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That's not the scenario I'm talking about at all. I'm considering entering the duress code before you approach the border and before the border guard gets anywhere near it, on the assumption that you have a byte perfect backup which is trivial to restore somewhere in the cloud.

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Percisely. To know the implications of your theoretical act, you must know +why+ the act caused issue in this story's case.

In all your scenarios, you would not be charged with this crime. They may seize the device, but not charge you.

Well I certainly hope. I have my suspicions that if you pre-wiped your key but left the data “intact” but unusable, you open yourself to the law declaring that as somehow withholding evidence. Actually wiping the entire phone and restoring is certainly the safest in terms of how others may interpret it.

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