Am I the only who has a problem with this?

'According to the senior CBP official, about 20 percent of the travelers whose devices are inspected are U.S. citizens. The rest are permanent residents, visitors or other travelers whose admissibility to the United States is subject to CBP discretion.

American citizens who refuse to allow their devices to be inspected cannot be denied entry into the United States, but their devices could be retained for up to five days, the official said."

FWIW, back in Sept we came back from three weeks in China and cleared Customs at ORD, no one asked about our phones. Then again, we're a harmless-looking older couple with Global Entry.

Complete article:

https://www.washingtonpost.com...m_term=.c710a08050ae

U.S. customs agents are searching more cellphones — including those belonging to Americans

By Nick Miroff January 5 at 6:14 PM
U.S. customs agents conducted 60 percent more searches of travelers’ cellphones, laptops and other electronic devices during the government’s 2017 fiscal year, according to statistics released Friday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The agency said it searched 30,200 devices but the inspections affected only 0.007 percent of the 397 million travelers — including American citizens as well as foreign visitors — who arrived from abroad during the 12-month period that ended Sept 30.

CBP published the figures as it issued new guidelines formalizing the way its officers conduct searches and handle the information they obtain.

The agency said the increase was not the result of a policy directive, but rather an indication that electronic devices are increasingly viewed as critical sources of information on potential security threats.

“In this digital age, border searches of electronic devices are essential to enforcing the law at the U.S. border and to protecting the American people,” CBP official John Wagner said in a statement.

American citizens and other travelers have expressed astonishment and alarm in recent years at requests to hand over their cellphones from U.S. customs officials at airports and border crossings.

But CBP said the practice is justified and its standards have been thoroughly reviewed to ensure they are not an unreasonable violation of privacy rights.

The agency said it sometimes needs information it obtains from devices to determine the admissibility of foreign visitors, viewing them as potential sources of intelligence on terrorism, child pornography or other criminal activity.

Under the new guidelines, travelers who are selected by its officers for additional screening could be asked to unlock their electronic devices for inspection or provide passcodes. They will be asked to disable the devices’ data transmission, according to a senior CBP official who briefed reporters on the changes Friday.

Only information physically stored on the device — such as photographs or phone numbers — would be subject to search, said the official, who the agency would not allow to be quoted by name. CBP agents would not be allowed to seek information stored externally or on a “cloud” linked to the device.

Such inspections would constitute a “basic search,” the agency said. But in cases where officers determine they have reasonable suspicion of a criminal act or potential threat to national security, they may, with a supervisors’ authorization, conduct an “advanced search” by connecting it to other applications and potentially copying its information.

Passwords provided by travelers would be destroyed and not retained by the government, the CBP official said.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a key ally of privacy rights groups, called the new CBP guidelines “an improvement” but said they’re still too intrusive for U.S. citizens.

“Manually examining an individuals’ private photos, messages and browsing history is still extremely invasive, and should require a warrant,” he said in a statement. “I continue to believe Americans are entitled to their full constitutional rights, no matter where they are in the United States.”

Last year U.S. civil rights groups filed suit against the federal government in an attempt to curb device searches.

According to the senior CBP official, about 20 percent of the travelers whose devices are inspected are U.S. citizens. The rest are permanent residents, visitors or other travelers whose admissibility to the United States is subject to CBP discretion.

American citizens who refuse to allow their devices to be inspected cannot be denied entry into the United States, but their devices could be retained for up to five days, the official said.

In cases where noncitizens refuse the search, they could be denied entry and sent home.

CBP said the decision to review a travelers’ electronic device would not be made at random, and would be requested by officers as part of their broader effort to evaluate whether to allow someone into the U.S.

Imagery and information that is noncriminal, including political or sexual content, could also be used by CBP officers to determine whether to admit a foreign visitor, the CBP official said.

Look for more people to be encrypting their phones.

What exactly are they looking to find? Incoming calls from Vladimir Putin? Pictures of you doing lnes of coke in Columbia, maybe you giggling as you stuff a Mexican in your suitcase? I really can't see the border protection benefit of them going on a fishing expedition on someone's phone just because.

I’d be pretty tempted to say no. If they want to keep it for 5 days screw em I’ll deal with it. I don’t have anything to hide but it’s the principle of the matter.

Sensationalist headlines for a less than meaningful story? A 60% increase= .007% of travelers. Multiple devices per person would lower that even more.

"The agency said it searched 30,200 devices but the inspections affected only 0.007 percent of the 397 million travelers"

quote:

Originally posted by braillediver:
Sensationalist headlines for a less than meaningful story? A 60% increase= .007% of travelers. Multiple devices per person would lower that even more.

"The agency said it searched 30,200 devices but the inspections affected only 0.007 percent of the 397 million travelers"

I think you miss the point re US citizens.

quote:

Originally posted by braillediver:
Sensationalist headlines for a less than meaningful story? A 60% increase= .007% of travelers. Multiple devices per person would lower that even more.

"The agency said it searched 30,200 devices but the inspections affected only 0.007 percent of the 397 million travelers"

Fourth Amendment - U.S. Constitution

quote:

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 din't CARE about the miniscule percentage - a violation of rights is a violation of rights, and must be fought.

Coercing someone to surrender their ohone is jack boot thuggery (how many of us be ok with losing our phone for 5 days?). . .

Your rights are protected by the U.S. Constitution, yet all the government has to do is say the magic word "security" and *poof*, your rights are gone.

It's always been considered that you have no rights crossing the border. Customs has always been allowed to search everyone coming into the country, including citizens.

quote:

Originally posted by Eponym:
Your rights are protected by the U.S. Constitution, yet all the government has to do is say the magic word "security" and *poof*, your rights are gone.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
It's always been considered that you have no rights crossing the border. Customs has always been allowed to search everyone coming into the country, including citizens.

This has always been my understanding. I do agree that the article seems to be written to sensationalize. What I’m wondering and I don’t see an answer to, is how this search is being done. Does the agent stand there and manually flip through the device? If so, that seems totally worthless. If it’s done electronically in some manner, then you really have no idea what they’re doing to that device. They could be imaging it, installing something on it, whatever.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
It's always been considered that you have no rights crossing the border. Customs has always been allowed to search everyone coming into the country, including citizens.

quote:

Originally posted by Eponym:
Your rights are protected by the U.S. Constitution, yet all the government has to do is say the magic word "security" and *poof*, your rights are gone.

That has been the case for my entire lifetime. Agents never required a search warrant to pull your vehicle apart when crossing back into the US.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
It's always been considered that you have no rights crossing the border. Customs has always been allowed to search everyone coming into the country, including citizens.

I don’t know how searching someone’s phone or computer would be any different from an agent’s looking through a sheaf of papers someone was carrying. I’m not familiar with the current laws and regulations, but I do know that importation of pornography or “seditious” materials has been prohibited in the past, and the only way someone would know if someone was bringing either into the country would be to examine and read the materials.

quote:

Originally posted by hbabler:
I’d be pretty tempted to say no. If they want to keep it for 5 days screw em I’ll deal with it. I don’t have anything to hide but it’s the principle of the matter.

Yeah, I'd have to say No. iPhone data is encrypted, and I don't think I'd give them my pass code. If I was carrying my laptop, it's encrypted as well. I could give them a password that if they used it would immediately wipe the drive. I'd probably just tell them No. It's like giving permission to search your car or house - I'm just not going to do it. Get a warrant and you're welcome to waste your time.

I think it's been the case since the founding of the country. Customs has always been allowed to search anyone and anything coming in.

Of course if I wanted to smuggle anything that I could keep on a smartphone into the country, that I thought customs might be interested in and/or want to stop, I wouldn't put it on anything I'd be carrying it in. I'd encrypt it, maybe steganographically embed it into something innocuous looking (because the NSA is sniffing all the internet links into and out of the country), and email it from one email account that couldn't be traced to me, to another email account that couldn't be traced to me, and downloaded once I was back in the country (at Starbucks on a public wifi link.)

quote:

Originally posted by MNSIG:

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
It's always been considered that you have no rights crossing the border. Customs has always been allowed to search everyone coming into the country, including citizens.

quote:

Originally posted by Eponym:
Your rights are protected by the U.S. Constitution, yet all the government has to do is say the magic word "security" and *poof*, your rights are gone.

That has been the case for my entire lifetime. Agents never required a search warrant to pull your vehicle apart when crossing back into the US.

quote:

Originally posted by jbcummings:

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
It's always been considered that you have no rights crossing the border. Customs has always been allowed to search everyone coming into the country, including citizens.

This has always been my understanding. I do agree that the article seems to be written to sensationalize. What I’m wondering and I don’t see an answer to, is how this search is being done. Does the agent stand there and manually flip through the device? If so, that seems totally worthless. If it’s done electronically in some manner, then you really have no idea what they’re doing to that device. They could be imaging it, installing something on it, whatever.

There are commercial/proprietary "plug-in" hardware tools to quickly scan a device for particular content. Kiddie porn is a huge one.

Over 100 years of SC precedents have upheld the validity of warrantless border searches. The "crossing the border" is the issue. Of all the things I'm outraged about, border searches aren't even on the list.

quote:

Originally posted by BamaJeepster:

quote:

Originally posted by hbabler:
I’d be pretty tempted to say no. If they want to keep it for 5 days screw em I’ll deal with it. I don’t have anything to hide but it’s the principle of the matter.

Yeah, I'd have to say No. iPhone data is encrypted, and I don't think I'd give them my pass code. If I was carrying my laptop, it's encrypted as well. I could give them a password that if they used it would immediately wipe the drive. I'd probably just tell them No. It's like giving permission to search your car or house - I'm just not going to do it. Get a warrant and you're welcome to waste your time.

As has been posted, they don't need permission to search your car when you cross the border entering the US--it's part of their job. By leaving the country and returning, you have acceded to that permission.

flashguy

Somehow I feel searching the trunk of a car is a little different than being forced to give over passwords that will allow people access to your very sensitive personal information. But hey, maybe it does. I'd just say no and let them keep the phone for 5 days. Or just wipe the phone on the flight home and restore it when I got back to the house. No big deal.

quote:

Originally posted by braillediver:
Sensationalist headlines for a less than meaningful story? A 60% increase= .007% of travelers. Multiple devices per person would lower that even more.

That sound you heard faintly? That was the point going right past you.

I would tell them "no." Firmly.

Where are those naked Be Arthur pics? Maybe some naked selfies or wearing "CBP sucks monkey nuts" printed undies.

Honestly though not overly concerned but after a 10 hour flight I would be miffed about the delay.