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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: 3, Disagree) by Bot on Friday September 14 2018, @10:20PM (3 children)
>All you defenders of Freedom and the Constitution, time to stand up for a Muslim
why not for a nazi too? Luckily not all nazi are radical ones, you know.
maybe because nazis lost the war? muzzies lost the wars too, else you'd be praising the bearded Mohammed too.
Godwin in one.
We have someone who won't unlock her phone at the border. I'd have not confiscated the phone, I'd have booted her out. And boot out her lawyer when he comes to complain, because the lawyer is a traitor. (JK, obviously the real reason is that the lawyer is a lawyer).
If I unlock the phone and the guard starts copying the data and pics, or staring at things unrelated to national security, then yes we can boot the guard abusing its power above national security concerns.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 15 2018, @05:20PM (2 children)
Unreasonable search and seizure dumbass. Guess we are finding out which machines should be scrapped.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday September 15 2018, @08:21PM (1 child)
Interesting laws, yours. I visited a bit of other countries, at the border always been searched; one time a bulky cd player made the xray operator sound the alarm and had to show what it was.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday September 17 2018, @01:29PM
I wouldn't have a problem if I had to show that a cell phone is actually a cell phone, just like your CD player is a CD player.
Once it is established that this strange blog is a cell phone, it should stop there. Nothing on the cell phone makes it any more or less dangerous as an object.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.