If you are using Signal, and you are doing something the government considers illegal, the way they are going to read your messages about it is they'll arrest the person you sent the messages *to* and make them show the logs. We see this technique appear repeatedly in "Jan. 6" court filings.
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LE might not be able to do that, but the manufacturer of your device might.
In either case, why take chances? Overwrite, Degauss, Destroy.
You can set chats to autodelete after a certain time.
https://xkcd.com/538/
But again... #notalawyer
Yes this is incoherent, no it doesn't make sense, it's just the state helping itself to your data against the principles it was founded on, etc.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/04/cops-can-force-suspect-to-unlock-phone-with-thumbprint-us-court-rules/
However, if you are using Apple, you can mitigate that (possibly entirely) by using one of these secret codes:
https://appleinsider.com/inside/iphone/tips/how-to-quickly-disable-face-id
individual apps can be required to use face id, but even if they go to "require passcode" it does face id on next open
you can also hide apps but it does the same
most of these models run outdated versions of iOS that don't have these features too, but even the SE 3 which runs current iOS has the same problem
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/04/cops-can-force-suspect-to-unlock-phone-with-thumbprint-us-court-rules/
However:
- On iPhone there's a key combination to force your NEXT unlock to be a pin/PW
- If they arrest you, a court might(?) order you to unlock it https://www.wired.com/2014/09/google-apple-wont-unlock-phone-court-can-make/
So, I would not use a fingerprint or face unlock, personally, I would want the police to have to get a warrant.
But once you're arrested, many things may happen. So understand the limits…
Thank you for sharing.
- Read the post after that one if you didn't
- Consider your threat model, and whether some forms of caution are inappropriate for that thread model
https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007320771-Set-and-manage-disappearing-messages
This won't stop
- the receiver testifying later about what they read
- the receiver screenshotting (i.e. bc they are an FBI agent)
However, still turn off the gboard learning because it slows it down V E R Y B A D L Y
The harder things get the more sacrifices we're going to have to make for the sake of security. and that is overwhelming to think about atm... Fuck..