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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: 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?
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(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.
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