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posted by martyb on Wednesday April 05 2017, @01:06PM   Printer-friendly
from the (privacy++) dept.

Four privacy-minded lawmakers have introduced legislation requiring law enforcement officials to obtain a warrant before searching phones belonging to US citizens, and prohibiting them from barring entry to Americans who decline to share their passwords at the border.

"Americans' Constitutional rights shouldn't disappear at the border," Senator Ron Wyden said in statement to BuzzFeed News. "By requiring a warrant to search Americans' devices and prohibiting unreasonable delay, this bill makes sure that border agents are focused on criminals and terrorists instead of wasting their time thumbing through innocent Americans' personal photos and other data."

[...] The bill would require law enforcement to establish probable cause before searching or seizing a phone belonging to an American. "Manual searches," in which a border agent flips through a person's stored pictures would be covered under the proposed law as well. But the bill does allow for broad emergency exceptions.

"The government should not have the right to access your personal electronic devices without probable cause," Rep. Polis told BuzzFeed news in a statement. "Whether you are at home, walking down the street, or at the border, we must make it perfectly clear that our Fourth Amendment protections extend regardless of location. This bill is overdue, and I am glad we can come together in a bicameral, bipartisan manner to ensure that Customs and Border Patrol agents don't continue to violate essential privacy safeguards."

Source: Buzzfeed


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday April 05 2017, @05:52PM (2 children)

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Wednesday April 05 2017, @05:52PM (#489245) Journal

    Since it's not mentioned in the summary, the 4 privacy minded politicians who deserve some props:

    Ron Wyden (D) - Oregon
    Rand Paul (R) - Kentucky
    Jared Polis (D) - Colorado
    Blake Farenthold (R) - Texas

    Glad to see it's bi-partisan...

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  • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Wednesday April 05 2017, @06:21PM

    by Nerdfest (80) on Wednesday April 05 2017, @06:21PM (#489259)

    That is nice to see. Also, perhaps to correct the summary, (or perhaps I'm wring): I don't think they can refuse entry to an American citizen for not providing passwords with things as they stand now, they can just be a pain in the ass, and seize and make copies of your devices. Non US citizens have always been able to be refused for any reason whatsoever. That's fine, but they really need to stop stating that they don't discriminate based of race,religion, politics, gender, etc, as that's blatantly untrue.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Kromagv0 on Wednesday April 05 2017, @07:01PM

    by Kromagv0 (1825) on Wednesday April 05 2017, @07:01PM (#489287) Homepage

    Wyden and Paul don't surprise me but I haven't heard of the other 2. Which being senators not from my state is probably a good thing since that means they likely aren't a giant flaming bags of stupid shit. This must mean that all 4 are terrorist loving alt-right commie Kenyan Muslim Klan fascists hell bent on stealing my gun, bible, and pirating copies of Batman Vs. Superman Dawn of Justice and the Hottie and the Nottie while setting up death panels and denying abortion to unborn baby whales who are suffering under global cooling. Or that is how they will be portrayed in the media shortly.

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