D05 · Deep dive
BFU vs AFU: What Protects a Phone That's Been Taken
Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play. The video then plays in YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode.
Before First Unlock versus After First Unlock: why a phone is strongest right after it restarts, how a 2–4 hour auto-reboot keeps returning it there and what that costs in message delivery, why the USB port is charging-only while locked, why the kit uses a passphrase, not a fingerprint, and why the duress PIN is a convenience, not a coercion defence. Scoped honestly: an unlocked phone in someone else's hands stays a non-goal.
What you’ll learn
- Understand BFU and AFU
- Know the availability trade-off
- Scope each control honestly
Chapters
The honest limits
These controls cover a narrow slice of T4 cheaply; T4 stays a non-goal. The duress PIN is not a coercion defence. A short reboot interval costs message delivery until you unlock. No legal claims for any jurisdiction.
Check before you rely on it
These details change. Confirm them against the vendor’s current pages.
- Mullvad Android features, Accrescent catalog, GrapheneOS settings names.
- "7 years of security updates" depends on the Pixel model and Google's current policy.