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Fourth Circuit Rules That Suspicionless Border Searches of Electronic Devices Are Unconstitutional

posted by Fnord666 on Monday May 14 2018, @10:09AM   Printer-friendly
from the sudden-outbreak-of-common-sense dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

In a victory for privacy rights at the border, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit today ruled that forensic searches of electronic devices carried out by border agents without any suspicion that the traveler has committed a crime violate the U.S. Constitution.

The ruling in U.S. v. Kolsuz is the first federal appellate case after the Supreme Court's seminal decision in Riley v. California (2014) to hold that certain border device searches require individualized suspicion that the traveler is involved in criminal wrongdoing. Two other federal appellate opinions this year—from the Fifth Circuit and Eleventh Circuit—included strong analyses by judges who similarly questioned suspicionless border device searches.

Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/05/fourth-circuit-rules-suspicionless-forensic-searches-electronic-devices-border-are

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 14 2018, @10:22PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 14 2018, @10:22PM (#679797)

    Here's the problem with that argument: Most people don't cross the border with a blank empty phone, and empty laptop, and especially one with no SIM in it.

    That you don't have anything on your phone or laptop whatsoever will be more suspicious to them than if you did. A missing SIM especially is likely to get you lots of special attention. They might not do anything to you, but they can detain you for secondary screening and questioning and you will go into a database as someone to be watched, and not just when you're at the border.

    Far better to have a temp SIM in it and a few meaningless contacts and a couple of games. You also will have the SAME SIM in it as you come back across the border as well. For bonus points, go ahead and use that phone at least once or twice / have it connected to their networks. Swap SIMs for anything you deem truly important, although then you run the risk of associating your IMEI with multiple SIMs - again a red flag if anyone is watching for that unless you must change SIMs with that phone. Then throw the phone away if you're not a frequent international traveler. Better to carry a dummy burner phone than to attract attention with "No I don't have no SIM because I'll buy one when I get there."