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from the Quis-custodiet-ipsos-custodes? dept.
Homeland Security details new tools for extracting device data at US borders:
Travelers heading to the US have many reasons to be cautious about their devices when it comes to privacy. A report released Thursday from the Department of Homeland Security provides even more cause for concern about how much data border patrol agents can pull from your phones and computers.
In a Privacy Impact Assessment dated July 30, the DHS detailed its US Border Patrol Digital Forensics program, specifically for its development of tools to collect data from electronic devices. For years, DHS and border agents were allowed to search devices without a warrant, until a court found the practice unconstitutional in November 2019.
In 2018, the agency searched more than 33,000 devices, compared to 30,200 searches in 2017 and just 4,764 searches in 2015. Civil rights advocates have argued against this kind of surveillance, saying it violates people's privacy rights.
[...] The DHS said the privacy risks of using the tools are low because only trained forensics technicians will have access to the tools, and only data relevant to investigations will be extracted.
That assurance is in stark contrast from what lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation found, after a lawsuit revealed that agents had searched through travelers' devices without any restrictions, and often for unrelated reasons like enforcing bankruptcy laws and helping outside investigations.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday August 14 2020, @03:28PM
In Portland, rioters were arrested and questioned. There is no violation of civil rights inherent in that fact. There might have been some violations of rights that weren't published. But nothing that I have seen published was an actual violation.
In this case, federal agents are clearly violating civil rights by invading your person, your papers, and your effects, without so much as due process. I oppose that, strongly.
There is a right to be secure in your person, your papers, and your effects. There is no right to throw fire bombs at federal property, no right to shine lasers into federal agent's eyes, no overarching right to riot.