The record
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- US activist Samuel Tunick faces federal criminal charges after his GrapheneOS phone automatically erased all data when Customs and Border Protection officers at an Atlanta airport entered a duress PIN he had given them during a device inspection.
- CBP says it was searching for child sexual abuse material, while Tunick's lawyers argue the demand was unconstitutional and a pretext to investigate his involvement in the 'Stop Cop City' movement.
- He is charged under a rarely used statute criminalising destruction of property to prevent seizure.
- The case in a Georgia federal court could set important precedents for travellers' digital privacy rights at US borders.
What to watch next
- The Georgia federal court's ruling on whether evidence from Tunick's phone should be suppressed as unlawfully obtained
- How the court interprets the rarely used statute on destroying property to prevent seizure as applied to phone data
- Whether CBP's border search powers face new limits or legal challenges from groups like the EFF and ACLU following this case
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Named United States · GrapheneOS · Samuel Tunick · American Civil Liberties Union · Customs and Border Protection · Defend the Atlanta Forest · Electronic Frontier Foundation · Federal Court in Georgia · Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport · Live Mint · Swati Gandhi · US News
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