The Government Just Charged a Gay Man for Using a Phone Privacy Feature

When Samuel Tunick landed at Hartsfield-Jackson on January 24, 2025,
handing CBP agents his phone's passcode seemed routine — until the
screen went blank, the device flashed, restarted, and the data vanished.
The Atlanta resident and American citizen had given border officers a
passcode for his Google Pixel. But this wasn't a regular unlock code.
According to prosecutors, it was a duress passcode, a feature of
GrapheneOS that wipes the device clean instead of opening it. This case
echoes broader concerns around surveillance app deployments targeting
activists in cross-border contexts. 

The Justice Department charged Tunick under 18 U.S.C. § 2232(a), which
criminalizes destroying property during a lawful search or seizure and
carries up to five years in prison. He pleaded not guilty. Security
experts say this prosecution appears to be the first of its kind. 

A Privacy OS Built for People Who Need It Most
GrapheneOS is the Signal of mobile operating systems — and its signature
feature just became Exhibit A. 

Think of GrapheneOS as a hardened Android fork built specifically for
journalists, activists, and anyone who can't afford a data breach. The
duress passcode is a deliberate feature, not a loophole. One detail
wipe. That complicates the government's "destruction of property" theory
considerably. 

"I have not seen this before, though I've discussed the potential
scenario with activists and journalists over the years," said Runa
Sandvik, founder of security consultancy Granitt. 

Tunick's defense team argues the seizure was unlawful from the start.

denied him access to a lawyer

never informed him of his rights

used child-exploitation concerns as a pretext

with Defend the Atlanta Forest, the environmental movement opposing
Atlanta's planned "Cop City" law enforcement training complex. 

CBP agents also asserted they needed no warrant because Tunick had not
yet legally crossed the border — a position reflecting the government's
long-standing claim of broad search authority at ports of entry.
Assistant federal public defender Matthew Dodge called the statute's
application here "incredibly rare." 

What This Means for Your Phone When You Travel
The smarter move isn't a last-second wipe — it's crossing the border
with nothing worth finding. 

of time, you can always download the data you need once you get to where

travel phones

cloud-based workflows

pre-departure wipes with post-arrival restores

The Electronic Frontier Foundation maintains similar guidance on
protecting data at the border, emphasizing minimal local storage over
in-situ countermeasures. Concerns about government access to devices
have also fueled reports of apps secretly tracking users without
consent. 

The indictment itself — which misspells the country as "Untied States" —
reads like a warning shot aimed at anyone relying on privacy tools under
pressure. 

The Atlanta federal court's ruling on the suppression motion is expected
later this year. If the government's theory survives, activating a
built-in phone feature during a border search becomes criminal
obstruction for every traveler carrying a locked device through U.S.
customs. That's not a niche activist problem. That's everyone's problem. 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/government-just-charged-man-
using-144905054.html