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.”
Your point is only valid if you trust the government, and you have a right not to trust them. A government you dont trust can use anything on your phone to put some bullshit charge on you, there is no phone, even a minimal phone, that does not have something on there they could use to pin some shit on you. I think you have to plan rules around a possible untrustworthy/fascist government while you have a normal government. Like habeus corpus, right to be forgotten, information requests, etc.
The current american government seems completely batshit insane of the rails, which is why I am using my privilege to never have to go there, to never go there. Some folk must go there, and they need basic protections against fascist rulers. I think, your point boils down to fascism-light. ’ You shouldn’t have incriminating stuff on there '… the only way to do that is with a burner.