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Former Mozilla CTO Subjected to Warrantless Phone Search

posted by Fnord666 on Friday April 05 2019, @07:59AM   Printer-friendly
from the no-one-is-immune dept.

canopic jug writes:

Former Mozilla CTO Andreas Gal has filed a complaint against US customs agents for aggressive interrogation and demanding the passcodes for his phones and laptops and denying him access to an attorney. His expedited Global Entry status was revoked for allegedly refusing to comply with the search. Andreas and the ACLU are requesting an investigation into the incident. He works for Apple these days.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @08:50PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @08:50PM (#825111)

    The ACLU complaint adds that “critically, Dr. Gal never refused to provide the passcodes to access the electronic devices in his possession.”

    He clearly refused to provide the passcodes.

    I think the ACLU's differentiation is that he didn't absolutely refuse. He wanted to talk to a lawyer first to find out what his responsibilities were to his employer regarding the (his employer's) data on the device.

    Frankly, given the amount of data on phones and laptops; the complexity of the law in general; that it is apparently perfectly legal for law enforcement to lie to you which means you cannot trust what they tell you; talking to lawyer first makes perfect sense.

  • (Score: 2) by terrab0t on Thursday April 11 2019, @12:31PM

    by terrab0t (4674) on Thursday April 11 2019, @12:31PM (#827868)

    From what I have read if you refuse to cooperate with CBP agents for any reason you can be charged, so he was in a no win situation. He had to either risk violating his responsibilities with his employer or face charges.

    Again, the only way to win here is to have no sensitive data on your person. Nothing stored on your devices. Nothing accessible by your devices. Nothing printed out on dead trees.