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A Vancouver man was denied entry into the United States after a US Customs and Border Patrol officer read his profiles on the gay hookup app Scruff and the website BBRT.
[...] André, a 30-year-old Vancouver set decorator who declined to give his full name for fear of retaliation from US Customs, describes the experience as "humiliating."[He] says he was planning to visit his boyfriend, who was working in New Orleans. But when he was going through Customs preclearance at Vancouver airport last October, he was selected for secondary inspection, where an officer took his phone, computer and other possessions, and demanded the passwords for his devices.
"I didn't know what to do. I was scared, so I gave them the password and then I sat there for at least an hour or two. I missed my flight," André says. "He came back and just started grilling me. 'Is this your email?' and it was an email attached to a Craigslist account for sex ads. He asked me, 'Is this your account on Scruff? Is this you on BBRT?' I was like, 'Yes, this is me.'"
[...] "I could tell just by his nature that he had no intentions of letting me through. They were just going to keep asking me questions looking for something," he says. "So I asked for the interrogation to stop. I asked if I go back to Canada am I barred for life? He said no, so I accepted that offer."
A month later, André attempted to fly to New Orleans again. This time, he brought what he thought was ample proof that he was not a sex worker: letters from his employer, pay stubs, bank statements, a lease agreement and phone contracts to prove he intended to return to Canada.
When he went through secondary inspection at Vancouver airport, US Customs officers didn't even need to ask for his passwords — they were saved in their own system. But André had wiped his phone of sex apps, browser history and messages, thinking that would dispel any suggestion he was looking for sex work. Instead, the border officers took that as suspicious.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 5, Insightful) by charon on Monday February 27 2017, @09:10AM (9 children)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rivenaleem on Monday February 27 2017, @09:23AM (4 children)
Sure it's bad that they kept his passwords. However, what kind of idiot doesn't change their password after they are compelled to divulge them to the customs officials?
(Score: 4, Informative) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday February 27 2017, @11:57AM (2 children)
Yes, this. Also, what kind of idiot would voluntarily subject himself to that bullshit again by turning up at a US airport? 49% of US voters and the government they voted for have made their stance clear, and the rest of the world should listen:
GO AWAY. THE US DOESN'T WANT YOU DIRTY FOREIGNERS. GO SPEND YOUR TOURIST MONEY IN CANADA OR EUROPE INSTEAD.
I for one intend to listen, I see no reason to visit such an unwelcoming country.
(Score: 1) by butthurt on Monday February 27 2017, @06:23PM (1 child)
> 49% of US voters [...]
46.1% of the votes went to Mr. Trump.
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/21/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-popular-vote-final-count/index.html [cnn.com]
If that many people voted for him, it would be 19.4% of the population.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday February 27 2017, @10:46PM
> 46.1% of the votes went to Mr. Trump.
I stand corrected.
> If that many people voted for him, it would be 19.4% of the population.
Depends if you define "voters" as "people eligible to vote" or "people who actually got off their arses and voted". I intended the latter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @01:44PM
..However, what kind of idiot doesn't change their password after they are compelled to divulge them to the customs officials?
For shame you don't know, obviously one with nothing to hide/fear/whatever..
(Score: 2) by lx on Monday February 27 2017, @09:26AM (1 child)
It's terrible and wrong.
OTOH I'm disappointed that he apparently didn't change his passwords after the previous incident.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Monday February 27 2017, @11:12AM
I'm disappointed that he apparently didn't change his passwords after the previous incident.
That would have been proof he was a terrorist sex worker deviant, etc.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Monday February 27 2017, @12:29PM
Yeah, I noticed that bit alrighty. Note to self: change your passwords to temporary throwaway ones before trying to cross the border.
Did they keep his credit card numbers too? Could get the banks on his side if the customs agents did that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @02:32PM
That part did stand out to me. Granted the traveler should have changed his passwords, but it is completely unacceptable his passwords were stored. I actually think agents should not be allowed to ask for passwords, and instead ask the traveler to enter their passwords themselves. Whether requesting access to personal accounts should even be allowed is another discussion.