Cops in this country think everyone using a Google Pixel must be a drug dealer

Spoiler alert: It’s Spain. Specifically, the region of Catalonia.

Apparently, Catalan drug dealers have been adopting Graphene OS to the point where police are assuming that every Pixel user is a suspected drug dealer.

The problem has gotten so bad, the police are resorting to malware and social engineering to seize evidence.

Per a Machine-translated excerpt from the original Spanish article by Xataka Android:

The police solution . That is none other than a Trojan. Given the impossibility of breaking the encryption, they infect traffickers’ phones with malicious software, with prior judicial authorization. In this way, they gain full access to the device: apps, images, documents and conversations. Obviously, GrapheneOS is not capable of protecting itself (like any Android) from this malware.

“To pursue organized crime, if you don’t bring in Trojans, you’re dead” . It is certainly a controversial but endorsed method. The tactic, questioned by some lawyers due to a possible lack of limits on intrusion into privacy, it has a large-scale precedent in Europe. The “Encrochat case” of 2020, in which the French police used a Trojan to carry out more than 6,500 arrests and seize tons of drugs across the old continent.

I’m curious whether their usage of the word “Trojan” refers to a zero-click attack from the likes of Pegasus and other targeted malware?

Regardless, Pixel users should not be profiled just from their supposed usage of Graphene OS. It should not be a crime to protect one’s privacy.

7 Likes

See

and following.

A consistent pattern are completely unsubstantiated claims about exploits with no evidence.

5 Likes

I would really like to know how many of the Pixel users they find are using GrapheneOS.

correcting some misinfo by one of their devs

Possibly highly exaggerated.

I’m sure at least a few did have it installed? But I don’t think the average drug dealer would bother installing it. Looks like EU fearmongering to me.

Makes sense. No idea why Android Authority blatantly copied and pasted an existing article (much less and older one) and provided even worst contextualization for their users.

Maybe graphene guys could

The original article on Android Authority has been corrected and updated based on feesback from the GrapheneOS team.

1 Like