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US border forces are seizing Americans' phone data and storing it for 15 years

engadget.com

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Re: US border forces are seizing Americans' phone data and storing it for 15 years

#41

Post by Tijdreiziger »

pdimitar wrote: post #33

Honestly, as a non-American this scares me. I am absolutely not at all important and a fairly mediocre programmer as well, I don't store compromising data about anyone, never stole code or company data in my life (and never will), etc., you get it. A normal law-abiding citizen. I still don't want to get my phone taken on an US airport and returned an hour later with God knows how many viruses that even Apple wouldn't…

Also, I'm sure the US isn't the only country that does this. So if you travel internationally at all, you're essentially boned when it comes to personal privacy.

Re: US border forces are seizing Americans' phone data and storing it for 15 years

#42

Post by koheripbal »

johndfsgdgdfg wrote: post #3

The way US treats the migrants is human rights violation at the border. Now add this to the pile of atrocities committed by the border patrol and ICE. It's high time we should consider open border.

This is like suggesting a biological cell not have a cell wall.

One of the fundamental functions of a country is to regulate input/outputs at the border.

There are so many disastrous problems that arise from the elimination of a border, that I question whether such a suggestion is ever even made seriously or made by sane people.

Re: US border forces are seizing Americans' phone data and storing it for 15 years

#44

Post by oneplane »

cr555 wrote: post #27

"That's when they can plug in the traveler's phone, tablet or PC to a device that copies their information, ...". would really like to know which "devices" they are talking about. fkn hard to do a full android backup these days.. this world. im tellin ya. on another note: lets talk about how one would go about keeping ones privacy intact aka having a party in the capitol. 1. will they be able to get into my cryptroot…

They will get a $5 wrench and beat you until you give it up yourself, per XKCD https://xkcd.com/538/

In other words: this isn't a technical challenge, either you comply and give them your private stuff, or you're not going anywhere. Maybe you can con them into giving a 'public' part of the phone and pretending that's all there is, but again, that's social engineering and not a technical challenge.

Re: US border forces are seizing Americans' phone data and storing it for 15 years

#45

Post by jliptzin »

This happened to me in 2016 crossing into Canada. Borders agents took my phone for no reason, demand I give them the password to unlock it (otherwise they would seize the phone), took it in the back for 45 min before returning it and letting me enter. I think it’s obvious they took all my data.

So now when I travel I just bring my “travel” phone with no sensitive data on it.

Re: US border forces are seizing Americans' phone data and storing it for 15 years

#46

Post by joelhaasnoot »

Bakary wrote: post #37
O__________O wrote: post #31

Seems like real solution are phones that by default provided end-to-end-encryption for cloud backups, no local data “travel modes”, secure wipes, multiple logins, etc. — since trying to get countries to uniformly play by same rules seem highly unlikely.

Or just a burner with plausible activity stored on it to give the impression that it's your main phone.

I believe for many companies that do business in China this is already standard procedure, also for laptops

Re: US border forces are seizing Americans' phone data and storing it for 15 years

#47

Post by ep103 »

giantg2 wrote: post #14
ep103 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, that's great and all, but IIRC this Supreme Court has been instituting a policy of Absolute Immunity related to immigration issues via Egbert v. Boule. If one has absolute immunity, the law simply isn't a concern for federal border security.

If I remember correctly, it's not complete immunity, but they require a compensation mechanism approved by congress for any issue that doesn't have prior history of being compensated explicitly similar to the situation at hand. It's like 99% immunity.

Right, so federal agents receive absolute immunity by default, and this is guaranteed to continue for every new issue, unless Congress magically becomes un-gridlocked in the meanwhile AND chooses to solve this issue AND chooses to do so every time a new unprecedent issue occurs involving a federal agent.

Re: US border forces are seizing Americans' phone data and storing it for 15 years

#48

Post by O__________O »

Bakary wrote: post #37
O__________O wrote: post #31

Seems like real solution are phones that by default provided end-to-end-encryption for cloud backups, no local data “travel modes”, secure wipes, multiple logins, etc. — since trying to get countries to uniformly play by same rules seem highly unlikely.

Or just a burner with plausible activity stored on it to give the impression that it's your main phone.

If by plausible, you mean intentionally false — then in many countries, if caught, that might result in being: blacklisted, deported, imprisoned, detained, lose of citizenship, etc.

Re: US border forces are seizing Americans' phone data and storing it for 15 years

#49

Post by Tijdreiziger »

refurb wrote: post #38
johndfsgdgdfg wrote: post #3

The way US treats the migrants is human rights violation at the border. Now add this to the pile of atrocities committed by the border patrol and ICE. It's high time we should consider open border.

Searching your phone is a humans rights violation? I mean, I get the hyperbole, but I'd say more like a privacy issue. But hey, just add the US to the long list of countries like Canada, UK, Australia, etc, etc, etc. Maybe we can come up with a positive list of countries that won't search your phone at the border?

Privacy is a human right.

United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1948, Article 12: “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.”

https://privacyinternational.org/explainer/56/what-privacy

Re: US border forces are seizing Americans' phone data and storing it for 15 years

#50

Post by laweijfmvo »

vageli wrote: post #2

I'm not sure I missed something, the title says "Americans" but I couldn't find an elaboration on exactly _who_ is subject to these searches. The ACLU [0] seems to contend that, at least, US citizens are not subject to these measures. [0]: https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/what-do-when-encounter...

Also relevant/interesting is this "exception" the US government claims to the Constitution: https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/border-zone

I've heard of "border" being applied to anywhere 100 miles from an _airport_, but can't find the reference, which would cover like 99% of the country.

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