Overview
- Federal prosecutors in Atlanta say Samuel Tunick gave a duress passcode that erased his GrapheneOS phone after U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized it when he returned to the United States on Jan. 24, 2025.
- He has been indicted on a federal obstruction statute that carries a maximum sentence of about five years in prison and a possible fine.
- GrapheneOS and similar systems use duress codes to remove encryption keys or trigger factory resets so data becomes inaccessible while the device hardware remains intact, a technical detail central to the legal dispute over whether deletion equals destruction of property.
- Tunick pleaded not guilty, remains free on bail, and his lawyers have filed a motion to suppress evidence arguing the stop and seizure were unlawful and that he was targeted for his activism opposing Atlanta’s planned training facility.
- The case raises broader questions about the border-search exception, how courts treat digital data as property, and whether prosecuting use of privacy self‑destruct features will deter activists, journalists, and travelers from using tools designed to protect their information.