# WIRED: "[Daniel Micay and James Donaldson] Built a Legendary Privacy Tool. Now They’re Sworn Enemies" **URL:** https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/wired-daniel-micay-and-james-donaldson-built-a-legendary-privacy-tool-now-they-re-sworn-enemies/37320 **Category:** News **Tags:** article **Created:** 2026-04-21T16:20:25Z **Posts:** 22 ## Post 1 by @phnx — 2026-04-21T16:20:25Z > **[They Built a Legendary Privacy Tool. Now They’re Sworn Enemies](https://www.wired.com/story/they-built-privacy-tool-grapheneos-now-sworn-enemies/)** > > There’s a lot of love all over the world for GrapheneOS, the gold standard of mobile security. There’s very little love between the two guys at the center of its history. This article is far from an example of journalistic rigour. It’s a narrative-driven piece that leans heavily on the contested account of James Donaldson to tell a dramatic story. The limited responses from Daniel Micay are not given equal depth or weight, resulting in an imbalanced and skewed portrayal of his account. Response from the GrapheneOS Foundation: > **[Original GrapheneOS responses to WIRED fact checker - GrapheneOS Discussion...](https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/34369-original-grapheneos-responses-to-wired-fact-checker)** > > GrapheneOS discussion forum --- ## Post 2 by @jonah — 2026-04-21T22:47:40Z I’ll just say what I told WIRED when asked if I’d like to comment on this [article](https://archive.ph/K2uO1) a while ago: **no comment.** :innocent: (Okay, one comment, I can agree that that WIRED absolutely did _not_ present it as the heavily Donaldson-focused article it is to me at that time either lol) --- ## Post 3 by @jonah — 2026-04-21T23:01:49Z Actually, finished reading [the GOS post](https://archive.ph/lfFIi) and they _did_ post some interesting things in response to WIRED’s questions, I agree it’s a shame they were not incorporated at all into the article. --- ## Post 4 by @ThePrivacyDad — 2026-04-21T23:09:56Z > [@phnx](#): > > Response from the GrapheneOS Foundation: _“Are you so much a f\*\*\*ing loser, you can’t tell when you’ve won?”_ (Jacob in _From Dusk Till Dawn_). I don’t get why GrapheneOS invests so heavily in narrative management. They are not a for-profit company. The article says: “Wilson told me that education and awareness are cornerstones of GrapheneOS’s work.” But why? It’s the product GrapheneOS that speaks for itself. Let others in the media evangelise for Graphene. I don’t see an equal alternative in terms of both privacy and security. These constant, heavy-handed attempts at narrative adjustment rather damages GrapheneOS’s reputation. The article presents Micay in a rather good light - why such an upset response from GrapheneOS? I am very happy with GrapheneOS; it’s _only_ these incendiary, childish responses from them that sometimes make me think again. --- ## Post 6 by @jonah — 2026-04-21T23:19:31Z Doing a rare headline edit because the WIRED headline is _so_ stupid, how are people supposed to even know what it’s about? Clickbait has gone too far. --- ## Post 7 by @privacy.slouchy — 2026-04-21T23:22:35Z > [@ThePrivacyDad](#): > > I don’t get why GrapheneOS invests so heavily in narrative management From my POV, a lot of it is defense I’ve seen bad actors engage in efforts to malign/discredit the GOS project. The [recent French dispute](https://www.privacyguides.org/news/2025/11/22/grapheneos-migrates-server-infrastructure-from-france-amid-police-intimidation-claims/) is a strong example - public narrative had a real impact on GOS users and operations It seems reasonable that they would invest in countermeasures, an effort to ‘keep the record straight’ --- ## Post 8 by @anon93307265 — 2026-04-21T23:23:55Z Doesn’t change the fact that it’s national fucking news, and Wired reaches millions. --- ## Post 9 by @jonah — 2026-04-21T23:25:23Z Also to be fair, GrapheneOS had _already written_ like 80% of their “defense.” They had already sent it to Wired, just needed to copy/paste lol --- ## Post 10 by @_TrustyRocinante — 2026-04-21T23:42:51Z The GrapheneOS [mastodon](https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS) account has been going off at WIRED over this article. It sucks that Graphene keeps getting (alleged) hit pieces against them these days. Other news outlets have also spun their responses and GOS forum discussion as drama too. _Sigh_. [GrapheneOS forum discussion post](https://discuss.grapheneos.org/) --- ## Post 11 by @ThePrivacyDad — 2026-04-22T00:08:36Z > [@_TrustyRocinante](#): > > Graphene keeps getting (alleged) hit pieces against them these days. **I don’t see how this is a hit piece.** The article makes the Donaldson character sound like a greedy sell-out and Micay a genius taking an uncompromising ethical stance by burning the keys. > In a 2017 interview with Vice, Donaldson was asked whether he was ever tempted to use his powers for evil. “That depends,” he said, “on your definition of evil.” > > Micay likely had a definition. Between licensing the OS and the possibility of doing business with defense contractors, he seemed to feel the integrity of his code was eroding as quickly as his agency in the Copperhead partnership. Not only was CopperheadOS no longer available to the masses, it was starting to serve the very people Micay wanted to protect users from. Above all else, his partner seemed to be determining the fate of the system he had built. and > “He threatened to seize Daniel’s workstations to recover what he claimed was property of Copperhead,” said Dave Wilson, who’d later work closely with Micay. Surely this was Donaldson’s last-ditch effort to cash in on his work before they parted ways, and Micay was, apparently, livid. He was being ousted from the project he had spent years building. There was no way he was giving up the keys. and > GrapheneOS was a direct continuation of his work at Copperhead, the company said, just under a new name. This time around, the project would be run entirely on donations and remain open source. It would “never again be closely tied to any particular sponsor or company,” said Wilson, who joined Micay as GrapheneOS’s community manager. It would be a nonprofit. “In a way,” Wilson added, “I gotta give [Donaldson] credit to the degree that he did participate in the creation of GrapheneOS in some weird shape or form.” If I were writing this as a Hollywood script, Micay is the hero of the story. Yet, in the comments of the GOS page, we have: - ### [GrapheneOS](https://discuss.grapheneos.org/u/GrapheneOS) - This thread has been posted on Hacker News where many of the usual suspects are attacking GrapheneOS and our team with fabrications. These attacks should be opposed instead of letting a vocal minority dominate the narrative by investing substantial time in lying about GrapheneOS. and again > No, our community should be helping instead of expecting Daniel to defend himself and make himself into even more of a target. They should not engage, nor should they rally the troops to go have a big debate online. When they do that, they keep showing true colours that are much uglier than the product they’ve made. All those comments about /e/OS are mind-boggling. Who cares what /e/OS says or rather said? Let the reviewers decide which is the stronger product. I liked “The-Man’s” response in the comments on the GOS platform: > Stop online bickering with these idiots, its not a good look and its obviously not working, > If you have a provable case, take the fuckers to court. The Wired article spreads the word about GrapheneOS to a much wider audience, and that is a service to Graphene. It states > Last year, 404 Media reported on leaked documents from Cellebrite, a software that helps retrieve data from locked phones. The documents, which detailed Cellebrite’s success rate across different Pixel generations, [found that](https://www.androidauthority.com/cellebrite-leak-google-pixel-grapheneos-security-3611794/) “every locked Pixel 9 running GrapheneOS was inaccessible.” What more do you want? It’s great advertising for GrapheneOS. --- ## Post 12 by @ThePrivacyDad — 2026-04-22T00:30:25Z Case in point (or point in case, which is it?) Reading through the comments on HN, it’s the so-called defenders of GrapheneOS that come across as cultish and make me think that maybe I _shouldn’t_ be using GrapheneOS. They harm the brand and should not be rallied in this way. ![image](https://forum-uploads.privacyguidesusercontent.com/original/3X/6/5/65a3dccd190634a9e2e38b65bd5944224d663d8d.png) “If the inhumane level of attacks weren’t happening, they would have more time to discuss future features…ignoring the attacks only makes it worse.” This hybrid guy talks like we are all children that need guidance. It’s terrible advertising for what is otherwise an excellent product. --- ## Post 14 by @jonah — 2026-04-22T01:18:42Z I totally agree with you @ThePrivacyDad that when I read the article this morning it came off as (almost unreasonably) _favorable_ to Micay and GrapheneOS. That being said, reading GrapheneOS’s forum post it’s pretty obvious why they are so disappointed anyways. They were asked a lot of questions that ultimately ended up having little to do with the final piece. _Just from the introductory questions alone_, I was surprised that despite GrapheneOS’s long written responses, Wired didn’t mention Dan McGrady a single time (seems like a third founder is at least noteworthy), and instead went along with this narrative of Micay and Donaldson just being two great buddies who went into business together. At the end of the day it’s kind of a puff piece story and they probably wanted actual solid coverage. --- ## Post 15 by @Encounter5729 — 2026-04-22T09:22:55Z rules for thee, not for me. (+the original post was deleted and the thread unlisted) – I agree with @ThePrivacyDad. Also, it should be noted that Wired also talked with ‘ to associates of Micay’s’. They might not be mentioned, but I don’t think it’s entirely a one-man account. Plus, news outlets aren’t required to provide equal weights to both sides, especially when one is unwilling to speak. Also, I am surprised you defend them, because according to GOS you harass them. Case in point that they really are over-sensitive. I do want to say that this article made me understand more their fear of criticism. Miccay was swatted twice. Their does seem to be harassment, and so distinguishing between genuine criticism (of both their project and communication) and harassment seem impossible to them. --- ## Post 16 by @dadnerd — 2026-04-22T14:44:33Z Just want to stop in and make two comments: - While his responses are sometimes bizarre, and he would maybe be better served by speaking less, I totally understand how someone who dedicates their life and their talent to making the most private and secure mobile OS completely free for the entire world would be sensitive to unfounded criticism and endless waves of ignorant trolling and bullshit. Micay is obviously a rare genius and the way genius works you don’t usually get to be a genius in all the areas. He’s a coder, not a marketing or PR person, and I personally don’t care that they invest their money into the product rather than paying a marketing or PR person. - The product (GrapheneOS) is so far above all other available options in terms of security and usability that I don’t really care if the main developer is weird, and I don’t really understand why anyone else cares. If GrapheneOS did not exist I literally would not carry a cell phone. Seems like the people making a big deal and stirring up drama over his words don’t have threat models that require a highly secure, open source OS? It honestly is all just noise to me. GrapheneOS speaks for itself. Who cares what the developer says? The founder of Brave is a horrendous bigot, yet people are mostly happy to use Brave and keep their mouths shut about it. --- ## Post 18 by @jonah — 2026-04-22T19:20:51Z > [@dadnerd](#): > > I don’t really understand why anyone else cares Because they continually tells their community they **need** to care. They just did it in that very forum thread. > our community should be helping instead of expecting Daniel to defend himself and make himself into even more of a target. * * * > [@Encounter5729](#): > > Also, I am surprised you defend them, because according to GOS you harass them. Hmm, almost like that has never been the case and still isn’t. Interesting. * * * > [@Encounter5729](#): > > rules for thee, not for me. We should probably make a rule that expanding ambiguous terms like “they”/“him”/“her”/etc. or other minor edits in brackets (like this case) are acceptable. The main issue we wanted to address was people entirely rewriting headlines, especially with a different slant than what the article presents because they didn’t like the article. I suppose `WIRED: "They Built a Legendary Privacy Tool [GrapheneOS]. Now They’re Sworn Enemies"` would’ve also been alright actually. --- ## Post 19 by @dadnerd — 2026-04-22T20:19:10Z > [@jonah](#): > > Because they continually tells their community they **need** to care. They just did it in that very forum thread. Just to clarify, I meant that I don’t get why people care that Micay is weird and sometimes has anti-social responses. He’s developing an incredible product, you don’t have to be friends with him or even like him. --- ## Post 20 by @Cyber-Typhoon — 2026-04-22T21:34:39Z > [@dadnerd](#): > > I don’t get why people care that Micay is weird and sometimes has anti-social responses. I don’t think people care about that in specific, I think people is afraid of him. What he is capable. I use GrapheneOS but I’m paranoid that if I don’t track the latest news I may wake up some day and get some big issue in my phone. I’d probably be less paranoid if his track was a bit different. --- ## Post 21 by @ThePrivacyDad — 2026-04-22T23:10:51Z > [@dadnerd](#): > > Just to clarify, I meant that I don’t get why people care that Micay is weird and sometimes has anti-social responses. He’s developing an incredible product, you don’t have to be friends with him or even like him. I don’t know the whole history, but to me it’s the attitude of the group around GrapheneOS, the troops that are rallied on HN. I see your point; for me, how an organisation (company, author, artist, etc.) acts or behaves is something I do take into consideration. I am a fan of GrapheneOS but find the consistent childishness of the online community and communications embarrassing. --- ## Post 22 by @Encounter5729 — 2026-04-23T16:59:54Z > [@jonah](#): > > Hmm, almost like that has never been the case and still isn’t. Interesting. Not sure what you mean…