The exact circumstances around the search are not known. But activist Samuel Tunick is charged with deleting data from a Google Pixel before CBP’s Tactical Terrorism Response Team could search it.
A lot of people will wipe their phone when getting off the plane so that there is nothing searchable on it. When they get home, they then add it back to their account and move on with life.
Article doesn’t go into it, but what likely happened was that he has everything cloud-synced on his phone and did just that. They decided that they wanted his data but he’d wiped it before they approached him. This arrest and charge is all about them being sad that they couldn’t properly harass him, so they are harassing him in a different way. It will go absolutely nowhere.
A lot of people will wipe their phone when getting off the plane so that there is nothing searchable on it. When they get home, they then add it back to their account and move on with life.
Article doesn’t go into it, but what likely happened was that he has everything cloud-synced on his phone and did just that. They decided that they wanted his data but he’d wiped it before they approached him. This arrest and charge is all about them being sad that they couldn’t properly harass him, so they are harassing him in a different way. It will go absolutely nowhere.