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Former Mozilla CTO Andreas Gal has filed a complaint against US customs agents for aggressive interrogation and demanding the passcodes for his phones and laptops and denying him access to an attorney. His expedited Global Entry status was revoked for allegedly refusing to comply with the search. Andreas and the ACLU are requesting an investigation into the incident. He works for Apple these days.
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Former Mozilla CTO Subjected to Warrantless Phone Search
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History books which contain no lies are extremely dull.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @09:37AM (9 children)
"This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace. America has stood down enemies before, and we will do so this time. None of us will ever forget this day. Yet, we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world."
Bush 2001
(Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Friday April 05 2019, @01:39PM (7 children)
Wow, for a second there I thought that speech was going to be against ICE, TSA, Homeland Security, PATRIOT act, NSA and Border Security. But then when the punch line comes (Bush), you realize that it is in support of those very evils.
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by aiwarrior on Friday April 05 2019, @01:57PM (6 children)
Sept 11 2001, was one of the most influential events of American society since WW2. They went from bold to wimps with 2 towers.
Americans always mock the French, but the truth is that they were never attacked at home like the French did (ok Pearl Harbor) for a long time. Look what 2 airplanes did to them. I wish MAGA was about the return of American values.
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Friday April 05 2019, @02:11PM (1 child)
It is true that we have sacrificed freedom for security. And we should not have.
Trying to protect American citizens is a goal. But there will always be terrorists. You cannot absolutely guarantee security. Just how "open" of a society we want to have becomes a question.
But on the topic of trading freedom for security, I will paraphrase two famous people:
"those who trade freedom for security deserve and will have neither" -- Benjamin Franklin
but a more famous and influential person once long ago said . . .
"meesa thinks weesa should grant the chancellor emergency powers" -- Jar Jar Binks
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @02:20AM
The American Colonists who dumped the crates in the Boston Tea Party. The British literally called them Terrorists, big T. I don't remember a specific link right now, but the revolutionaries were called out as terrorists for the length of the war and many years thereafter.
I find it ironic then that America has been so loose with the term terrorism in the years since, routinely using it on people we call freedom fighters, or allies one week, and then terrorists the next, before calling them friends once more (See: Rojava and the YPG/Other Kurdish groups, maybe some DO qualify, but definitely not all of them from the point of attacking civilians. If you are hitting military or political targets that is not terrorism.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @05:08PM (3 children)
Don't forget the third plane that miraculously spiraled into the one newly-reinforced side of the pentagon.
Or the forth that was taken down by the rest of the people on board.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @09:16PM
and #3 and #4 disappeared when they crashed too.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday April 06 2019, @04:21AM (1 child)
And tower #7...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @10:58AM
Lan rebuilt them.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday April 06 2019, @01:22AM
> "...Yet, we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world."
Of course by "our" he means those in high level government.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @09:45AM (1 child)
See how they like it.
Strip search in front of everyone at the airport Mr Bush?
Search and seizure of your phones and computers Ms Clinton?
What would happen if important people were harassed in the same way normal people are?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Tokolosh on Friday April 05 2019, @03:03PM
Do you think your Congressman takes off his shoes and belt for a TSA groping? Do you think he even stands in line?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @10:22AM (6 children)
Welcome to USA 2019.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday April 05 2019, @01:48PM (5 children)
> Law is what the guy with the gun says it is
No. In a dictatorship, yes. Not in a democracy.
The guy with the gun may be someone who is very much AGAINST the law. (example Ruby Ridge) Who thinks they are above the law. Above the court system. They are "free" and a law unto themselves. Except they are happy to take advantage of the things that everyone else pays for. Yet they are delusional enough to think the laws just don't apply to them. Or that they ARE the law. There is a mixture, they don't all come in a single flavor.
Here is a quote about how the law might be on one side, and the one with the weapon on the other side . . .
"Here i stand with my bayonet, there you stand with your laws. We'll see which prevails" A. Hitler
Now, where we are on the slide between democracy and dictatorship is a separate topic.
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.
(Score: 3, Touché) by shortscreen on Friday April 05 2019, @05:06PM (1 child)
that's the FBI, this is about Customs
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 06 2019, @10:20AM
Yes, but customs holds sway 100 miles in from all US borders. Think on that.
When traveling through Texas, I was stopped at such a US Customs "in country" control point. It was literally 50 or more miles from the border. In some countries, that'd be the entire country. ;P
Yet there they were, permanent check-point, guns and customs ready to search anyone they wanted. I was questioned (Are you American, what are you doing here, any drugs in your car), and allowed to pass unmolested. Well, other than the stop.
I'm astonished that US citizens allow this to stand. It's mind boggling. I hold no sway over the US, as I'm not a citizen and was only visiting -- and, if I visit China I don't complain to them about their laws either, and generally only comply.
But... that's crazy. I'd go bananas if that happened here.
(Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Friday April 05 2019, @07:25PM (2 children)
You are forgetting that the origin of the word "democracy" is "dem ah crazy!"
(Only in America)
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday April 05 2019, @08:27PM
It's true.
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @08:36PM
When the majority of the people believe in an imaginary sky-father friend that will help them out as long as they cross their fingers and whisper selected quotes from a poor translation of a 2000 yr/old bed time story, you're pretty much dealing with wackos whichever way you turn.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @11:35AM (3 children)
Gal should have been born an American citizen. If he had done that he wouldn't be treated like a barbarian trying to enter America's self-envisioned concept of Rome. But, since he did not have the foresight to be born an American, he should show the appropriate deference to the views of Emperor Limbo King who still manages to slither under the ever-lowering bar of American standards and acceptable behavior.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday April 05 2019, @01:50PM (2 children)
He could also help is case if he would simply change his skin to white and his economic status to super rich. Duh! He should have known this beforehand.
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @01:59PM (1 child)
He came from Hungary, where people normally are white.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 17 2019, @12:32PM
Only cause they tossed the brownies out after they invaded
(Score: 2) by terrab0t on Friday April 05 2019, @01:55PM (4 children)
I thought these invasive border searches were long ago established as legal. I know this is a case of a rich and influential person refusing to put up with what the rest of us have to accept, but didn’t his lawyers tell him he has no rights at the US border?
He clearly refused to provide the passcodes.
CPB may require “reasonable suspicion” to access your devices, but what constitutes reasonable suspicion is a grey area. The law is on the border agents’ side here.
Unless by some fluke the laws change to clearly respect privacy at the border (highly unlikely) we need to learn to wipe our devices before crossing it. This is beyond the capability of the average person, but the only way to protect your data from border security officers is to not have it, or any access to it, on your person.
Factory reset your phone and wipe its memory card. Wipe your laptop’s hard drive and re‐install the OS.
Don’t put anything on them until you clear customs at your destination. Wipe your devices again before you leave to travel back home.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @07:41PM
The electronic devices were the property of Apple, who as masters of international commerce should have clear and definite policy they can communicate to their employees on how to act with customs.
Anyway, the guy here refused, but he was let in without having the devices seized or searched. They just lifted his Global Entry card, whatever usefulness it may have had.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @08:43PM
Were you there? Did you hear a recording? Watch a camera feed? Interview the officers involved? Until such a time you do, your choice is between The Verge's version of the story as dictated by the government's press release and the ACLU's version which is likely on a transcription or recording rather than just Gal's account.
So, putting aside prejudice against the government or that scummy ex-Mozilla Apple turn-coat, do you think it's likely the ACLU would get involved if it wasn't for some concrete facts on their side?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @08:50PM (1 child)
I think the ACLU's differentiation is that he didn't absolutely refuse. He wanted to talk to a lawyer first to find out what his responsibilities were to his employer regarding the (his employer's) data on the device.
Frankly, given the amount of data on phones and laptops; the complexity of the law in general; that it is apparently perfectly legal for law enforcement to lie to you which means you cannot trust what they tell you; talking to lawyer first makes perfect sense.
(Score: 2) by terrab0t on Thursday April 11 2019, @12:31PM
From what I have read if you refuse to cooperate with CBP agents for any reason you can be charged, so he was in a no win situation. He had to either risk violating his responsibilities with his employer or face charges.
Again, the only way to win here is to have no sensitive data on your person. Nothing stored on your devices. Nothing accessible by your devices. Nothing printed out on dead trees.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Friday April 05 2019, @02:32PM (5 children)
So what happens these days if one goes through customs without a cell phone or laptop? Is that illegal? Or is it not even possible to get in there in the first place without using a smart phone "app"?
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday April 05 2019, @04:29PM (3 children)
Get a phone with a removable battery, ship the battery ahead of your arrival. You think they've got a spare for that particular model handy?
Alternatively...They can compel a search of the phone, but can they compel you to reassemble it if you carry it in pieces?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday April 05 2019, @05:04PM
At this point, I'm all for, having a different phone in each country. Leave my main phone at home, backup the contents somewhere, and get a new phone for every place I need it. There's compatibility issues between networks and the like anyway, so may as well get a cheapo phone when traveling to a new place. Unless, you really can't be without candy crush for a day.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by DrkShadow on Friday April 05 2019, @09:37PM
Most phones start with just the charger attached.
Will their data-sucking gear provide power as well?....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 17 2019, @12:35PM
Of course not. They will lock you up for contempt while they hunt around for spare parts to get your phone running.
Think of how many phones they have confiscated over the years.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 17 2019, @12:37PM
buy a cheap $40 phone that can only use wifi so no sim card that only has the app on it
easy
and don't tell them about your actual phone inside your laptop case
(Score: 3, Informative) by TheReaperD on Saturday April 06 2019, @10:44AM
People don't know that Osama Bin Laden was trained in terrorist tactics and human psychology by the US government. He knew that the plains would cause only a small amount of casualties and damage. However, they would cause the perfect storm of fear to cause us to turn on each other. He even made a speech about it. (I'm not putting up a link to it as I don't want to end up on a bunch of watch lists. [This, in itself, should tell you our country is broken.]) The 1% have always feared the 99% who have turned on them and killed them off in the past when their excesses became too much. (Note: Statistically their excesses exceed those before the French revolution. A fact I'm sure their advisors have made them aware of.) The problem for the 1% in the US was the general population was resistant to control to really put them under their thumbs. Bin Laden knowingly gave them an opening in 2001 to pass every oppressive wish list item made by every agency and security think tank could think of. The scene from Revenge of the Sith where they pass the 'emergency powers' to to the chancellor with the quote of "So this is how liberty dies . . . with thunderous applause." was a perfect representation of the passage the so called USA PATRIOT Act. The rumor was that Bin Laden celebrated that day as the day of his victory over the US. There's no real way to prove this as he was in hiding but, it makes sense to me. The other thing was, a bunch of the people he did kill was from the 1% club. He wounded a group that thought they were near invincible and they began a series of pointless wars against every threat real or imagined that is slowly draining us just like the Soviet Union in its end. It became that the wars were so much of their budget that they collapsed from debt. And now we're on a collision course for the same fate as the Soviets and it is just as he planned it.
We trained him well...
Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit