you can be compelled to unlock with biometrics, but not a password

Yah, I’ve been trying to get my friends to use a pw rather than biometric unlock, for that exact reason.

I’m batting like 0 for 5, lol. Biometrics are just too convenient I guess. Plus they don’t think it will impact them personally. Which is prob true. I still think it’s best to use the way that preserves more civil rights. I just can’t convince them.

I don’t have those chops either. Also NAL. The wiki page says Tampering charges require there to be an ongoing investigation, which wasn’t the case here, so I’m thinking it wouldn’t apply. But! I wonder about spoliation. Spoliation before a case is brought, while not illegal per se, can result in negative inference,

spoliation inference is a negative evidentiary inference that a trier of fact can draw from a party’s destruction of evidence that is relevant to an ongoing or reasonably foreseeable civil or criminal proceeding

Negative inference, to my NAL understanding, means the tampered evidence may be taken in the worst light for the defense. Here, it’s all resting on flimsy and politically motivated pretext with no evidence. Still.

Needs an immigration lawyer to give an answer to this, but I’m thinking it may be legally safer to have strong encryption and refuse to unlock, rather than to wipe. Not unlocking isn’t tampering, so no spoliation, but wiping might be. Well, safest of all is to use a burner. But next best, strong encryption + don’t unlock. CBP can confescate the device, but they cannot compel you to produce a pw or unlock code.

There has too been talk about Google using it to block desktop OSs like Linux. By requiring validation against a QR you have to scan from an Android or iOS phone.

https://reddthat.com/post/69062683

I swear I saw that URL 5 times before realizing it probably doesn’t belong to Redhat.

Some agencies insist suspects do not have access to those rights if certain conditions apply, such as being within one hundred miles of a US border (such as a coast),

It seems kinda nuanced tho. From various sources, the rules look like this. Ofc sometimes the rules may not be followed, that’s a separate issue. This is just the rules CBP has,

1. CBP agents can, with no cause, perform a “basic search”. That means looking through photos, text messages, call logs, and emails. But not using tools or forensic methods.

2. CBP CANNOT compel you to unlock the device for them or produce a pw. They CAN confescate the device if you don’t, tho.

3. CBP agents CANNOT perform a forensic search without reasonable suspicion and a signoff from a supervisor. A forensic search is one that uses external tools, not just the agent eyeballing your photos and messages after you unlock it for them.

4. CBP agents CAN perform a forsensic search with reasonable suspicion, and a supervisor signoff.

5. CBP CANNOT access cloud data from your device. Only data on the device is in bounds.

6. CBP MUST follow a special protocol if the owner asserts certain privileges, such as attorney client priviledge, or protected medical data.

This leaves travelers in a position where they CAN assert their 4A rights when it comes to data on the device. But it comes at a price. It may lead to the confescation of the device. That is coersive ofc, and many ppl won’t want to. So in practice, many ppl will cooperate and unlock the dev for the agent. But if you really want to push back, you can, and they have to let you into the country still if you are a citizen.

Tunick’s federal public defenders,

TBH I hope he can get more than public defenders. They work hard but they are often over worked and under resourced. Plus not being specialists in this. Maybe the EFF will offer specialist help. EFF is already aware of his case. Hence why anyone who is able to, should donate to the EFF. So they can employ high powered lawyers.

Additionally, the agents produced no warrant and did not read Tunick his rights.

NAL, but I think the gov can’t have it both ways. IF they did not produce a warrant or Mirandize him, THEN they cannot come at him for wiping his own phone. The gov might have a case if they had a warrant and he knowingly wiped it. But that’s not what allegedly happened here. No warrant = still 100% his device to do what he wants.

Aside from his case, courts in the US are all over the place, on whether you can be compelled to unlock a device if there IS a warrant. More often than not, they have ruled you CAN’T be compelled to produce a passcode from your memory. But in some cases, they have ruled the opposite. It’s super chaotic, and prob needs a SCOTUS ruling.