Bitcoin Forum

We all keep a lot of personal information on our phones and obviously don’t want to share our correspondence, cryptocurrency wallets, or contacts to become a part of the public domain. Nonetheless, in some cases, authorities can ask you to provide full access to your device.

Is this even legal? Can you refuse to give your phone to law enforcement? How can you protect your cryptocurrency wallet?

https://forklog.media/how-to-protect-your-crypto-wallet-during-phone-search/

When you are already aware on possible phone search then think up wisely.Use an alternative one and in case you get caught in the act then they cant find anything.

When it comes to checking or inspection specially on your personal belongings then it do really need legal documentation and as a right you should
seek for that one because everything do comes on due process.

What country does have a law like that? I'm not aware such law exists if any. AFAIK, phones can only just be held by the authorities if that is subject to investigation e.g suspected of being used as a tool associated with a crime, consider as strong proof of evidence, etc. or something along those lines.

Personal belonging is a private matter. No way I will just allow anyone to search for it. And for let's say there's a case that it's really necessary, I don't think they will try to breach a mobile crypto wallet or any other app as long as it wasn't involved in what they are looking for. And even they have a tool, it's not easy to access these apps remotely or via a third-party app.

It is the authorities that give you a lot of personal data and therefore they have the right to know that data because they already know these files.
The difference is the right to access photos and personal data that governments can access in emergency situations or after permission from the court in special cases, otherwise, you can file a lawsuit against the state.
As for the applications of individuals and companies, you are not obligated to accept the permissions as you have many alternatives.

the article discusses border control authorities, and customs officials have the authority and right to control your smartphone. to secure your crypto wallet there is no other way but to encrypt data, or temporarily delete applications, sensitive data, and cookies / history. This is indeed disappointing but we can still anticipate it before leaving home

whats so dissapoting about that ? deleting your browser cookie , apps and other files  ? that sucks indeed but if you want to be safety about your cryptos then its not a problem  but there are still other less hassel ways to do it without the need of deleting your files permanently  .

there are tools available on the net  . they said using phone to store a crypto key and account is not advisable because phones are easier to spy one due to the sim card attatch thru it .  our network provider for example can spy on us   

Wait.. do you guys store your private keys online or offline in your device like smartphone or computer? Damn, you shouldn't.

Use a device that is used only to store your private keys, it is private keys and it needs private place. So use hardware wallet or something that is only for it.

But there were people whose lazy enough on making their phones as a storage of their private keys which is really a bad behavior.I havent seen yet that theres a personal phone inspection for this one yet as said above this do only happen when that mobile phone is being used as a total for committing the crime and other than that i dont see a valid reason for government on easily to confiscate nor check your phone.

In general, storing the private keys in the online devices is always risky no matter how strong protection the user applies. Personally, I have stored the private keys of the hot wallet for trading and this data was encrypted with the AxCrypt Premium which is the best from my own experience.

^ Confiscating in your mobile phone if that is associated with the crime but if not, that will not happen. In that case, we should always use 2FA support for our wallet on a separate phone. Probably, they will not search for your wallet stored in your mobile phone and probably the authorities want is the conversation and text message. Your identity will probably reveal but your password and private key will not get them if you are not saving in your phone that is not a big deal. Nevertheless, I provided my own USB to store everything important details regarding all my accounts and wallets and keep it into a safe place.

People prefer to use mobile wallet because they want to get easy access to their asset, but it's too risky I agree with you that hardware wallet is the best option, they might use a mobile wallet but they have to keep their private key in the safest place, not in their smartphone storage, if they still keep that sensitive information on their phone once they lose their phone then they will lose all those coins.

Thats why always have a backup of your private keys so that if your phones get confiscated due to unexpected happenings you can easily recover your coins on other devices without the phone needed then you can easily transfer your coins into another wallet, you may never know if you give your phone to law enforcement and all of the data on your phone may be easily copied. 

What are you afraid off? If government will ask those things with legal basis then I will comply so that they will find me clean on any illegalities and in any form, and why are you afraid of it maybe you are a law breaker that's why you are afraid for this? Just make sure you have a strong support if law enforcement will ask about your asset so that they will not fin any irregularities on your activites.

And for safety OP make sure to activate your 2fa,phone number verification and email verification for tighten up the security of your wallet.

I have to travel frequently but have never seen that customs are checking someone's mobile phone or laptop and etc, that doesn't happen without very valid reason (for example when high authority criminal is wanted and there is doubt on someone). Customs can't crack your bitcoin wallet keys and etc but I think any password set on laptop/smartphone is useless against them but of course you have to use it as an insurance of your data from accidental lost of your digital device.
For offline wallet, use Trezor and if you use online wallets, then just don't remember password on any website, especially on email, be always log off from your email/wallet accounts and this way you'll feel more secure I guess.

We need to be clear on the usage of smartphone. That means what needs to be saved on the smartphone and what shouldn't be. These days almost every application request the permission to access the storage, contacts and more information when we install it. If the same is being from an untrusted platform surely we'll end up with some massive losing of funds. Whenever we save more secure information we need to be careful in handling it.

It is okay to use mobile wallet, or anything as I also do that in order to trade or spending purpose. But storing your private keys or any of your sensitive data on smartphone, computer or any devices that is possible to get hacked, could be stupid thing.

Anyway, I just read the article and it is pretty helpful for those who need to hide their data, still don't store your private keys on your smartphone!

It is true that the phone stores a lot of important personal information. A smartphone capable of storing large information. If someone views your phone, be careful. They may steal your password to work illegally. Need to protect bitcoins with secure passwords only you know.

Decrypting the password is not hard. Don't forget the alternative hijacking options and the existence of brute-force with the well-written "word list". In all cases, I prefer to store the private keys and BTCs in offline devices which have the offline way to process the transactions on the blockchain.

Any online mobile wallet that's worth anything would have the capabilities of adding a password. Use it and add a complex one. I wouldn't recommend using any sort of face ID or thumb print either because there has been cases of law enforcement abusing biometrics to gain access to a locked device. If you unlock your phone to law enforcement by your own accord, you give up the entire contents of your phone including your crypto transactions if they can access it without a password.

For me, i always keep copies in secured notes online. Not just one note but a lot. I've lost many phones over the years and its not enough to put passwords on the phone. Its hard to access keys associated with phones. I trust the internet for my private info as long as i know where to put it. Not always that phones are secured.

Well, if you didn't break any law and didn't commit any criminal act that go against that law then there's no reason for the authorities to look at your phone's contents. If they do this without your permission or consent then that's considered breaking the law.

If you own a crypto wallet its highly recommended to always do 2FA Authentication to protect personal data from hackers and unauthorized access.

Yes best option if you are not frequently using your assets but if you are a use it for transactions then it's so hassle to open those hardware wallet that's why majority prefer a mobile wallet for convenience but we should assure that we will never store any details on our wallet and always separate it since your 2fa is not worthy if your private key and email are placed on easy to find folder.

it depends on your country if its under the law , then there is nothing you can do but to follow the laws of your country,
or you can encrypt your phone, and pretend  you never knew or dont know about it, but im sure they can make you open
your phone, either you choose rot in jail or open your phone

Arrested when crossing borders and being forced to give your phone to a police agent, has no difference with being attacked by thiefs.
This typecly leads to another important question; is it really secure to store more important personal data in a phone device? Personally, i am still a classic user who trust computers & hard drives for storage and avoid to stock so much pers information in my mobile which i only use for regular searches in google and making calls. All my private mobile apps are installed in another mobile which is always at home.
I always suggest to encrypt personal data before going to cross borders, as it would be important to always store buckups from used apps so it can be easly recovered if at any time you may erase the phone memory.

It is hard to refuse if the government wants to search something that you own but if this is required then we can do nothing but obey, if they search it that we are there then we know what they do and we can guarantee that they do nothing wrong so it is okay to go search all over my files because I didn't do anything which is against their law. So let's obey if you don't want to lose your income.

Well i would refuse. Though if their reason for searching would be necessary for probably my safety, i wouldn't mind giving them access. Who am i anyway, i'm just a regular guy with a phone and some crypto coins lol. I'd probably demand first a reason as to why they need to do that. And my crypto isn't just on a phone app. So i don't worry about it.

I have no problem at all.I am using MI phone and there is an opinion second option.In my country using crypto is illegal.I always keep my crypto wallet in second space and if someone search on my phone they can't find wallet.I don't use second space,only use second space when need to transfer crypto.     

If you do know that you are engage on crypto and do avoid on paying up taxes then they do ask out for that search into your phone.You cant say that you wont panic out if they find out anything which would really cost you or would put you out on trouble thats why you should alert when you hear out some news about this issue so that you would be at least prepared incase youve been caught.

If something happens like this in where authorities need to check your phone, there are specific stuff that they will check. If you are apprehended because of scams concerning cryptocurrencies, they would need to verify that, but if you are just a criminal who has no connection to cryptocurrencies in your crime, they won't check it unless the checker has a bad intent with that.

I suggest that you should use a hardware wallet instead of making one on your smartphone.

I understand this risk and I agree with your opinion. smart phones are not a good place to store keys or something.
at least you save the backup file on another device.

Always the good practice is to use a hardware wallet which is the safest wallet as of now when compared to other options for the crypto storage. But it would be not comfortable to use the hardware wallet for daily use, in that case, the mobile wallets comes in to picture. So I would suggest having both hardware and mobile wallets where hardware wallet is to store the major portion of the funds and mobile wallets with a small portion of funds and you could consider protecting it with fingerprint lock or google authenticator. Most of the wallets offer another layer of security by having different fund transfer password.

Yes, I agree with you. Using the other device, we don't have to worry if other people or our family members borrow the phone. Maybe they curious about how much money we can earn from crypto, so they search for the evidence to every people who use a cryptocurrency wallet. It is better to use another device or places to save the wallet and the private keys because that will make us don't have to worry from the hacker. He should consider everything so he will not regret it.

Hmm, for me the best thing is not let anyone touches your phone simply as that. Maybe you can encrypt your phone or something, but what if the authorities "force" you to open it up.

It's either not to used your mobile phone, or get a hardware wallet, or used a different phone for your crypto dealing separate from your personal phone. So in any case, you could have at least a line of defense for this kind of scenario in the future.

^ It's a good idea and that is what I am doing now. I used another mobile phone aside from my personal use that I hand carry almost every day. And besides, then that never save personal information on your mobile phone just like keeping private keys or passwords. Save it on the flash drive and keep it into a safe place that no one knows. When a scenario comes like this and if someone confiscated your phone or even when it is snatched you dont need to worry about.

Good, I also employ this kind of strategy, separate crypto phone wallet (with electrum, binance apps, etc) and then I have my personal/business phone as well. But don't forget to back up everything as well, because you might lost your crypto phone in worst case scenario.

That would be hassle to carry on my side if I do that since for me I prefer one phone only to minimize the hassle, but I make sure that I always activate my 2fa and email verification for my mobile wallet so people who  browse my phone without my permission cannot get an access to my personal wallet and also I don't save any important details especially wallet private keys or anything for security purposes.

It is your duty to keep your mobile safe and if that is able to access without proper pin for safety lock. Nothing can be helpful for you when you access the wallet finally it will be zero only.
Better side we need to keep the security phrase safer and password should be safer with alpha numerics. General tips like in this link on op might be helpful but people should practice it.

On the article that someone would be the authorities, there's no way to keep your phone safe and avoid them since you'll just get into more trouble if you go against them.

I agree that using two is inconvenient but its much better in terms of security than using just one since they also need the other device. I guess it just depends on the mobile wallet since not all has the same security features

Using 2FA is a good idea but keeping my private key online just like social media is not good for me. This remind me when I was using an apps locker on my phone and every app icon that have important of mine I locked it. I think this is good advice when someone wanted to confiscate your phone. But usually, authority is not bias or having something scammy, they are concern about their reputation as an authority. But here is the best thing, all in all, don't use your mobile phone as your wallet.

For example, I use the Freewallet app and you will never open my account without having access to my 2FA and knowing my PIN. So, it's kida secure I would say.

It is advisable to keep your private key or phrase in hardware wallet or some offline storage system as keeping these detail in phone will be a stupid decision. Talking about crypto related app , always enable 2fa and pin security option so it will difficult for another party to look inside your app and do not install these miner or false looking apps or do not give access to them.

If you are using crypto wallets on your phone, it is advisable that you do not install lot of unwanted apps. Only install the required apps and never install directly from .apk untrusted sources. Also it is more secure to use iOS than Android as iphones are more secure than any android phones.

I agree to this sentiment which IOS is more secure than Android but it doesnt mean that it would be 100%.For now then this would be a considerable choice.
https://www.sophos.com/en-us/security-news-trends/security-trends/malware-goes-mobile.aspx

Lets go on topic reply on how to protect my phone if someone do search? They cant easily get it from you but once government is the one
who would request then you wont have any choice but if you know on how to secure and hide things up then you shouldnt worry.

the reason why ios is more secure because its too strict ,you cant easily install anything but you can only easily install something that is already on the appstore . ios is also a closed source right ? i heard before but android is an open source platform which is its less strict. anything can penetrate on your phone  . hiding your info inside your phone would still be useless if there are already viruses inside it

Dont know whether this fits in this thread or not. Try not to use mobile wallet, they have ease but have serious security concerns. I use standalone wallet for storing my coin. They dont have much ease but provides you much security. its upto you what you want to avail.

If you are trying to suggest a mobile wallet, just name it so that they will know what it is.
Speaking of mobile wallets, Coinomi and Electrum wallets are the best wallets when it becomes to the app but be careful about downloading the phishing sites.

Back to Op's topic, this has been suggested earlier replies that always activate your 2FA verification code in your mobile wallet and it should be placed on the separated mobile phone. That critical and valuable credentials should keep in a safe place. If there is someone confiscated they never know or even it is got hacked.

I do have different passwords for each app on my phone and my phone literally have some system which makes the phone die when it has been lost or someone steals it, its connected to another phone which I am just leaving at home..

Are you mean use application like this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.adm

Don't store seed and private key on a phone.

If the authorities are the ones who will ask you your phone, I guess you can refuse to give it to them. But if they have a search warrant or a court order for you to surrender your phone, then you cannot refuse it. Refusal means something like obstruction of justice or not cooperating to a lawful search or investigation. So the best way to safe keep your important information is not to store them in your phone.

That would be the case but we don't need to worry if we don't have any case since for sure we are still safe, but I don't think it's safe to store the details on our wallet and best to separate it the more safer place like putting it on desktop or maybe send it to another mail where people cannot reach it up.

We cannot say that. The government sometimes is as random as lightning and as baseless as a stupid fool. They might one day knock on your door and ask for something and you will be left in confusion why all of a sudden you earned their attention. So better be safe all the time and save any very important information away from anyone's access.

Mails can usually prove dangerous in case of storing our wallet backups as mails could be leaked and it would directly endanger our wallets. Most secure way to store our cryptocurrencies is on offline storage so that they would always be safe. We can use only the amount we use for maybe trading or anything similar and store rest in our offline storage.

It is not necessary for the authorities to know our involvement in the cryptocurrencies or the blockchain technology as it might case some legal problems as involvement in cryptocurrencies is not yet legalized by most of the countries and it might seem like an illegal act so it is better we hide it from them.

Mails should never be an option for storing something very important as your backup file, PIN, or passwords, and other information. Offline storage is the best. And it should also be stored somewhere that could not easily catch the eye of anyone.

We do not necessarily have to hide our crypto involvement. In fact, we should begin to get out into the open and start showing support to crypto. But that should be limited to advocacy, or educating and informing people about Bitcoin and blockchain, but not about giving hints on your portfolio or wallets or Bitcoin holdings.

Legal authorities do not have permissions to search your phone or any of your property without a search warrant. Your search warrant would only be issued if you are found doing something suspicious. There is no harm if you have not done anything suspicious and they would not check your phone for any silly mistakes.

For protecting your crypto wallets, you can use various authenticators, locks, etc to keep them safe in case if phone is lost or is caught as you mentioned. Using cryptocurrecies is not yet proven illegal so we do not need to worry about it being caught. Only if the amount is greater than expected than specific cold storages, etc should be used.

I think such scenario is rampart with countries in Africa or such that are governed by tyrants and dictators. In a sane society, such arbitrariness isn't tolerated except where national security is threatened. However, the OP can find a way of putting pin lock or password to apps he has on phone. For instance, the Bitcoin blockchain  for BTC has a provision for pin code. Blockfolio has too. Imtoken has also, and so many other apps do have them.

I think it will depend on respective countries regulations and i am sure most of countries will not check your phone unless they suspect you as prime suspect of some criminal activities. So general public dont have to worry about it and if some friends of yours search through your phone so it can be easily avoided using various security apps or inbuilt pin option.

I think this where the use of cloud storage is important. Though it's still gonna be on your phone of PC but can recovered anytime anywhere, so saving a private in clouds as well as writing them might solve this.

I personally think we should not stored our wallets keys into our phone because it may anytime lost or my authority can search it if they provide me that phone. On the other hand always we are in hacking fear so we always should use another storage device to store our private keys so that we can avoid this kind of situation.

Thanks.

I don't thinks is ok to store a lot of coins on phone, if phone breakdowns and don't have wallet key saved on other place what we do, also never save private keys on mobile phone or online on cloud.

I have experience several harassment on numerous occasions concerning searching of my mobile by the so called law enforcement agencies and in cases when I refuse them access I get force to or my device get seized. The pin/password isn't that perfect since you can still be force to unlock the apps by imputing your password or finger print.

With the recent brands of Android phones, you can easier hide very sensitive apps without anyone having an idea you have such apps on your device. That's the trick I used, and I found it to be very effective. Before now, I downloaded apps that I could hide my apps in but discovered the disadvantage of those app. The moment you mistakenly delete them, the rest of the information stored in the app gets deleted with it.

For sure when they are already on your doorstep and do ask out such thing then most likely you would able to give it due to panic or even too afraid.

There are really some certain apps which can really be hidden but as you said there were advantages and disadvantages on this one thats why you should really be careful.
You should know on how to remember things so that accident or loss of coins wont happen.

This is actually a concern of privacy but when govt asked this one then you wont have any choice.

I guess to each his own. I always carry two wallets with me, and I don't see it as a hassle. Most of the time I have my wife carry my other phone. Of course we always need to activate 2fa and email verification for our mobile but I just prefer it that way.

So one for my daily and personal used and even though no one can touch it except my wife or my kids, still I practice two phones for my security.

Delete it, format it, destroy it, throw it away if you hold a significant amount and you don't want anyone to "peek" into your wallet. But be sure you have a paper or hardware backup somewhere else. That's why Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies inspire freedom - because no one can access your wallet if you take good care of it.

There are more sophisticated ways out there like app-level or phone-level encryption, but I suggest you to do a little bit of online research on that. ;)

Ill do the same things i am always have backup two phone one is  always at home and the other one  i take it any where i go . Its for security not only for wallet but for the other important application and even email. So if i lost my phone or someone stole it from me  i have all the back up needed to recover anything in places.

The only way I go about this without the authorities getting to go through some sensitive information such as my holdings in my phone is by hiding all my cryptocurrency apps also I have this xiaomi device I use where I have two operating systems on a device, so i get to store my wallets in the other operating system and the main operating system is what I open to them when such request is being made.

I do the same but I do not use spare phone instead I store each and every backup onto my laptop.

My laptop is always home and it is most secure as no one can access it without knowing the password and I have never shared the password for my laptop with anyone. Usually I store limited information in my mobile device as it might even be wrecked anytime which might make us loose our private credentials including private keys, etc.

I have already experienced this as my previous mobile device was turned into pieces after I drop it from my pocket while riding bike and a car almost trashed my device. That made me loose some private keys which I used to store some tokens and it gave me a huge lesson. From that date, I always switch such important information from my mobile to laptop.

Do you mean dual space? Because it is not possible to have two operating systems in a single device. Redmi offers dual space feature which makes it easy to manage such apps onto another space and also it keeps us secure even if anyone searches our phone. At the first stage, there needs to be some legal permission letter from the supreme court in order to search your property and it can only be done if they have major doubt on you about money laundering or any such case.

In usual case, we do not need to worry even if any legal entity finds any crypto related app on our device as it entirely depends on our willingness which app we want to use.

Ofcourse, i think #govt and #authorities have all the tool's on earth to access your mobile phone remotely without the need of your permission or coming to you physical if, there is need for such.

Thanks
Soldierwitlittlefaith

Our wallets has a private keys,so I don’t see what are your problem with this?and also authority will only ask for your mobile or gadget if you are a suspected criminal and not just by random checking (not unless in your country there is something in law like that) but in my country?we have the rights to refuse giving our personal things .
I think this is still depend in which country or region you are living.

Authorities have the right to seize your phone with full access to your information in order to find what they are looking for if they want. If you have not broken any laws, then you can not worry. However, if you did, for example, something illegal, using your crypto wallet or something else, then the authorities will find this on your phone in any case, since they have the most advanced knowledge about it. I don't think that there is any more effective way to protect yourself than not to commit illegal actions.

Well for most of us here, we are good abiding citizen and that is the whole premise of this discussions.

Of course if you're a criminal you will hide everything, but if authorities seize your phone just because they have suspected you of something then it's not right. That's why we don't advise to put or used our mobile phone to store our crypto, at least for me.

I think the fear of being searched for crypto related issues should be for jurisdictions that have placed ban on crypto or bitcoin, otherwise, there won't be any need to be vigilant about phone search for cryptocurrency.
In my country however, if you have illicit stuff in your phone, then you can be on guide but crypto isn't a crime.

I think the thing here is instant searching mate and not that you can get ready in case police or any authority needs to make search things that i believe depends on what country and laws are being applied because in my region we have the rights to deny searches in our personal things not unless you are a pointed criminal so they can interfere even in our personals.
but giving that situation i think we must have more securities in our wallets to be more safer if ever things like this happens,2fa will do as well with another device verification in which not in your hand at the same time.

I think all these troubles depend on the country that has restriction on bitcoin. If I live in such country, I won't have to give myself all the trouble so that I don't eventually lose my coins. I would leave my phone simply. If I get back home, then I continue with it. Or , I would have an alternative phone that is smaller maybe.

Simply having the two phones is probably the best idea, and the easiest one. Why to trough all the trouble with two operating systems, why to have fake operating system like in the article, when you can have two phones and that is it.
For people who travel is enough to have private keys, when you have them you can restore your wallet when you arrive at your destination. You can store your private keys anywhere, all you need is connection!
Article is long and maybe some people will use it, but as I say there are an easier ways to stay off the grid and have nothing with you in case someone tries to search you and what you are carrying with yourself.

In my own opinion, when you installed an application expected that there are some information in your phone that you give them a full access by just confirming those pop-up message that would allowed you. When you start allowing them to access your phones, you can't stop them to see your personal information such as pictures, documents, accounts and other important information. To prevent it from getting all your information it is needed to provide an alternative gadget or any phones so that you may that only exclusive for cryptocurrency wallets. In case of being loss, it is useful to store other important information in cloud storage not in memory card, because whatever the password strong is, it can be opened by professional hackers.

Why would someone even search your own phone? dont they even know the word privacy and security.

I have multiple security on my phone just in case it got lost or stolen.

op asking if police asking to open it.

Then  it will be depend on the situation  if you make a crime they can have your phone to collect more evidence they need.

They will not ask you to open it for them they can open it without problem since they have thier own IT's working to them.

Yes they have authorities to open it but they should make sure to have a search warrant since its a violation on their side.

But in the case of security for other evader better to turn on all necessary measures in terms of security like binding your phone number,2fa and email since this one could make our wallet more safer.

Everything should be on legal process and authorities cant easily just force out people on checking out their belongings as they like.We do have that so called "privacy" but all depends on what
kind of government we do have on a certain country but most of the time if they wanted to they would surely obliged you to give out your phone for inspection.This situation might be nearly impossible
but if that thing happen then its better to know on how to hid up things when it comes to your wallet and other related crypto stuff so that in case if there are inspection then you are somewhat confident
that they cant find anything.

Locking phone doesn't do anything then right?

it depends on who you are trying to protect yourself against.
if it is government, law enforcement,... then no nothing will be enough. they can easily force you to obey and hand over all your passwords and open all the locks very easily.
if it is a thief with a gun to your head then again the same scenario, they can force you to give it all up.
but if it is only to protect against a snoopy friend, colleague,... then yeah even locking your phone does a lot.

Actually there are means to protect yourself. At least I think so.
1. Don't keep all your coins in one place. Simply keep the coins you don't spend in the near future on (safely generated) paper wallets offline, maybe in safe box maybe copies in different places.
2. Never trust phone security, use hardware wallet for the money you keep at hand.
3. Use as much as possible change addresses and different receive addresses to make it harder to track the funds to you, so government or individuals don't know if you own 0.1BTC or 1000BTC (or more, why not?)
4. Keep your mouth shut. Don't brag about your wealth. The worst that can happen is not the government and not the hackers. You don't want yourself or somebody you love get kidnapped or  things like this because you brag on the internet you have 100BTC (and maybe in reality you don't even have them!)

In case someone uses their hardware wallet (as main storage) in combination with a smartphone (via Bluetooth or OTG cable), then it should be borne in mind that a mobile app like Ledger Live can lead to privacy breaches. Some airports (especially USA) sometimes require from travelers to enable full insight into their smartphones, and Ledger Live as app can be started and used as watch-only wallet without hardware wallet as device. Of course, it's always possible to protect yourself even in situations like this by adding more accounts and setting up a passphrase.

Everything else you say is definitely true, security is much more than the type of wallet we use.