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from the sudden-outbreak-of-common-sense? dept.
The US Customs and Border Protection agency has updated its guidelines for electronic border searches, clarifying what remain broad and potentially invasive procedures. The directive was published today [ January 5, 2018], and it adds new detail to border search rules that were last officially updated in 2009.
Officers can still request that people unlock electronic devices for inspection when they're entering the US, and they can still look through any files or apps on those devices. But consistent with a statement from acting commissioner Kevin McAleenan last summer, they're explicitly banned from accessing cloud data — per these guidelines, that means anything that can't be accessed while the phone's data connection is disabled.
The guidelines also draw a distinction between "basic" and "advanced" searches. If officers connect to the phone (through a wired or wireless connection) and copy or analyze anything on it using external devices, that's an advanced search, and it can only be carried out with reasonable suspicion of illegal activity or a national security concern. A supervisor can approve the search, and "many factors" might create reasonable suspicion, including a terrorist watchlist flag or "other articulable factors."
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday January 09 2018, @02:56AM
The thing is, that has never applied at the border.
It has always been held as REASONABLE to search the belongings of someone entering the country. (But every country).
It may not seem reasonable to you, but you are not the one empowered to make that decision.
The only good news, indeed the only news at all here, is that they promise not to reach back through the phone to stuff you left behind in another country when you showed up at the border asking to come in.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.