12 comments

  • smalltorch 13 minutes ago

    So store your data in a secure location and only access it with devices if your a journalist?

      howdyhowdy 7 minutes ago

      Isn't it telling that if your immediate thought is to subvert said LAW? That doesn't seem to be serving the people then does it, but the state. The state is supposed to serve its people

  • majorchord 13 minutes ago

    I thought this was already allowed and the norm for many years?

  • phkahler 33 minutes ago

    Is it a visual search, or do they make a copy of all your data?

      kotaKat 21 minutes ago

      It probably depends how pissed off you made the officer at the border if he just wants to thumb through some recent text messages and photos to see if you're doing Crimes or if they're gonna go take it to the Cellebrite UFED in the backroom and dump it out.

      In other words... whom (or what) was perceived to have pissed in the CBP officer's Wheaties this morning? We'll never know what grudges he holds to make his decision.

  • jmclnx 37 minutes ago

    The article is not that clear in one way. Does this only apply to non-US Citizens ?

      weberer 30 minutes ago

      Anybody crossing the border. The justification is that the government's constitutional right to control imports overrides the 4th amendment right to privacy.

      >“The border-search exception is grounded in the recognized right of the sovereign to control, subject to substantive limitations imposed by the Constitution, who and what may enter the country.” Id. at 620. Because “[t]he Government’s interest in preventing the entry of unwanted persons and effects is at its zenith at the international border,” United States v. Flores-Montano, 541 U.S. 149, 152 (2004), “searches made at the border, pursuant to the long-standing right of the sovereign to protect itself by stopping and examining persons and property crossing into this country, are reasonable simply by virtue of the fact that they occur at the border,” Ramsey, 431 U.S. at 616.

      https://ww3.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/OPN/24-960_complete_o...

        petcat 11 minutes ago

        So the argument is basically that Americans already consent to allowing customs to search anything and everything that they are physically bringing across the border, whether a US citizen or not, and now that is also affirmed to include the digital contents of electronic devices.

        howdyhowdy 9 minutes ago

        Worse though, is that the definition of border is hella loose. CBP can be many MANY miles away from an actual border and do this.

      tocs3 29 minutes ago

      Near the top of the article:

      “Today’s decision leaves Americans’ most sensitive information open to search at the border without any suspicion at all,”

      I think this is just an extension of a general we, as government officials protecting American freedoms, can do what we want and will justify it later if we have to policy.

      It should probably be noted that this specific case led to a conviction of an actual crime (Bank fraud and money laundering).

        netsharc 20 minutes ago

        East Germany built a wall to keep their citizens "free" of "fascist elements"...

          tekla 15 minutes ago

          You understand that no one actually believed that lie. It was built to stop people from running to west Germany.