US prosecutors have charged Atlanta resident Samuel Tunick after he allegedly gave border officers a ‘duress’ passcode that erased his phone during a search at Atlanta airport. The case appears to be the first known US prosecution involving a phone’s built-in data-wiping passcode, and could test the limits of digital privacy and constitutional protections at the border.

Tunick was returning from overseas on 24 January 2025 when Customs and Border Protection officers took him for secondary inspection and sought access to his phone, which ran the privacy-focused GrapheneOS software. His lawyers argue that the seizure and questioning were unlawful, alleging he was denied a solicitor and that officials were really investigating his links to the Defend the Atlanta Forest movement; prosecutors say he destroyed data to prevent its seizure, an offence to which he has pleaded not guilty.