[hvidgaard]

I like the idea of using a sequence to unlock the phone, or specific finger to wipe the phone, and a different finger to load into a "clean" environment. That would be a usable mix of secret knowledge, physical security, and convienience.

[timClicks]

A system like that would need to do more than provide a clean slate. It wouldn't be plausible that someone would be using a worn phone without having installed any apps on it. Also, I don't know how the phone would be able to obscure the contents of a micro-SD card, for example.

[hvidgaard]

> A system like that would need to do more than provide a clean slate

It just need to provide the mechanism with proper sandboxing. You still have to make this alternative look reasonable.

> I don't know how the phone would be able to obscure the contents of a micro-SD card, for example

You wouldn't use something like that for plausible deniability.

[kkleindev]

Why shouldn't it have any apps on it? From my understanding, the point is that the crucial subset of user data is not available in that usage mode.

[dbaupp]

The malicious actor would find it very suspicious (especially if/when these features are in popular platforms and thus widely known), breaking the deniability.

[hvidgaard]

It's your own responsibility to tailor this "clean" state to your liking and make it look like you use it.