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

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

#311

Post by kwhitefoot »

gambiting wrote: post #73
howmayiannoyyou wrote: post #39

Terrifying for only 2 reasons: 1. Any malicious person savvy enough to pull off a crime of interest to the Feds is smart enough to provide a wiped or burner phone to DHS/ICE, and they have to know this. So, what is the point in doing this if not to target law abiding citizens. 2. USGOV has a spotty track record of keeping this information secure. A foreign actor is likely to access this info eventually. As one former…

>>So, what is the point in doing this if not to target law abiding citizens. It's the old rule known to governments all over the world - there is no such thing as an innocent citizen, there is only a citizen who you haven't investigated enough. Call me cynical but storing ALL of your digital data allows the agencies to basically find something, anything, that will allow them to further blackmail you into complying. E…

Richelieu said this:

“If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.”

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

#312

Post by stevehawk »

randomdata wrote: post #290
howmayiannoyyou wrote: post #39

Terrifying for only 2 reasons: 1. Any malicious person savvy enough to pull off a crime of interest to the Feds is smart enough to provide a wiped or burner phone to DHS/ICE, and they have to know this. So, what is the point in doing this if not to target law abiding citizens. 2. USGOV has a spotty track record of keeping this information secure. A foreign actor is likely to access this info eventually. As one former…

> This is the problem when a non-technical generation makes the rules and regs. The millennials hold the power these days. If you consider them non-technical, I'm not sure there will ever be a technical generation... Which may be a fair assertion as I work with a lot of people in the tech industry who wouldn't even consider the issues you raise unless it was handed to them on a silver platter. If actual tech people a…

the millenials do not hold the power. They are not the blue badgers in the intelligence community that are making decisions.

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

#313

Post by chubot »

Operyl wrote: post #253
chubot wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar SecOps problems happened to both John McAfee and the Silk Road founder. As far as I remember, McAfee shared an iPhone photo with location metadata when he was in Belize, so American authorities were able to track him down. The Silk Road founder had some sort of PHP coding error which led police to his San Francisco location. That is, you could simply visit the Silk Road home page and his location leaked. So y…

It was actually Vice that did the McAfee leak, with a Vice employee phone. [0] [0] https://www.wired.com/2012/12/oops-did-vice-just-give-away-j...

Ah OK, thanks for the source

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

#314

Post by randomdata »

stevehawk wrote: post #312
randomdata wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is the problem when a non-technical generation makes the rules and regs. The millennials hold the power these days. If you consider them non-technical, I'm not sure there will ever be a technical generation... Which may be a fair assertion as I work with a lot of people in the tech industry who wouldn't even consider the issues you raise unless it was handed to them on a silver platter. If actual tech people a…

the millenials do not hold the power. They are not the blue badgers in the intelligence community that are making decisions.

The intelligence community only exists because those in power grant it so. The millennials hold the power. Certainly they delegate – there is only so much time in the day – but the outcome still rests on what lies at the top.

The reality is that millennials, as a generation, don't see a problem with this. Select individuals may, but individuals don't hold power.

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

#315

Post by synaesthesisx »

jliptzin wrote: post #45

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.

If you have theft & lost insurance on your device, I would rather just let them seize the device and report it as stolen.

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

#316

Post by JohnFen »

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #60
oneplane wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds great when typing it up on the internet in a comfortable chair, but when a few power hungry workers with guns are breathing down your neck in a small room you can't get out of, the rules aren't going to make you feel 'safe'.

Eh, right are only rights if they are enforced and/or asserted. If neither is done, at best, they are forgotten and wither and at worst become a quaint memory of things that were. The rules exist for a reason. They also exist for people with guns; especially for people that do it on behalf of government. If you are afraid of guns from people in uniform, you are already doing it wrong. I will tell you this as an inter…

> If you are afraid of guns from people in uniform, you are already doing it wrong.

There is ample evidence in the US that fear of people in uniform carrying guns is a very rational thing.

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

#317

Post by JohnFen »

laweijfmvo wrote: post #50
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.

From international airports. International airports themselves count as "the border", for obvious reasons.

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

#318

Post by galangalalgol »

acuozzo wrote: post #221
galangalalgol wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So maybe we don't want all the rich people? And we probably want some of the poor people. There is a shortage of all sorts of labor afterall. The real issue is that there is no good way to verify the identity or non-criminal nature of any of the migrants. You can create a solid ID at the time of entry and start tracking there at least.

> The real issue is that there is no good way to verify the identity or non-criminal nature of any of the migrants. Just as there was no good way for Diogenes to verify which bones belonged to Alexander's father.

I had to look up the reference. Are you saying it doesn't matter if some people entering a country are wanted for crimes? That seems like something we should check.

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

#320

Post by bongobingo1 »

YeBanKo wrote: post #304
macrolime wrote: post #227

Even if you are a person who will never in your life end up as any kind of person of interest for the government, handing over data in this way could still be quite dangerous. Phones will often contain data that can facilitate theft and fraud if ending up in the wrong hands. If they're able to copy everything, including private data from all apps that could be quite bad. For example many countries now use apps to log…

Things like secured enclave should make it hard to extract private key from a device even if you have full access.

Which assumes the keys are stored in there and not `bundle/user-data/please-dont-read`...
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