Signal trick saved my ass when a cop asked to see my phone in Germany last month

I was at a train station in Berlin and a Bundespolizei officer asked to see my phone. I knew I had some sensitive group chats on Signal about a protest that happened the day before. Instead of unlocking it I just triple tapped the Signal logo real fast and it locked me out with a fake error screen. The guy bought it and handed the phone back after I said 'sorry broken software.' The trick is you set it up in the privacy settings beforehand. Has anyone else used this or found a better way to handle that kind of situation?

2 comments

2 Comments

paul_thompson6720d ago

Yeah but who practices that stuff ahead of time though. I swear half the people who set up those security features forget about them and then panic when they actually need them. The real joke is thinking a cop in Germany is gonna fall for 'sorry broken software' when they're probably trained to spot that exact trick. I mean come on, these are the same guys who tell you to put your phone in a bag and then wait for you to reach for it. Honestly the burner calculator app thing is probably smarter just because it requires zero acting skills on your part. But then again if they're really suspicious they'll just take the phone anyway and figure it out later.

kelly_hill20d ago

Yeah the triple tap trick works but you gotta test it first. I set mine up and then forgot I did it, ended up freaking out for a second when I tapped my own icon on accident and got the error screen. If you're in a high risk situation with cops who know phones, they might see through "sorry broken software" though. I usually keep a burner app on my home screen, like a calculator that actually opens a hidden folder. Looks boring enough they never ask to dig deeper. Just make sure you don't have Signal's notification previews on, cause that's the real giveaway.