligence.