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What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?

arstechnica.com

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Re: What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?

#31

Post by ronnier »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #20
ronnier wrote: post #9

> 4,444 cellphones and 320 other electronic devices were inspected in 2015 And recently I'm hearing about this -- it largely went ignored during the previous administration but now it's a major concern, articles on HN, my Facebook feed, Reddit, ...

The ACLU was fighting this under Obama, and some of the many millions of dollars they gathered from Trump opponents will be used to fight this and other causes under POTUS 46.

Good. We should care about this regardless if we like the administration or not.

Re: What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?

#32

Post by RubberSoul »

tptacek wrote: post #3

Worth remembering: US citizens can play chicken with CBP and lose nothing more than their computer/phone hardware (perhaps having it returned 6 months later). But non-citizens, possibly including LPRs, cannot: if an alien attempts to cross the border with a device they can't unlock "because they don't have the corresponding 2FA token with them" (as one friend suggested they do), they'll be detained, their devices con…

Makes me wonder what the best options are for cheap phones and laptops that can be used while traveling.

Also, does having saved passwords in a computer (for servers, email, GitHub, etc.) mean that CBP could use those passwords to search computers inside the United States? Or is their search power limited to information actually stored on the machine's hard drive.

Re: What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?

#34

Post by gravypod »

mirimir wrote: post #28
voxic11 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet another reason never to sign up for Facebook.

That's unworkable. OK, maybe Facebook. But going without social media is no longer workable. Too much depends on it: family, friends, education, work, etc. However, what is workable is keeping your social media clean. Compartmentalize anything questionable, anything potentially embarrassing etc, using pseudonyms. And compartmentalize those pseudonyms on separate hardware, and avoid linkage through IP address, activit…

Unless you call hacker news social media then you can definitely do it. I do it. I just call or text the people I care about when I'm thinking of them.

Nothing is needed from social media.

Re: What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?

#35

Post by technologyvault »

There are probably thousands of instances similar to this (not necessarily having to hand over your device) where US citizens are at the mercy of law enforcement simply because we don't know what are rights are, and because often law enforcement either doesn't know or doesn't care.

Civil rights often tend to be only as useful as our knowledge of what exactly they are.

Re: What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?

#36

Post by mirimir »

intopieces wrote: post #5

Is it worth it to clear those devices and restore from cloud backup after crossing?

No. First, as others noted, it creates suspicion.

Second, you can't trust devices after authorities have messed with them. Maybe they're backdoored.

Best option is to carry only inexpensive devices, containing no sensitive information. If they're searched, just throw them away later.

Re: What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?

#37

Post by sjg007 »

RubberSoul wrote: post #32
tptacek wrote: post #3

Worth remembering: US citizens can play chicken with CBP and lose nothing more than their computer/phone hardware (perhaps having it returned 6 months later). But non-citizens, possibly including LPRs, cannot: if an alien attempts to cross the border with a device they can't unlock "because they don't have the corresponding 2FA token with them" (as one friend suggested they do), they'll be detained, their devices con…

Makes me wonder what the best options are for cheap phones and laptops that can be used while traveling. Also, does having saved passwords in a computer (for servers, email, GitHub, etc.) mean that CBP could use those passwords to search computers inside the United States? Or is their search power limited to information actually stored on the machine's hard drive.

If they have the password they can search it...

Re: What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?

#38

Post by biscuitsandbbq »

This happened to me crossing into Canada and to be honest I really wasn't expecting it. I had tons of very private pictures and messages on there stretching back years. I really didn't want to turn over my password so that 3 border agents could look through all that stuff in some back room, but at the same time I knew there wasn't anything illegal on there. Anyway, I was with my partner and didn't want to ruin her vacation as well so we just turned over our passwords (under threat of detention if we didn't).

In any case, if you find yourself in this unfortunate situation (you shouldn't - you should travel with an empty phone when crossing the border, or at least wipe it before crossing then do a restore over icloud later), here's something you can do: Before going in (if you have an iphone), make sure you have a strong alphanumeric passcode. Enable auto-wipe on 10 incorrect passcode attempts. Then, turn the phone off. If CBP then asks to turn your phone on and wants your password, appear eager to comply, but give them an incorrect one, and when that doesn't work, admit that you had just changed it a few days ago to something more secure and that you may have forgotten it, but don't worry, you always just use the thumbprint to unlock the phone anyway and volunteer to open it that way. Always appears helpful. The phone still won't unlock because iphone requires passcode entry after restart. If they ask why you turned the phone off, just say that's what you normally do when entering border control. Unless you're under some kind of serious suspicion of some kind at this time, they're unlikely to detain you for forgetting your phone password, and even if so, it's locked with a strong passcode so there's no much they can do anyway.

Re: What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?

#39

Post by jacquesm »

tptacek wrote: post #3

Worth remembering: US citizens can play chicken with CBP and lose nothing more than their computer/phone hardware (perhaps having it returned 6 months later). But non-citizens, possibly including LPRs, cannot: if an alien attempts to cross the border with a device they can't unlock "because they don't have the corresponding 2FA token with them" (as one friend suggested they do), they'll be detained, their devices con…

> The current best practice for border crossings --- really anywhere in the world --- is simply not to carry anything you're unwilling to unlock for Customs.

Or, to simply stop traveling to countries that refuse to play nice with the rights of foreigners. The whole idea that this sort of thing is even anywhere near acceptable behavior revolts me.

Re: What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?

#40

Post by jacquesm »

xenophonf wrote: post #14
tptacek wrote: post #3

Worth remembering: US citizens can play chicken with CBP and lose nothing more than their computer/phone hardware (perhaps having it returned 6 months later). But non-citizens, possibly including LPRs, cannot: if an alien attempts to cross the border with a device they can't unlock "because they don't have the corresponding 2FA token with them" (as one friend suggested they do), they'll be detained, their devices con…

CBP will begin asking everyone for Facebook logins. I don't understand how this doesn't run afoul of the Fourth Amendment. Surely one's social media qualifies as "papers" or "effects" even though they're digital artifacts and not physical. This just seems _incredibly_ invasive.

> This just seems _incredibly_ invasive.

You could leave out the 'seems' and it would improve the comment.

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