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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
(Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Wednesday April 05 2017, @07:53PM (3 children)
Apparently, there's another piece of legislation in the works that would mandate all foreigners from countries such as the UK or France (or other EU member states) to hand over smart phones and social media passwords [theguardian.com] when entering the USA.
To put this in perspective of the USA'ians here: would any of you even remotely consider giving such info to the EU border patrol to enter Europe?
(Score: 2) by Justin Case on Thursday April 06 2017, @01:54AM (2 children)
If there is one tiny bit of computer security advice that has somewhat permeated the typical Luser brain it is this: never share your password with anyone for any reason. Ever!
Think about this Mr. Keystone Kop: If I give you my password, I now have deniability for anything that is done from this moment forward and appearing to have been done by me! Do you really want to destroy your Chain of Custody like that?
Sure, I get the explanation for examining anything that crosses the border. My electronics are crossing the border. Examine them all you want. My password is not crossing the border. It is not stored in my devices and it is not stored in my brain. I generate it using an algorithm. In fact, I have thousands of passwords. There's no possible chance I could remember them all.
You want me to teach you the algorithm? Are you prepared to follow in my footsteps and spend decades learning about computers? Because that is the source of the prerequisite body of knowledge. Even if I were to describe it to you, you wouldn't understand. And where do I get burdened with a proactive duty to teach you my professional skill set?
Yeah, I suppose you can confiscate my stuff, but then after you get your grubby malware-soaked mitts on it I probably don't want it back anyway.
Or... this could be so much easier... maybe I just won't take my phone across the border in the first place!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 06 2017, @03:15AM
Arguing with border guards is one way to ensure they'll make your life hell. Vindictive bastards...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday April 06 2017, @01:11PM
Step 1. Keep your phone on you all the time
Step 2. Never let your phone cross the USA border
Step 3. ...
Step 4. Profit!
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford