It got me curious; lets say I go to a protest, lose my phone and wipe it remotely. I couldn't possibly know who exactly got it (since I lost it) so if I remote wipe it while in police custody, could they really get you for "obstruction of justice" for example? Wouldn't that require intent?
You just don't even want to be at the "proving intent" stage.
If you had a function/service that just automatically wiped your device at intervals, regardless of where you were and what you were doing, that might be more defensible than wiping manually.
Best is if your device can't be locked and doesn't have any evidence of anything at all.
There’s a setting on iPhone called “Erase Data” which will erase the data on it after 10 consecutive failed passcode attempts. That seems like a recommended setting for any smartphone to be honest, especially if it is used for business.
