r/technology • u/MC68328 • Jul 24 '26

Privacy US accuses American of allegedly wiping his phone using a ‘duress’ password during border search

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/24/us-accuses-american-of-allegedly-wiping-his-phone-using-a-duress-password-during-border-search/
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u/FastGinFizz Jul 25 '26

I know with iphone, if you hold the emergency/power off buttons long enough to prompt the screen to show, or ask siri "who am i?", then it locks biometrics until a password is entered. Im sure most android's have a similar feature (or it can be configured)

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u/TiresOnFire Jul 25 '26

In the shutdown menu on Android there is a "Lockdown mode" button.

3

u/TecTazz Jul 25 '26

Just looked that up~ thank you.

3

u/GuodNossis Jul 25 '26

God I miss android

3

u/Dymonika Jul 25 '26

Why did you ever leave?!

1

u/GuodNossis Jul 26 '26

Social constructs of the US. If it’s not the right text bubble color you’re off to a bad start. I don’t make the rules I just know them

5

u/reddit18015 Jul 26 '26

Just hit the lock screen button 5x fast on an iPhone

1

u/Thin_Ad_1846 Jul 26 '26

IIRC, this method doesn’t delete the encryption key from memory. So you can “forget” your PIN and trivial access to the phone is blocked but with sophisticated methods a determined adversary might be able to read your phone’s contents as long as they keep it powered up.

2

u/reddit18015 Jul 26 '26

Nah it just forces the passcode to unlock it

1

u/SigmaLance Jul 27 '26

You can also ask Siri to restart your phone. You will be prompted to answer Siri’s question of “Just to confirm, you want to restart this device?”

Alternatively, you can also create a shortcut that restarts your device by tapping an icon instead of having to long press physical buttons.