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Comment by k-mcgrady | Hacker News Reader

Are there any quick, easy ways to destroy all the data on your phone to prevent this if you are arrested?

I currently have my passcode set the wipe the iPhone if it is entered incorrectly 10 times. So, if I was arrested and I could erase all my data quickly 'just' by tapping a number on the lock screen 40 times.

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It would be cool if entering some special code erased everything but the contact info for your lawyer.

Maybe it could be better still. Send out some automated texts, erase everything but the number for your lawyer, and start recording audio and video and storing them on a remote server when possible.

Which is why you get handcuffed and not allowed to use your phone. You think you're being big and clever but if the phone contained evidence you'd be looking at attempting to pervert the course of justice (cf Rebecca Brooks right now). Pretty much every police van already has constantly running video, all the custody areas of police stations do. And unlike the US that video doesn't get "lost" if you make any complaint.

If they ask you for the password you could give them the one that erases all data :P.

> I could erase all my data quickly 'just' by tapping a number on the lock screen 40 times

Doesn't work, there's a time-out of 15 minutes after the fifth try, if I recall correctly.

I didn't know that, thanks for pointing it out. I suppose it's an important feature (there would be a lot of drunk people wiping their phones otherwise). At least I can now avoid an awkward situation if I am ever arrested :)

Wiping your device is justification enough for them to subpoena the iCloud backups in most cases.

any historical case of that actually working?

Thanks to the USA PATRIOT Act, they don't even need a judge or a subpoena anymore. The FBI does this 50k+ times per year - no warrant, no oversight.

There's an app for jailbroken iphones that does something along these lines, basically a self-destruct button that would try to wipe everything if it was ever activated. Can't remember the name of it though, unfortunately.

Make sure your sdcard is wiped too. Test this scenario. Under Android the wipe external storage sometimes does not work.

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