A man returning to the US through Atlanta gave border agents a PIN to his GrapheneOS phone.

But it wasn't his real PIN, it was a duress code that wiped the device clean.

Now the DOJ is charging him with destruction of property to prevent government seizure.

CBP claims the authority to copy the entire contents of your phone into a central database without a warrant, on suspicion alone.

They told this man they didn't need a warrant. They refused to let him speak to a lawyer. They didn't read him his Miranda rights.

And when he used a privacy feature, one specifically designed for situations where you're being coerced into handing over access to your device, they charged him with a federal crime.

The government wants full access to your digital life at the border, and it wants to criminalize any tool that makes that harder.

GrapheneOS built the duress PIN for exactly this kind of scenario. The fact that using it could land you in federal prison tells you everything you need to know about where the lines are being drawn between privacy and compliance.

This case is going to set precedent. If the DOJ wins, every privacy tool that allows you to protect your data under duress becomes a potential felony.

That should concern everyone, regardless of what you think about this particular defendant.