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victorbjorklundtoday at 3:53 PM8 repliesview on HN

Intentions matter. If the intent is to trick the officer to enter a PIN code that will destroy potential evidence then it does not matter that you didn't type the PIN code. Your speech is the thing that triggers a series of events that you know will lead to a wipe. Just like you can be charged with destruction of evidence even if you trick someone else to take the action.


Replies

Groxxtoday at 3:57 PM

while attempting to avoid armchair-law-interpreting because I really do not intend that, and I agree that this is going to be an interesting/deeply-worrying legal case:

wiping the device before carrying it across the border seems essentially identical to me. like, saying "you can't wipe it when searched" would also imply "you can't have an empty device when crossing because it may have been wiped before the search to avoid having your data searched" since people can (and often do) do that for exactly that reason.

that may very well be what they want / what they are trying to legally allow during searches, but it also seems like it'd raise a hell of a lot more outrage. it's essentially claiming all citizens are under full legal hold all the time, if they ever intend to leave the country for any length of time.

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Zigurdtoday at 4:10 PM

The level of duress also matters. US citizens have been shipped to foreign prisons and there's an active case of high-level officials at DOJ violating court orders about that.

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deepfriedchokestoday at 9:11 PM

If police can lie to the public because free speech then the reverse should also hold true.

order-matterstoday at 3:59 PM

isnt it amazing how we are able to know when something is a trick and clearly caused by your action/intention vs when it isnt? i mean sure we can contrive (or maybe even find example of) some scenario where it might be a hard grey area, but ive always found it so cool how we often operate on "top down" methods like this that logically have no basis for working out but 'common sense' happens to be common enough still

i pray that sense doesnt erode

fluoridationtoday at 4:50 PM

>Your speech is the thing that triggers a series of events that you know will lead to a wipe.

The owner of the phone doesn't know that. They have no control over or insight into the officer's brain to know what they'll do. The officer might suspect the phone-wiping functionality exists and decide not to enter the password. If we start talking about ultimate causes then judicial matters become infinitely complex. What immediately caused the phone being wiped is the wrong password being entered by the officer.

logifailtoday at 4:35 PM

> Intentions matter

Fed: "give us your PIN or else"

me: "528491"

Fed: <types 528491, presses OK>

me: "no! 528419, I meant 528419!!"

Fed: <watches phone wipe...>

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1970-01-01today at 4:27 PM

See also, 5th amendment. They can't just declare on the spot that your data is now their data.

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