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.
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.
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.
a friend of mine used to work in a digital forensics unit in Spain, not the Catalan police though, and he said that most of the phones they received from high profile drug trafficking arrests where Pixel phones with GrapheneOS. He said they couldn’t extract anything from those without the PIN code.
Makes sense as a form of survivalship bias. High profile individuals usually implies higher resources, meaning that they can afford to purchase dedicated devices and take the time to install GOS, which also leads increased scrutiny from the police. I can see why more GOS phones are being sent up for forensic analysis just for this reason.
I don’t think it’s fair to attribute that label to randos on the street though. Maybe they’re Android enthusiasts who got convinced by Android Authority’s annual award for best phone of 202x
