09/08/2026
A duress passcode sounds like something Q would hand James Bond.
It is not. Samuel Tunick had one configured on his Google Pixel.
When officers at the Atlanta airport asked for his phone and passcode, he entered the code that erased everything.
Ten months later, he was indicted for obstruction.
His lawyers are fighting the seizure itself, which raises a separate and genuinely interesting border search question. The government’s argument is simpler: the phone was the box, the data was what officers were trying to seize, and Tunick knowingly destroyed it.
That distinction is why timing matters.
Plan for privacy before the search starts. Do not use the self destruct code.
