YHK - yet another hacker news clone

Border agents can search cellphones without a warrant or reasonable suspicion

29 points mmh0000 59 minutes ago 12 comments

tencentshill 41 minutes ago | parent

And now you're extra suspicious if you don't have one at all

petcat 40 minutes ago | parent

Customs has always been able to search everything without a warrant or suspicion when crossing the border. I guess this is saying that they can search the digital contents of physical devices/media as well?

wrs 36 minutes ago | parent

It says they can manually search them. According to this, the ruling explicitly doesn’t say if they can digitally search them.

inopinatus 22 minutes ago | parent

digitally also means “using the fingers”, so never consent to a digital search without prior clarification

righthand 36 minutes ago | parent

So carry a separate device while traveling. Or wipe your phone, then restore after the border. This is just going to lead to a service that does this for you and the overreaching feds won’t be able to do anything about it.

And as far as I can tell you still don’t have to give them your pin code.

autoexec 24 minutes ago | parent

They don't need your pin, they can just hack the phone take all your data anyway. ICE has a contract with Cellebrite

puppycodes 7 minutes ago | parent

Not really. Cellebrite isn't magic. If you have an up to date OS and a strong password not pin, encryption functions as it should. The best thing to do is simply have a travel phone.

prettyblocks 9 minutes ago | parent

the worry is that this will be interpreted as tampering and cary consequences.

0xbadcafebee 17 minutes ago | parent

The problem with these laws isn't that they can search you at the border. It's that they can search you within 100 miles of the border (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_search_exception). The total number of people who live within that zone is 213 Million people, or 2/3 of the total population (https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/border-zone).

ramesh31 7 minutes ago | parent

The best time to delete all social media accounts and never post anything online with your name attached ever again was 10 years ago. The second best time is right now. Mindblowing to me that people assume any right to privacy anymore.

mmh0000 5 minutes ago | parent

It is insane to me that judges consistently rule that the constitution doesn't apply because there's a "border" within 100 miles.

The 4th Amendment says, exactly:

   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 do not know how that could be unclear. My cellphone is my effect, and arguably, also a "paper". Which SHALL NOT BE VIOLATED. But apparently, I'm too dumb to understand the sentence[1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Amendment_to_the_United...

andix 3 minutes ago | parent

Anyone still crossing US borders with electronic devices that aren't fully wiped? This is company policy for some European companies for a long time. Even during the Biden administration.

Most employees just receive a wiped phone/laptop for the duration of the trip. Depending on the country its either a device that only has access to the bare minimum of Services, or for countries like Russia they issue a dumb phone that can only call and text.