8 comments

  • mmh0000 21 minutes ago
    It is insane to me that judges consistently rule that the constitution doesn't apply because there's a "border" within 100 miles.

    The 4th Amendment says, exactly:

       The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
    
    I do not know how that could be unclear. My cellphone is my effect, and arguably, also a "paper". Which SHALL NOT BE VIOLATED. But apparently, I'm too dumb to understand the sentence[1].

    [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Amendment_to_the_United...

  • petcat 57 minutes ago
    Customs has always been able to search everything without a warrant or suspicion when crossing the border. I guess this is saying that they can search the digital contents of physical devices/media as well?
    • wrs 53 minutes ago
      It says they can manually search them. According to this, the ruling explicitly doesn’t say if they can digitally search them.
      • inopinatus 38 minutes ago
        digitally also means “using the fingers”, so never consent to a digital search without prior clarification
  • ramesh31 24 minutes ago
    The best time to delete all social media accounts and never post anything online with your name attached ever again was 10 years ago. The second best time is right now. Mindblowing to me that people assume any right to privacy anymore.
  • gigel82 8 minutes ago
    This is confusing; what happens to you if you refuse a warantless search of your property?

    I'm a US citizen returning home. Do they just... send me back out of the country? :) I don't suppose they'd have the grounds to arrest me since there is no law that I can see being broken. I suppose they could keep the device until such time that a warrant could be obtained to digitally search / break into the device (but that requires some reasonable suspicion - simply refusing a warantless search isn't it).

  • andix 19 minutes ago
    Anyone still crossing US borders with electronic devices that aren't fully wiped? This is company policy for some European companies for a long time. Even during the Biden administration.

    Most employees just receive a wiped phone/laptop for the duration of the trip. Depending on the country its either a device that only has access to the bare minimum of Services, or for countries like Russia they issue a dumb phone that can only call and text.

  • 0xbadcafebee 33 minutes ago
    The problem with these laws isn't that they can search you at the border. It's that they can search you within 100 miles of the border (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_search_exception). The total number of people who live within that zone is 213 Million people, or 2/3 of the total population (https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/border-zone).
  • tencentshill 57 minutes ago
    And now you're extra suspicious if you don't have one at all
  • righthand 52 minutes ago
    So carry a separate device while traveling. Or wipe your phone, then restore after the border. This is just going to lead to a service that does this for you and the overreaching feds won’t be able to do anything about it.

    And as far as I can tell you still don’t have to give them your pin code.

    • peezd 9 minutes ago
      It's been somewhat established that having a wiped or basic phone is in itself sus and reason for them to investigate you further.
    • prettyblocks 26 minutes ago
      the worry is that this will be interpreted as tampering and cary consequences.
    • autoexec 41 minutes ago
      They don't need your pin, they can just hack the phone take all your data anyway. ICE has a contract with Cellebrite
      • puppycodes 24 minutes ago
        Not really. Cellebrite isn't magic. If you have an up to date OS and a strong password not pin, encryption functions as it should. The best thing to do is simply have a travel phone.