Notice how the ICE thug immediately moves to wrestle the phone out of her hand before doing anything else. Her being visibly on the phone implies they timed the arrest to be able to pull data off the device and ensure the device remains in an AFU (After First Unlock) state.
We know ICE uses forensic tools to pull data off devices (like Cellebrite). The reason the state that the device is confiscated in matters is because tools like Cellebrite are limited in what data they can pull in the “BFU” (Before First Unlock) state…
This is what Cellebrite instructs law enforcement using its tools do btw
I think if you squint past the bias, it does reveal a real possible threat to talk about: seizure of phones that are in a more vulnerable state. This correlated with protesting, but also those with higher threat models. In this case, the threat model is the individual being a high profile target for ICE.
Yeah I think it highlights the tactics that police use when they want to extract data from your phone and how important it is to get your phone into BFU mode.
This hits a bit close home to me. I’ll make sure to tell my peers at Tufts to reboot their devices before going to any local protests.
Like most members of this forum, I haven’t really thought about interacting with state level threat actors. It seems so distant until that is no longer the case. While I’m less worried about myself, I know that my friends who don’t have the same citizenship status are feeling quite stressed about it.
I changed the title to be more informative and less clickbaity. But discussion on this topic is allowed of course as others have said.
Sad to see this happen in the Greater Boston Area having spent years there myself.
Perhaps you can also inform them of Graphene. I know it’s not a perfect suggestion if people don’t have Pixels but it’s still a valid recommendation just so they know.
Reminds me of what happened to Ross Ulbricht, whose laptop was seized by FBI while powered on in a public library. I think there’s merit in warning people about leaving their devices in a more vulnerable state.
Here is more context on the PhD student who was detained. Basically, she has not called for violence, organized protests, was arrested before, or mentioned Hamas in her co-authored Op-Ed at the Tufts Daily, which is our student newspaper. In short, she was arrested for sharing an opinion, and was probably doxed by an AI tool.
Since she didn’t do anything stupid on her student visa (i.e. calling for violence or supporting Hamas), this is a clear violation of her 1st Amendment rights. All because Ozturk wanted a few student government resolutions passed and took a common position that most people in the world have.
If you are a high-risk person, don’t express any form of opinion on social media. Don’t write anything that can remain on the internet forever. Because something as small as writing an op-ed can ruin your life nowadays.
That only works if you don’t unlock your phone in that time frame. A little impractical and too long of a time frame for the security feature to really be of use for people - don’t you think?
This is also one big reason why people should separate their online and physical identity as much as possible.
To avoid “You did nothing wrong, you didnt break any law, but your life screwed because the regime didnt like what you say or did, or they simply misundersrood or got the wrong guy” - kind of situation.
Unless they have everything, including court order, the lab, the technicians all ready when they grab your device, and determined to use them once they
Seized your device, otherwise 72 hours is usually short enough.
No I don’t think so, It means they have to unlock it in three days or they have to brute force it. It can take these companies a bit to support newer versions of iOS/Android, and they can harden the device in AFU like GrapheneOS does as well so it’s less likely that they’ll be able to get in in time.
If you are a high-risk person, don’t express any form of opinion on social media. Don’t write anything that can remain on the internet forever. Because something as small as writing an op-ed can ruin your life nowadays.
The definition of high-risk person in the United States seems to be getting more broad by the day.
