The Fourth Circuit Says Border Agents Can Search Your Phone By Hand, No Suspicion Required
www.eff.org
The court ruled that a lower standard applies to manual searches, allowing the government to conduct extraordinarily invasive electronic device searches without any suspicion of wrongdoing, simply because the border officer chooses to search by hand rather than with a forensic tool.
  • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    15·
    15 hours ago

    Reason Number 999 why I will refuse to enter the US if possible (or will have a decoy phone when entering the border)

  • _Nemo_@lemmy.mlEnglish
    46·
    1 day ago

    And now, everyone!

    “IN THE LAND OF THE FREE
    AND THE HOME OF THE BRAVE!”

    • slacktoid@lemmy.mlEnglish
      17·
      1 day ago

      The bravest and the freeest boys and girls, that’s why nobody needs privacy, cause youre all so free and brave!

      • HubertManne@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        4 hours ago

        Today all the things were gone I’d worked for all my life And its hard to start again With no children and my wife I’d rue my cursed stars To be living here today 'Cause the flag now stands for serfdom And freedoms been taken away

        And I’m ashamed to be an American Where folks pretend their free And I won’t forget, the men who lied Who took that right from me And I’d gladly stand up Next to you and regain her still today 'Cause ain’t no doubt I used to love this land God help the USA

        From the lakes of Minnesota To the hills of Tennessee Across the plains of Texas From sea to shining sea From Detroit down to Houston And New York to L.A Well there’s disgust in every American heart And it’s time we stand and say

  • atrielienz@lemmy.worldEnglish
    23·
    1 day ago

    I have a question about the whole port thing. Apparently (according to another case where a guy wiped his phone), international airports count as a port of entry where the authorities can search your phone without a warrant. But at the same time, shouldn’t that only count in the event that you’re using it as a port of exit or entry into the country? You mean to tell me I can take a flight to NY from Missouri and have my phone subjected to a search just because JFK is an international airport?

    Can I drive by a border crossing and be subject to search?

    According to the information found at this link the answer is yes.

    https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/rules-car-searches-different-search-near-us-border.html

    So if I happen to live without a 100 mile radius of a border crossing I’m screwed? It seems like this decision further exacerbates an injustice inherent in the how much power ICE has, and it’s bullshit. You should need probable cause to search someone.

    • GreenBeard@lemmy.caEnglish
      19·
      1 day ago

      Yeah. Has been for a long time friend. ICE stopping charter or even city busses to round up working people and make them prove they’re citizens just because they happen to be within 100 miles of a border is practically a cliche at this point. Any international airport, shipping port, etc. works the same way. They operate on guilty until proven innocent, and if you are proven innocent, they’ll invent a reason you’re not anyway.

    • ITGuyLevi@programming.devEnglish
      4·
      9 hours ago

      I believe a duress PIN is still a PIN, if they don’t specify which they want, and then they enter it, they’d be hard pressed to actually charge you with obstruction.

      I’m not a lawyer but I’ve been told never to give my PIN out.

    • forgetfulmeat@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      17 hours ago

      The one time cops tried to search my phone (local police not border patrol) I wouldn’t give my pin. They eventually gave it back but they wiped my phone.

    • Carmakazi@piefed.socialEnglish
      24·
      1 day ago

      You’ll almost certainly get charged with “disposing of evidence” or broadly “obstruction” if you give them a duress pin that scrambles your phone. Maybe get smacked around a bit because you injured their authority over you.

    • dogslayeggs@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      1 day ago

      This ruling doesn’t get into that question. Based on how courts treat refusing to take a breathalyzer, I’m guessing it opens you up to being detained for 24 hours on suspicion of a crime, giving them time to obtain a warrant. A different write-up says that if you do not give a password, they can detain your device and make you wait; but you are not required to give up the password. No other write-ups I can find mention the password issue.

      I know previous rulings have said that Face Unlock does NOT count as forcing your password and is allowed by police in searches. When I go on international trips, I disable Face Unlock on my work phone before going to the airports to block that pathway since my phone contains company proprietary information and Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). I have nothing embarrassing or illegal or incriminating on my personal phone, so I usually don’t bother.