{"id":7050364,"date":"2026-08-28T22:03:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T22:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/us-man-charged-with-felony-after-phone-wipes-itself-during-seizure\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T22:03:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T22:03:16","slug":"us-man-charged-with-felony-after-phone-wipes-itself-during-seizure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7050364","title":{"rendered":"US man charged with felony after phone wipes itself during seizure"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

\"GrapheneOS\"<\/p>\n

A Georgia man is being targeted by federal prosecutors after his phone\u2019s OS wiped the device during an attempted seizure.<\/p>\n

Atlanta resident Sam Tunick was returning from the Dominican Republic in January when he was stopped by federal agents. Tunick\u2019s lawyer alleges that the stop was motivated by Tunick\u2019s activism against the $118 million \u201cCop City\u201d training facility.<\/p>\n

Customs agents claim that it was a routine stop and search and that they were simply looking for anything which shouldn\u2019t be allowed. I haven\u2019t been pulled for one of these checks before, but it seems unusual to me for an American citizen to be asked to unlock and expose his personal information on a routine stop.<\/p>\n

According to TechSpot<\/a>, Tunick used an open-source operating system called GrapheneOS which includes extra privacy features. One of these features allows users to set a \u201cduress PIN\u201d which is a passcode that completely wipes the device instead of unlocking it. This allows users to undermine attempts to violate their privacy under duress.<\/p>\n

Federal prosecutors are arguing that Tunick\u2019s actions run afoul of federal statute \u201c18 USC 2232: Destruction or removal of property to prevent seizure\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tunick\u2019s defense is questioning the constitutionality of his stop in the first place, and claim that Tunick was not read his rights and denied access to a lawyer during questioning.<\/p>\n

Privacy advocates are also watching the case, since the outcome could have a far-reaching effect on how Americans are allowed to protect their digital privacy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\n
\n

This is\u00a0Niche Gamer Tech<\/a>. In this column, we regularly cover tech and things related to the tech industry. Please leave feedback and let us know if there\u2019s tech or a story you want us to cover!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Georgia man is being targeted by federal prosecutors after his phone\u2019s OS wiped the device during an attempted seizure. Atlanta resident Sam Tunick was returning from the Dominican Republic in January when he was stopped by federal agents. Tunick\u2019s lawyer alleges that the stop was motivated by Tunick\u2019s activism against the $118 million \u201cCop […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7050365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88,182,134250,97319],"tags":[2239,50007,385,1255,59878,2404],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7050364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","category-privacy","category-tech","tag-charged","tag-felony","tag-man","tag-phone","tag-seizure","tag-wipes"],"yoast_head":"\nUS man charged with felony after phone wipes itself during seizure - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7050364\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US man charged with felony after phone wipes itself during seizure - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Georgia man is being targeted by federal prosecutors after his phone\u2019s OS wiped the device during an attempted seizure. 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