Source: The Verge
The Department of Justice is charging an American citizen with obstruction for using a built-in security feature—a duress password that wipes a phone when entered—during a routine border inspection. The prosecution treats standard phone security as a crime, establishing that hardware-level data destruction now carries the same legal jeopardy as physical destruction of evidence. This collapses the distinction between privacy protection and obstruction, creating perverse incentives for travelers to either disable security features or avoid re-entry.