Courts close the loophole letting the feds search your phone at the border
Courts close the loophole letting the feds search your phone at the border
Customs and Border Protection insists that it can search electronics without a warrant. A federal judge just said it can't.
Coming from a district court, I think this ruling could be appealed, but it's welcome news nevertheless.
It's still an excellent idea to power off your phone whenever you are in the vicinity of a border guard and never voluntarily unlock it anywhere close to the border. You can't (generally) be compelled to unlock your phone but you absolutely can have an unlocked phone grabbed out of your hands by a border guard with no legal right to lock it.
96never voluntarily unlock it anywhere close to the border.
Isn't that defined as 100 mile from the border (including international airports)
51I believe it's 100 miles from the border including coastlines but does not include a 100 mile radius around international airports. I don't remember the source but Ive seen a map that represented it that way.
Also worth noting, this ruling only benefits citizens in that specific district, as other districts aren't bound by its rulings. Personally I'd recommend having a 2nd device you can use to record your interactions because if they violate your rights your chances of getting their body cam video of it aren't great.
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This is important - power OFF your phone. Your phone is more secure before you unlock it for the first time after booting. Use a strong password as well.
33You can also force your device into Lockdown mode, which does the same thing, without needing to shut it down or restart it. It's easy to do quickly once you know how.
On Android it's enabled by default, you just hold the power button and press Lockdown.
https://www.lifewire.com/use-android-lockdown-mode-6287933
Iphones have a way to disable biometrics as well with a button combo, but its more a side effect of activating Emergency SOS, not a dedicated feature and how you activate it varies depending on your device model.
https://thenextweb.com/news/how-to-quickly-disable-biometrics-iphone
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They tried to search my laptop when they went through my car at the border, and were greeted with an encrypted boot screen. They tried to interrogate me twice. Glad to know nobody else will have to deal with that now.
"So, you're a tech guy, huh? I bet you're smart." 😐 ...
"Are you into politics? Who'd you vote for?" 🫤 ...
"I'm just trying to have a friendly conversation with you." 🤐 ...
53I mean every work laptop is (/should be) encrypted. It's about as suspicious as having 2 factor authentication.
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Note that this really only affects citizens and lawful permanent residents.
If you're not one of those, they "can't force you" to unlock it, but they CAN deny you entry.
49This is huge! Finally this loophole around the 4th amendment is getting fixed.
36Now if only assets could stop committing all those crimes.
1
Travel with a burner, wipe it before boarding . If at any time my phone has been removed from my possession, when I arrive back at my home port/airport, I remove the SIM and drop the phone in the garbage.
Laptops I mail the encrypted drive back home and travel with a clean install on a disposable 128/256g drive.
26I prefer to send electronics to e-waste recycling (or reuse for some task where security doesn't matter) rather than a landfill, but I'm with you in principle: If the authorities get it out of your possession, the hardware is compromised.
22Anything else yes. Possibly a compromised device, I want to go gone bye ASAP and away from me.
3
trying to explain to my wife why we should buy a new phone every time we visit her family
15If you really don't need much room a persistent operating system on a USB stick can be very clutch.
9A 512Gb USB is plenty big enough for me to have a travel OS on, with space for extras. Hell, I used to run Puppy Linux on a 64gb USB.
6My EDC boots Navigatrix.
4
Shouldn't you also reinstall the boot loader for the same reason as you'd bin the phone?
Speak of the devil. This article is from two days ago.
8
Who cares I'm not going to that shit hole anyway..
21Hey, parts of the US are decent
33Definitely, I just like visiting countries that treat their tourists nice.
It's also a hassle to get a new phone for the trip.
13We miss the decent people, but we fear the 1% confluence of poor armed belligerent gqp, as those people are a huge risk.
4
The news only likes to talk about the shittiest parts.
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Well, if our government can stop Americans from going to other countries to discuss peace talks.
They can also force you and anyone else to hand over your electronics. With multiple men that are armed in the airport, there is nothing you can do until they allow you to get a lawyer, and then that will also not help to keep your rights after the fact.
4Sure, but we shouldn't normalize searching through phones without a warrant, especially for journalists.
It's great that the courts are standing up against CBP here.
28Like the peace Ukraine can make with Russia if they just bend over?
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