532
this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2026
532 points (99.3% liked)
Technology
87854 readers
2413 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
If they found a duress password in his wallet, and used it, they would 100% prosecute for that.
They would, but he'd have a significantly better chance at winning. Having a duress setup/password isn't illegal. if you plead the 5th on what that pin code is, i don't think they'd have a leg to stand on.
I don't know if it would win or not. But the cops could argue that you put that piece of paper as a premeditated trap designed to wipe evidence and interfere with their investigation, if they caught you. Especially if you wrote any of that down and they found it. Honestly I'm not sure what the jury would agree with in this country.
So what? Yes, that's what the paper note is for. If someone wants to get unauthorized access, they will likely try it and wipe the phone. You have zero obligation to warn them not to do that. You didn't authorize access.
I think you're on the right track. You could say the note was for cell phone thieves or something and you didn't expect the police to use it. Plausible deniability.
Even if you did expect the police to use it, you aren't obligated to front that information to them. Anything you say or do may be used in against you in the court of law. So, the safe option is to say and do nothing at all, let them dig their own grave.
I'm talking about in the court of law, when they're claiming you tampered with evidence by leaving the note. Your lawyer could tell the jury that there were many reasons someone might have a note with a pin that erases the phone, including theft. Their client (you) invoked their right to silence, and you had no obligation to prevent the police from erasing your phone.
That would have been a completely different situation though. Even if the pass was written in a note inside his phone case, it's not illegal to have it, right? If your computer has a button that wipes it and a cop presses it, you aren't liable, right?
The issue here is that he told the cop that that button switches the computer on, which is a lie and it shows intent on destroying evidence.
There'll be a chorus of people inexplicably arguing that police get to do whatever they want, until we've lost so much of our humanity it's become illegal to breathe