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A US Muslim woman whose iPhone was taken from her by US Customs and Border Protection (CPB) is suing to have her property returned. But the property in question isn't the phone itself, which was eventually returned, but the data stored on it and retained by CPB. As searches of electronic devices belonging to people entering or returning to the US continue to become more frequent, this case and others are raising important questions about what can and should be searched and retained by the US government.
According to the court documents filed by Rejhane Lazoja and her attorneys, Lazoja was returning to the US from Zurich, Switzerland on February 26th of this year. She was questioned and held by customs officers for some time and then asked to produce any electronic devices she had on hand. The agents confiscated her phone and asked her to unlock it multiple times, but Lazoja refused saying that it had photos of her in "a state of undress without her hijab" as well as sensitive communications with her lawyer. The agents ultimately kept her phone.
After 120 days, Lazoja finally got her phone back but only after involving her attorneys, one of which told Ars Technica that federal authorities had "forensically cracked" her phone and copied what was on it before returning it. But as the court documents note, officials have never given any reasons for why the phone was seized in the first place. "Seizing and searching a cell phone is unlike seizing or searching any other property," the complaint states. "Cell phones are a uniquely intimate and expansive repository of our lives. They do far more than just make calls and send emails; they monitor and log much of our movement, activity and even our thinking in real time."
Source: https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/25/us-customs-lawsuit-copied-iphone-data/
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Friday September 14 2018, @05:21PM (13 children)
Electronics searches of all kinds are already widely disliked here.
Warrantless Cell Phone Searches - SCOTUS to Decide [soylentnews.org]
Laptop Border Search Ruled Unreasonable [soylentnews.org]
New Bill Would Outlaw Warrantless Phone Searches At The Border [soylentnews.org]
U.S. Border Seizures of DMCA Circumvention Devices Surges [soylentnews.org]
Fourth Circuit Rules That Suspicionless Border Searches of Electronic Devices Are Unconstitutional [soylentnews.org]
The religion or gender of the person being searched does not matter. But keep on trolling if it makes you feel better.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @05:36PM (7 children)
It isn't trolling, it is calling out people who would normally shit all over the CPB for violations of the 4th amendment but who, like you, will likely just shit out an obligated bunch of crap. If the religion or gender don't matter you'd have no problem with my statement or be upset about it being "trolling". The simple truth is there is a large amount of cognitive dissonance amongst the "defenders of freedom" around here and you are only re-affirming it with your defensive attitude.
Guess I should have waited for the thread to fill up with everyone except the usual suspects, or even "better" waited for those same users to post semi-defensive garbage because scurrry muslim terrorists need to be properly "vetted" or some shit. Too bad, I poisoned the well so we'll never know now.
Interesting side note, all the examples you linked are conspicuously missing the various users I expected to see there except Runaway. Though I wasn't including Runaway so much in the above statements, he seems like a misguided but possibly decent human. Just too much 50's propaganda stuffed in that old cantaloupe.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Friday September 14 2018, @05:42PM (3 children)
The only one shitting up the place is you, so far.
At least you got one thing right.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @06:16PM (1 child)
Nah, you've added your own little shitposts. The adult thing to do if you really didn't like my comment would have been to just mod it down, instead you felt the need to get defensive.
Take a good long look at yourself boy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @06:31PM
I think what we need here is to pass around a joint.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @06:30PM
I agree with Takyon. Fuck that AC trying to start yet another partisan fight on here. What a pussy. Takyon your posts were great, and you had evidence! That little shit couldn't even dredge up a few articles to make his point, probably just another triggered millenial snowflake upset because he got modded down.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by shortscreen on Friday September 14 2018, @07:30PM (2 children)
The level of debate on this topic isn't too heated at this point because there isn't anyone advocating the other side. Post your own article about how the CPB is doing great work and how we need to harass even more people at the border for great justice. You might get some pushback.
What's going on at the border is not new and has already been condemned by everyone with a brain. Unfortunately it persists because "nothing to hide nothing to fear" and "just doing their jobs" and because the US is a police state. [policestateusa.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @09:37PM (1 child)
some do understand it, and appreciate what they are doing. Just most of us wont post about it since its an unpopular position to take.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @09:44PM
Ugh, this site really IS infested with you authoritarians. You trade the illusion of safety for the real loss of freedom. God damn no wonder this country is fucked right now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @07:41PM (4 children)
It's disliked, but US customs has had "customary" authority for aeons to control items entering the country. I don't think anyone has the obligation to unlock things for them, nor that the items should not be returned after there has been no determination of being contraband.
This is the second time I heard today about muslims returning to the US being asked to surrender media on entry to the country. The first person was a green card holder who refused to surrender his wedding DVDs; customs physically confiscated his green card and put him on the next plane back. I'm guessing there is a program to collect information of people outside of the US, who US based muslims interact with.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday September 15 2018, @12:17AM (3 children)
This woman is an American citizen.
What happens when someone shows up with a properly encrypted phone or laptop? Does the info collection hit a brick wall, or do they get charged with a crime?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 15 2018, @01:58AM
This authority of customs is independent of citizenship. Being a US citizen means they can't deny your person entry.
What if the laptop was encrypted? Just like in this case, they can try to decrypt it, but eventually they will have to return anything that is not contraband.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 15 2018, @07:20AM
They hold you at the border until you give them the keys.
Then they start making up charges. Such as overstaying your visa.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday September 15 2018, @08:39PM
>This woman is an American citizen.
This makes a difference for the letter of the law probably. As national security goes, though, the guys driving vans into people are citizens of those same countries.
Of course I am making a logic mistake in considering your government interested in actual security, which is yet to be proved for many political entities nowadays.
Account abandoned.