Atlanta man charged with felony after phone’s duress code wipes data during border inspection
Samuel Tunick, an Atlanta resident, faces a federal felony charge for allegedly using a secret wipe code that erased his Google Pixel while Customs officers examined the device at the airport.
After arriving from the Dominican Republic, Samuel Tunick was directed to a secondary inspection area at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where Customs and Border Protection officers took his Google Pixel and asked for its passcode. He supplied a secondary code that activated GrapheneOS’s duress wipe feature, causing the device’s data to be erased while the hardware remained intact. Federal prosecutors have charged him under 18 U.S.C.
Section 2232(a), a statute that criminalizes the intentional destruction of property to prevent government seizure, and seek up to five years in prison. Tunick has pleaded not guilty and argues that the agents detained him without proper authority and violated his constitutional rights. The case highlights the tension between personal digital-privacy tools and the broad search powers granted to border officials.
Why it matters
The case tests how privacy-protecting phone features intersect with U.S. border-search authority.
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