--- title: US accuses American of allegedly wiping his phone using... description: A U.S. citizen, Samuel Tunick, is facing federal charges for allegedly using a GrapheneOS 'duress' password to wipe his phone during a border search at... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/us-accuses-american-of-allegedly-wiping-his-phone-using-a-duress-password-during-border-search-ghsgnrv6h twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: US accuses American of allegedly wiping his phone using a ‘duress’ password during border search | daily.dev og:description: A U.S. citizen, Samuel Tunick, is facing federal charges for allegedly using a GrapheneOS 'duress' password to wipe his phone during a border search at... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/us-accuses-american-of-allegedly-wiping-his-phone-using-a-duress-password-during-border-search-ghsgnrv6h og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/GHSgNRV6h.png og:image:alt: US accuses American of allegedly wiping his phone using a ‘duress’ password during border search og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # US accuses American of allegedly wiping his phone using a ‘duress’ password during border search **[TechCrunch](https://daily.dev/sources/tc)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A U.S. citizen, Samuel Tunick, is facing federal charges for allegedly using a GrapheneOS 'duress' password to wipe his phone during a border search at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport. This is believed to be the first known case where federal prosecutors have charged someone for destroying data via a duress password feature. Tunick's attorneys argue the phone seizure was unlawful, that he was denied access to an attorney, and that the government lacked justification for the search. The case raises significant questions about constitutional rights at the U.S. border, where the government claims it can search devices without a warrant. Security experts say they have never seen similar charges, and the EFF offers guidance on protecting data at the border. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: --- Tags: [#privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/privacy) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/us-accuses-american-of-allegedly-wiping-his-phone-using-a-duress-password-during-border-search-ghsgnrv6h) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"US accuses American of allegedly wiping his phone using a ‘duress’ password during border search","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/us-accuses-american-of-allegedly-wiping-his-phone-using-a-duress-password-during-border-search-ghsgnrv6h","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/us-accuses-american-of-allegedly-wiping-his-phone-using-a-duress-password-during-border-search-ghsgnrv6h"},"datePublished":"2026-07-24T17:58:41.934Z","dateModified":"2026-07-30T16:47:09.728Z","description":"A U.S. citizen, Samuel Tunick, is facing federal charges for allegedly using a GrapheneOS 'duress' password to wipe his phone during a border search at...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/2432a27e79db202cdc7e04e41fd1c44d?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/2432a27e79db202cdc7e04e41fd1c44d?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"TechCrunch","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TechCrunch","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tc","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tc"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/us-accuses-american-of-allegedly-wiping-his-phone-using-a-duress-password-during-border-search-ghsgnrv6h","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"privacy","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TechCrunch","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tc"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"US accuses American of allegedly wiping his phone using a ‘duress’ password during border search"}]} ```