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Felony charges for citizen deleting phone data at US Border

nytimes.com

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Re: Felony charges for citizen deleting phone data at US Border

#531

Post by unreal37 »

panny wrote: post #247
Zak wrote: post #189

For exactly the border search scenario, I wish smartphones could be imaged and restored as easily as PCs. Imagine booting the phone from a flash drive, making an encrypted image of the phone on said drive, and writing a fresh OS before reaching the border. There's no deception required to protect sensitive data or avoid the seizure of an expensive phone. Consent to unlocking the phone, refuse to unlock the drive. The…

Think for a moment. What is the difference between giving them a password which wipes the phone and giving them a password which opens a blank phone? It's the same thing. They punched in a code, they are presented with a wiped phone. Can they prove the guy gave them a distress password and wasn't simply carrying a wiped phone to begin with? No, but they just need to imply that is the reason to charge him with the fel…

One is destroying evidence and the other is not.

Re: Felony charges for citizen deleting phone data at US Border

#534

Post by [deleted] »

kypro wrote: post #523
tbrownaw wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. They'd probably have kept the device for a while, but he wouldn't be in legal trouble.

That's crazy. Here in the UK border police can question you for any reason (no need for suspicion) and if you refuse to answer questions or give them access to your devices you'll be charged under terror legalisation.

[deleted]

Re: Felony charges for citizen deleting phone data at US Border

#535

Post by unclebucknasty »

deepfriedbits wrote: post #268
btbuildem wrote: post #227

The naivete of some of the comments here is astounding. It doesn't matter whether you're right, it doesn't matter whether it's the law, it's irrelevant that you have rights, etc. Those things are of the past now, for the US. I think it would be easier to understand the playing field and choose your actions accordingly, if you accept the US has entered its East Germany / late 20th century Soviet era -- except of cours…

With all due respect, this is a wild take. Things aren't great in the U.S. right now, but they're not even in the same universe as what the Stasi was doing. > I think it would be easier to understand the playing field and choose your actions accordingly, if you accept the US has entered its East Germany / late 20th century Soviet era -- except of course with 1000x more invasive and effective surveillance tech.

History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

-Mark Twain

Re: Felony charges for citizen deleting phone data at US Border

#536

Post by underlipton »

panarky wrote: post #310
joenot443 wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you accept the US has entered its East Germany / late 20th century Soviet era -- except of course with 1000x more invasive and effective surveillance tech. I'm pretty optimistic that after the next general America will be ready to give up on the extremity of late turn over a new leaf. I fully expect a new president to be ushered in, whether R or D, and for some level of normalcy to start creeping back. The Sovie…

> some level of normalcy You are undoubtedly correct that at some point there will be new leadership in the US. Politics makes leadership change a possibility. Biology makes it an inevitability. But I don't think the evidence is very strong that switching from one man to a different man, even if the new man wears a blue hat instead of a red hat, will make that much difference against capital and its surveillance stat…

"Nothing would fundamentally change." And he meant it.

Re: Felony charges for citizen deleting phone data at US Border

#537

Post by trescenzi »

hateful wrote: post #529
alsetmusic wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With all due respect, this is a wild take. Things aren't great in the U.S. right now, but they're not even in the same universe as what the Stasi was doing. Don't kid yourself. That's what they want. They're slowly testing to find out how much they can get away with. Would you have imagined that the nation would quietly sit back and allow what's been done so far ten or twenty years ago? Just because there have been…

Winning arguments and solving problems are two different skillsets. And the US Congress is mostly people with the former. Not to say that winning arguments doesn't help when choosing a solution, but it is very different.

Or “To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.” - Douglas Adams

Re: Felony charges for citizen deleting phone data at US Border

#538

Post by csallen »

kelnos wrote: post #342
kelseyfrog wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Because law enforcement assumes there's bombs in boxes by default and defers to the bomb squad to understand the box before they touch it. Why would the bomb squad trust the box owner to help them defuse it? To understand the issue, you have to construct a proper analog.

Sure, you're right that this analogy is bad, because that would never happen. But if it did , you'd still be on the hook for the bomb, even though technically the LEO set it off through incompetence.

An analogy should not be judged on whether or not it can realistically happen, nor whether it can be manipulated in some way that capitalizes on the differences.

Because the point of an analogy is not to provide an realistic or identical situation. On the contrary, the point of an analogy is to use a different situation in order to illustrate a very narrow similarity and make a point.

If the analogy illustrates and makes that point well, then it succeeds.

Re: Felony charges for citizen deleting phone data at US Border

#540

Post by az226 »

gblargg wrote: post #532

The decoy passcode feature should boot into a separate partition that looks like a normal phone setup, and during that time quietly erase the user's actual data. They would never have known if it worked like this.

Probably, but it will be more valuable for society for him to be tried and found not guilty, setting a legal precedent.
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