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US-Born NASA Scientist Detained At The Border Until He Unlocked His Phone (theverge.com)

Sidd Bikkannavar works at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. After racing solar-powered cars in Chile, he had trouble returning to America. mspohr quote The Verge: Bikkannavar says he was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and pressured to give the Customs and Border Protection agents his phone and access PIN. Since the phone was issued by NASA, it may have contained sensitive material that wasn't supposed to be shared. Bikkannavar's phone was returned to him after it was searched by CBP, but he doesn't know exactly what information officials might have taken from the device...

The officer also presented Bikkannavar with a document titled "Inspection of Electronic Devices" and explained that CBP had authority to search his phone. Bikkannavar did not want to hand over the device, because it was given to him by JPL and is technically NASA property. He even showed the officer the JPL barcode on the back of phone. Nonetheless, CBP asked for the phone and the access PIN. "I was cautiously telling him I wasn't allowed to give it out, because I didn't want to seem like I was not cooperating," says Bikkannavar. "I told him I'm not really allowed to give the passcode; I have to protect access. But he insisted they had the authority to search it."

While border agents have the right to search devices, The Verge reports that travelers aren't legally required to unlock their phones, "although agents can detain them for significant periods of time if they do not." They also report that Bikkannavar "was not allowed to leave until he gave CBP his PIN," adding that the cybersecurity team at JPL "was not happy about the breach."

627 comments

  1. Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by ghoul · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And by him I mean the CBP officer guilty of breach of national security.

    --
    **Life is too short to be serious**
    1. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by dougdonovan · · Score: 0

      if he had any credentials he would have secret service escorts or just call the president, if not, deal with it.

    2. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He should have refused and let NASA and border patrol battle it out. It would have been interesting to see which govt agency trumps the other.

    3. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by misexistentialist · · Score: 3, Funny

      Should get a medal, revealed this scientist to be weak.

    4. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by wvmarle · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ... and sit in jail himself waiting for the results?

    5. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      And by him I mean the CBP officer guilty of breach of national security.

      That's what I thought.
      I see the possibility of a CPB officer taking bribes (or blackmail) from a foreign entity, (government or business) to copy the phones of people who may have access to interesting things. So many are already on the payroll of drug runners.

    6. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So then you have no problem with border agents forcing your daughters and wives to unlock their phones so they can do through them? There could be private pictures on the phones and could get copied and stored.

      No crime was committed and they shouldn't be able to search our digital devices without a proper warrant.

    7. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      That doesn't make any sense at all. You don't get a secret service escort just because you have a security clearance. I was a radar repairer in the Army and had a TS clearance, frequently travelled with classified radar schematics. They didn't dispatch the damn secret service just to escort me from one post to another. That's not how it works. Where in the world would you even get that bizarre idea?

    8. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That's not how border security works. They don't need a warrant. The courts have decided this.

      There was nothing illegal that happened here.

    9. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      For visitors, this is true. But for citizens it gets to be a lot more difficult. It's well understood that as a citizen, they cannot for any reason refuse you entry to the country. They can arrest you the second you enter, but they can't refuse citizens entry. After all, where will they send you if they don't allow you entry? And once they arrest you, all standard constitutional rights are now active. Your warrant claim is only tested for foreigners.

    10. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by TWX · · Score: 1

      That doesn't make any sense.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    11. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      These are basic Trumped up politics. The constitution applies to them, especially the second amendment, but not to you.

    12. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No. As a citizen, you cannot be denied entry and forced to fly back out to another country, but that doesn't mean that you cannot be detained or arrested for failing to follow an officer's orders.

    13. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's a clear violation of the constitution to conduct baseless, warrantless searches like that, border or not.
      I don't give a shit if the courts have said it's okay. The courts used to say slavery was okay.

    14. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by frovingslosh · · Score: 2

      That was my thought too, but I was thinking lock away the supposed scientist that just let some oaf bully him into giving up access to a JPL phone that might have had important security related information on it. The oaf will never learn and will continue to enjoy playing the bully, but people need to learn not to give in to them.

      --
      I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    15. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by OhPlz · · Score: 2

      Stand for something or stand for nothing.

    16. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Joseph Stalin, is that you?

    17. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I knew it! If a million of you typed crap, odds are something legible would occur. Thanks for proving this true!

    18. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by wvmarle · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I believe he did the smart thing, and probably the best when it comes to making a stand.

      Under protest unlock the phone, get it done, then report the incident to his employer (as breach of security - employer being NASA has a bit more standing) and report to the press (allowing for public outrage to ensue).

      This way he has a fair chance of getting a lot of attention for the case - and it appears it worked, at least the story made it onto /.. If instead he had been held in jail at the border, it may have been a lot harder to get the story out quickly. Now the end result is the same (the story is out & hopefully NASA is enraged over the breach of security, more so than had he stayed in jail and they had gotten him out a week later without the phone having been unlocked), without him having to suffer unduly.

    19. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by pegr · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The officer may be guilty of misrepresentation, but I blame NASA for not telling folks how to handle a NASA phone. CITIZENS have no requirement to answer any questions or facilitate a search. Leave the phone and keep walking.

    20. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Sam36 · · Score: 0, Troll

      Actually jail is not that bad. I kind of wish I could go there to take a vacation sometimes. A quite place to read books, cooked meals 3x a day. Better than life with my wife :/

    21. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Divorce. It is hard but well worth it if you are living in hell.

    22. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      TV. 100% TV.

      You'll notice that the various 'agents' in all those TV shows never spend more than a few minutes or timeskipped-hours in jail before orders from above completely clear them. They never get shot for having a gun found on them while they were black, they certainly don't get taken somewhere where the cameras are off and getting beaten for "falsely" declaring that the uniformed goons literally do not have the authorization or right to confiscate their things, and nobody ever trashes the electronics or runs off with the hard-drive.

      It's fiction, after all.

    23. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd rather not force the issue of science vs police state. We might not like the outcome.

    24. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So the US is basically like any other dictatorship now. I hope other nations start treating you the same way. Trade? No thanks.

    25. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Z00L00K · · Score: 1

      Not sure if that's a national security issue when it comes to NASA/JPL.

      It would be a lot more fun if he was employed by NSA.

      At least this now highlights that anyone traveling to the US should use "dumb" phones instead, preferably some old device with obscure hardware interface. There's no rule that you have to use a standardized phone interface. Ancient mobile phones are already expensive as collectors items.

      Or if enough people deny the border control access to their devices and they are held for investigation that could also be fun - the authorities have to house them and feed them. After a while it would rack up a stink, both literally and politically.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    26. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Plus, you get to be someone else's wife!

    27. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lock away the security officer AND scientist, and let me buy stocks in the prison! Free labour yay!

    28. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by cyber-vandal · · Score: 2

      Have you actually been to jail?

    29. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NASA more standing than the oldest US LEO?

    30. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by vipw · · Score: 2

      Then maybe we should change the law.

    31. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Have you actually met his wife?

    32. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by mwvdlee · · Score: 1

      He was just following orders given by a treasonous boss.

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    33. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That doesn't make any sense.

      Good base for a career in politics.

    34. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by mwvdlee · · Score: 2

      You judge people by what you know.
      GP seems to judge scientists by their (un)willingness to throw a temper tantrum.

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    35. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Smart? He'll lose his job. "You know where it says in your contract you are to say 'I am reeeeeally not supposed to unlock my phone, but...' and then you unlock your phone? Yeah, I don't see that either."

    36. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That CBP officer was only following orders.

      That isn't to say he doesn't belong in gitmo... just that, those who gave those orders are also in dire need of some enhanced interrogation there with him.

    37. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      more sex too.

    38. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Bongo · · Score: 1

      At least this now highlights that anyone traveling to the US should use "dumb" phones instead, preferably some old device with obscure hardware interface.

      I'm planning a visit to USA just as soon as I finish converting my data to binary smoke signals gathered into a jar.

      Besides, as far as I can tell, USA became a great nation largely due to a lot of enterprising migrants coming to take advantage of vast natural resources, from places like tired old Europe. And that's great. And I'm sure China is still kicking itself for those emperors who decide that China was "the world" and the rest of the planet was just wastelands of barbarians, not fit to even explore. North America could have been colonised by China. Like, wow.

      And I get it that it was largely the excesses of extreme PostModern culture which have made much of the core of USA say, f**k it, let's vote in someone who manifestly is NOT infected with PoMo, and oh look this guy keeps spouting racist stuff, great he's definitely not PC, let's vote for him! Thank you France and Germany for extreme PoMo which so successfully infected USA's academia. Thank you alt-left liberals and extreme reverse-colonialism and extreme catastrophic global warming predictions and extreme anti-prosperity consciousness and all that. Yep, the opportunity was created, and the first opportunist con-man took advantage.

      Be that all as it may, one would really hope that border security would be a boring, mundane, technocratic, "do what works and what's efficient" undertaking, free of all that cultural wars stuff. It should be as interesting as plumbing or basket weaving. But instead, y'all seem to have turned it into this politicised pork contracts and hyperbole about stopping terrorists, and brown people, and it is like WTF, you'd expect that from--with all due respect to a small undeveloped African nation who setup the president's nephew as Supreme Director of National Borders to run the system, with consequent hilarity of obnoxious and silly rules, like the time my mom was told she had to change from her trousers into a skirt because women are not supposed to wear trousers (name of small African nation redacted)--but here we have king of silly rules as none other than the greatest nation on earth. Wow.

    39. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by geekmux · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I believe he did the smart thing, and probably the best when it comes to making a stand.

      Under protest unlock the phone, get it done, then report the incident to his employer (as breach of security - employer being NASA has a bit more standing) and report to the press (allowing for public outrage to ensue).

      This way he has a fair chance of getting a lot of attention for the case - and it appears it worked, at least the story made it onto /.. If instead he had been held in jail at the border, it may have been a lot harder to get the story out quickly. Now the end result is the same...

      When an individuals actions make the difference between a breach of security happening vs. not happening, I'd say the end result is not the same. I'm thinking NASA would agree, since they're the ones forced to do an investigation and assess impact right now over the transfer of sensitive information to unauthorized persons, which absolutely happened.

      Sadly, based on policy, the person responsible for allowing a data leak to happen could now face considerable punishment. For his sake, let's hope that common sense prevails and his employer realizes the only entity truly responsible for this breach and coercion against a US Citizen is the US Government.

    40. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by realxmp · · Score: 3, Interesting

      NASA more standing than the oldest US LEO?

      That is a possibility, some areas of NASA's research is more important to national security than protecting the borders from dodgy porn or similar. The exact nature of certain valving arrangements on liquid fuel rockets might be of interest to North Korea for example. Or some of their more advanced jet propulsion research might be of interest to Russia. The thing is that customs officer had no real good reason to search the phone and plenty of reasons why he shouldn't. Even if he did have the legal right to do it, it might not be the sensible thing to do.

    41. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by wvmarle · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Sadly, based on policy, the person responsible for allowing a data leak to happen could now face considerable punishment.

      So now it's getting interesting. NASA forbids him to reveal the PIN code (and let's assume there's a law in place that underpins this).

      The border inspection requires him to unlock it (and for the sake of the argument, let's just assume they have the legal right to do so - I'm sure the immigration official told the guy so, and being an authority figure, the scientist has or at least should have no reason to doubt this).

      The result of this is that one law requires something another law forbids. Talking about being caught between a rock and a hard place!

    42. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Joce640k · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's not how border security works. They don't need a warrant. The courts have decided this.

      There was nothing illegal that happened here.

      Even if you're a returning US citizen?

      This word "freedom". I don't think you (or most of the USA) knows what it means even though you spend your entire lives repeating it.

      --
      No sig today...
    43. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Joce640k · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Papieren, bitte!

      --
      No sig today...
    44. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The question is not: is it illegal. The question is: is it immoral.

    45. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You post this because you hate yourself. It's OK. We hate you too.

    46. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Ihlosi · · Score: 3, Informative
      Even if you're a returning US citizen?

      The only benefit that US citizenship has in this situation that they can't put you on the next flight back to where you came from. But they can still give you the special search treatment.

    47. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by geekmux · · Score: 1

      Sadly, based on policy, the person responsible for allowing a data leak to happen could now face considerable punishment.

      So now it's getting interesting. NASA forbids him to reveal the PIN code (and let's assume there's a law in place that underpins this).

      The border inspection requires him to unlock it (and for the sake of the argument, let's just assume they have the legal right to do so - I'm sure the immigration official told the guy so, and being an authority figure, the scientist has or at least should have no reason to doubt this).

      The result of this is that one law requires something another law forbids. Talking about being caught between a rock and a hard place!

      Yes, it's one hell of a Catch-22. It will become very interesting once corporations adopt self-destructing MDM policies that automatically wipe the phone after X number of failed PIN attempts, as employees might be inclined to do exactly that to protect company data in situations where coercion is being introduced.

    48. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Type44Q · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You're likely confusing jail with prison; a lot of adult males, even those with clean records, have spent a couple hours in jail at one point or another. This is especially true in the hospitable, Christian and open-minded South (sic).

    49. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And all of those things are highly export restricted. A random JPL employee isnt carrying the keys to the castle on his cell phone. If he is, he fucked up.

    50. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why does everything have to devolve into 'outrage' and people/organizations being 'enraged'.

      GITMO? Seriously?

      That really is an extreme reaction to something that is more or less a minor inconvenience given that he shouldn't have highly sensitive data on a portable device that is owned by the same government that searched it.

    51. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > I believe he did the smart thing

      I'm not so sure about this. At the very least, NASA should fire him immediately, and FBI and NSA should investigate him for possible complicity and conspiracy to compromise government secrets.

    52. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Traditionally, when caught between two laws, or law and company policy, or two company policies, the only result is that the employee is in the wrong.

      No matter what happens, one's superiors always somehow end up in the clear, because YOU are the one who breached the rules or the law. You're a scapegoat before anything ever even happened, just waiting for your butcher turn.

    53. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Gilgaron · · Score: 3, Informative

      That isn't remotely true, you don't even get a fun badge or anything with security credentials

    54. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Gilgaron · · Score: 2

      If the work phone can get into the company network, and it is compromised, then the company network is compromised... of course he doesn't have that crap on his phone, but the TSA can make you open your laptop too.

    55. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A civil contract cannot ask you to do anything illegal and someone cannot ask you to break civil contract unless what you're doing is illegal. If the border agent had the legal power to ask and not following instructions would be deemed illegal, then Mr NASA is fine. If the border agent did not have the legal power, then Mr NASA could sue them for coercing him into breaking a civil contract, assuming he can show damages. The simplest way would be for NASA to show 'damages' and to sue for the full market value of whatever secret information was on the phone or to which the phone had access.

    56. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If a policeman tells you to run a red light then gives you a ticket for running that red light it isn't a crime. If he was under duress by an authority to violate his agreement with NASA, management would be idiots to reprimand him for unlocking his phone. The court case would be over in 10 seconds.

    57. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by SharpFang · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Not "after X number of PIN attempts" but after entering the "Wipe me" special PIN.

      The officer has no means of discerning if the number they received is the one that unlocks the phone or one that wipes it.

      There's even a milder option: Plausible Deniability sandbox. A special PIN that gives access to the phone in "guest mode", unlocks it to something that looks just like a generic phone content of a random citizen, while the real content remains hidden.

      --
      45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    58. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by SharpFang · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Nope, you're not getting it.

      Scientist X is in the process of being cleared for carrying secret data.

      Scientist X is handed bogus data package, informed the data is secret and not to be revealed.

      Agent Y performs an illegal search; operation one might expect from an enemy agent, because law-abiding agents of USA would never breach the law.

      Agent Y pressures scientist X to reveal the secret content.

      If scientist X bows to the pressure and reveals the content, he's deemed unfit to handle genuine secret data. Agent Y did his work right; no actual secret data was revealed, but the weak link was identified and will be eliminated from the process.

      If scientist X successfully resists the search, he is deemed fit to handle genuine secret data.

      -----------------

      Of course we all know it's total bullshit. But one can still dream.

      --
      45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    59. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm, notify the border patrol that you work for a national-security-level organization (and in this case a *government* agency *and* well-known), and that you will provide the PIN, but you *must* phone them first to notify of the potential breach of security. Get the full identification of the officers involved. Phone, explain, give all details of the officers involved, and wait for clearance to give up the PIN to border patrol.

      You will wait for a while. But the officers in place will shit pepper bricks until the answering phone call happens either giving you permission, or telling them off.

      Do note that, if the people at your gov. agency decides to remotely-wipe the phone *before* border patrol messes with it, you might end up in jail for days while the red-paper cleans up... ugh. but you won't be out of a job. Unless you were not supposed to get anywhere near a border with that phone on you, that is.

      Note: if NASA has typical operational procedures for hardware security, border patrol caused the need for destruction of that phone. Once it is handled by someone below the required security clearance, it must be disposed of as it might have been tampered with.

    60. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by sh00z · · Score: 1

      A civil contract cannot ask you to do anything illegal and someone cannot ask you to break civil contract unless what you're doing is illegal. If the border agent had the legal power to ask and not following instructions would be deemed illegal, then Mr NASA is fine. If the border agent did not have the legal power, then Mr NASA could sue them for coercing him into breaking a civil contract, assuming he can show damages. The simplest way would be for NASA to show 'damages' and to sue for the full market value of whatever secret information was on the phone or to which the phone had access.

      It's not a civil contract. NASA employees take the same Oath of Office as the President (changing only "to the office which I am appointed"). There are no conditions under which "not following instructions" in this case could be deemed illegal.

    61. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by jarlsberg71 · · Score: 1

      I've often thought about having a "Sandbox" PIN. It might have access to the phone and the camera, and maybe a dummy camera-roll, but any VPN apps or other internal software is kept in another box. It would be great for companies that allow people to BYOD.

      --
      E8B8B
    62. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by geekmux · · Score: 1

      Hmm, notify the border patrol that you work for a national-security-level organization (and in this case a *government* agency *and* well-known), and that you will provide the PIN, but you *must* phone them first to notify of the potential breach of security. Get the full identification of the officers involved. Phone, explain, give all details of the officers involved, and wait for clearance to give up the PIN to border patrol.

      You will wait for a while. But the officers in place will shit pepper bricks until the answering phone call happens either giving you permission, or telling them off.

      This is actually a sound tactic, but often people crossing borders are dealing with a time-sensitive schedule, and such an action may create quite a delay which the traveler cannot afford. To bolster the policy, perhaps corporations need to also reimburse their employees for any additional expense incurred when protecting sensitive company information.

      Note: if NASA has typical operational procedures for hardware security, border patrol caused the need for destruction of that phone. Once it is handled by someone below the required security clearance, it must be disposed of as it might have been tampered with.

      I highly doubt the requisite cellular device held classified information, which protecting classified data becomes far more black and white in this case. This is likely a device that is authorized to carry highly sensitive corporate information, so security clearances may not be as much a factor as simply an unauthorized person handling company data. The real impact with dealing with CBP will be any additional federal security mandates that impose protections that are similar to protecting classified information with regards to disclosure. Again, very ironic that our Government is wanting to violate their own laws for the sake of the War on Terror.

    63. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by silentcoder · · Score: 1

      Considering the POTUS's past NASA comments and ethno-nationalist views on border security - I fear NASA would lose.

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    64. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by nedlohs · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Said scientist is not allowed to reveal the pass code to anyone. Scientist did reveal the pass code to someone. Thus scientist has shown themselves as incapable of handling sensitive documents.

      He caved after being to US border control and handed over the information because they threatened to detain him for a while if he didn't. Do you think he might cave if some other country made much more serious threats while he was outside of the US?

      A temper tantrum has nothing to do with anything.

    65. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No matter under what circunstances, he should not have given the PIN. Period.

      He was born in the US. He cannot be deported. At some point, they will have to let him into the country even if under arrest. When that happens, contact NASA and a lawyer and let them sort it out.

      Seriously. If you are given confidential information, you should not allow it to leak. No excuses!

    66. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Pascoea · · Score: 1

      allowing for public outrage to ensue

      There will be no outrage. There will be no hearings. There will be no condemnation. There will be no repercussions. Do you know why? Because having the name "Sidd Bikkannavar" sounds like he's brown. And the general public is scared of brown people because of Terrorism(TM). And we need to have more "National Security" to save us from the brown people.

      Doing a quick search of his name, the 1st page of Google comes up with The Verge, Gizmodo, Mic, IBI Times, Mashable, and The Wrap carrying the story, and a link to his Facebook where he says he was detained. Notably missing from this list, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, NPR, etc. etc. It looks like the first one to print the article was The Verge, over 20 hours ago. If the "big guys" were going to make a stink about this they would have already.

    67. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do any of you think President Orange-skin Potato-head cares what NASA thinks? He's probably ready to promote that agent to assistant secretary of homeland secrecy.

      Given that Dr. Bikkannar's name wasn't Smith or Jones, they probably were expecting him to hand over a green card when he was re-entering. I agree that last sentence is completely short-sighted and idiotic, but that's par for the course with an administration that lives in a realm of "alternative facts" and tries to alter reality as much as it can match its desires. The absurd is becoming a daily course of action for this president and his cabal.

    68. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Traditionally, you've never been as highly valued as a NASA scientist, so your experience as a worthless little worker drone is completely different.

    69. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by wvmarle · · Score: 1

      So what Trump claims about the big media not reporting about important events is true. Never thought anything he said would turn out to be true.

    70. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't get a secret service escort just because you have a security clearance.

      The secret service escorts probably need to have security clearance themselves. If having a clearance implied the necessity of an escort, would two escorts be enough or would there need to be an infinite number of them?

    71. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by ghoul · · Score: 2

      Nurenberg has it as settled law. Just following orders is not an excuse. Illegal order have to be disobeyed (like the acting Attorney General did) or you are equally guilty.

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    72. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by TWX · · Score: 2

      And the counter-argument to this is that he knows his research, and someone working for a civilian entity he knows the difference between what's been declared sensitive and what's actually sensitive based on cooperation with the ESA, with Russia, etc, so while he makes his objections he does not push them full-bore because he knows that there's nothing truly secret there.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    73. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by dnaumov · · Score: 1

      That's not how border security works. They don't need a warrant. The courts have decided this.

      There was nothing illegal that happened here.

      Even if you're a returning US citizen?

      This word "freedom". I don't think you (or most of the USA) knows what it means even though you spend your entire lives repeating it.

      Yes, even if you are a US citizen and yes, the "border" means up to 100km from actual border.

    74. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Ecuador · · Score: 1

      Where in the world would you even get that bizarre idea?

      In his mom's basement obviously.

      --
      Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
    75. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Archtech · · Score: 0

      Comply and conform.

      Fuck off and die.

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    76. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by The-Ixian · · Score: 1

      All CBP has to do is subject everyone to the same procedure and this wouldn't be the problem that it is.

      Just search everyone's phone and give everyone the same light CBP touch.

      --
      My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
    77. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He should have refused and let NASA and border patrol battle it out. It would have been interesting to see which govt agency trumps the other.

      I saw what you did there.

    78. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Jason+Levine · · Score: 2

      Here's the map of those "border zones."

      Note that only 13 states don't have a portion of them within the zone and many states have all or most of their area within the border zone. For example, all of Maine is in the border zone. If you live in Maine, theoretically you could have your car searched without a warrant at any time because you're within 100 miles of the border. I live in NY and it's hard to tell for sure on the map, but I think I live barely outside of the zone. Still, most of New York State is within the zone including all of New York City.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    79. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Jason+Levine · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And the sad thing is, why couldn't a potential terrorist do this also? Give a fake social media account filled with nothing but liked cat videos and posts about how wonderful it is that Beyonce is pregnant. Give a PIN code that unlocks the phone into "totally not a terrorist user" mode with a browser history of innocuous searches, a bunch of games (e.g. Angry Birds), and other completely normal content. Then, when the border guard lets them in, unlock the phone into "secret evil terrorist" mode.

      NOTE: I'm not in favor of what the NASA scientist was put through. Just pointing out that, even in the face of someone arguing "we need this to keep us safe," this doesn't make sense since it could be sidestepped so easily.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    80. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Jason+Levine · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Trump is like a stopped clock. Occasionally, he says something true, but the reason why he said the thing and the reason why it's true are completely different.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    81. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The courts used to say slavery was okay.

      What SO-CALLED judge said it's not? I'LL SEE YOU IN COURT! Fake News!

    82. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by fgouget · · Score: 2

      So now it's getting interesting. NASA forbids him to reveal the PIN code (and let's assume there's a law in place that underpins this).

      With NASA being a government agency it's possible there is a law but it still seems unlikely. I'd rather expect it to be part of his employment contract or a related NDA (non-disclosure agreement). Then it's not two laws being at odds, it's a contract and a law. It seems like the law should prevail, but should it really?

      Let's say a Boeing employee travels to France and a border officer there requires that he provides the password for his professional phone. Should he hand it over? Wouldn't every American accuse the French government of being in cahoots with Airbus and thus argue that the Boeing employee's NDA trumps (the hypothetical) French law?

      I think what this shows is that we don't want border officers to have unlimited search powers.

    83. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by JeffOwl · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes, you can say that, but it doesn't matter what you, or me, or anyone else here who isn't on the SCOTUS think. The Supreme Court of the United States is the ultimate arbiter of what is and what is not constitutional. Once they say it is, it is, until they come back later and say it isn't. This is part of the basis for the debate between the strict constitution types and the living document types.

    84. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by MitchDev · · Score: 0

      Be nice, but America, like most other nations, is turning into a terror-state when the government doesn't give a flying fuck about citizens and their rights.

    85. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by MitchDev · · Score: 1

      "Freedom" and "Democracy"

      The plutocrats have America in their grip and aren't about to let go

    86. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let's just consider the phone the same as a briefcase (which strangely, courts have NOT done).
      LEOs have the right to ASK you to open the briefcase [unlock the phone], but they don't have the right to MAKE you do so.

    87. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by slashrio · · Score: 1

      Nein, nein!
      Das muss sein: "(Sieg Heil!) Ausweiss bitte!"
      Uebrigens, I think it's already breach of security to bring a NASA phone with sensitive data out of the country.
      One is supposed to know the law, and law says that phones can be searched upon entry in the USA.
      And how about entry in Chile, can't it be searched their also?
      No, bad idea to have brought that phone without at least removing the sensitive data.

      --
      "Trump!!", the new Godwin.
    88. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by jbrown.za · · Score: 1

      ... but you *must* phone them first to notify of the potential breach of security. Get the full identification of the officers involved. Phone, explain, give all details of the officers involved, and wait for clearance to give up the PIN to border patrol ...

      I don't see any TSA agent having the patience to allow you to do this. From my experience, any attempt to rationally discuss a "request" is met with a very heavy handed response.

    89. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by wvmarle · · Score: 1

      LOL very well said.

    90. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And legal ones have to be ignored when it exposes people in power (like a previous presidential nominee)

    91. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's well understood that as a citizen, they cannot for any reason refuse you entry to the country.

      Yet.

      Although does a re-route to Guantanamo count as "entering the USA?"

    92. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by slashrio · · Score: 1

      'the Acting Attorney General' was a hypocrite. Any 'good' AG should have resigned 'du moment' Schwarz died.

      --
      "Trump!!", the new Godwin.
    93. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by MitchDev · · Score: 1

      Simple solution, do NOT place classified info on phones or computers that are traveling out of the country and coming back in. Or ship them freight instead.

      The government (both parties) couldn't have been happier with 9/11 allowing them to push the police state to the extent they have, and it's only going to get worse...

    94. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's even a milder option: Plausible Deniability sandbox. A special PIN that gives access to the phone in "guest mode", unlocks it to something that looks just like a generic phone content of a random citizen, while the real content remains hidden.

      That doesn't work, you end up chasing a platypus around New York and getting drug into elaborate plots.

    95. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You've conflated TSA with CBP.

    96. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by SharpFang · · Score: 1

      It's not nearly as contrived. Think of a multi-user phone, one shared between two people. The user is chosen transparently, by PIN and can't access the other user's files unless specifically shared.

      --
      45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    97. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...in which case they'd be charged with obstruction and destruction of evidence. No easy out here.

    98. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      ACLU needs to update their map. Didn't CBP declare 100 miles around international airports to also be "border zones".

    99. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by FacePlant · · Score: 1

      For your scenario to play out, either the NASA network allows devices to connect without the use of a VPN, or this guy's VPN client does not require him to manually authenticate each time. That's a much bigger story than border guards haras citizen due to non-waspy name.

      --
      My Heart Is A Flower
    100. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by cellocgw · · Score: 4, Informative

      You've clearly never actually read a security agreement document. At least for civilians, any threat of harm to one's self or family is sufficient cause to relinquish the classified material to whomever is making the threat.
      Personally, the thought of having to spend more time with a Wyatt-Earp-Syndrome border guard thug meets my threshold of "harm" . Just state that you're giving up the materials unwillingly under threat, and at least in theory you're in the clear.

      --
      https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
    101. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except he was a US government employee that was on official US government travel and the phone in question is US government property. As such, he is not acting in the capacity of a private citizen. While I don't like the way this played out, I honestly don't think CBP was wrong in this case (they WOULD be wrong if any of the original statement was invalid though...)

    102. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm, notify the border patrol that you work for a national-security-level organization (and in this case a *government* agency *and* well-known), and that you will provide the PIN, but you *must* phone them first to notify of the potential breach of security. Get the full identification of the officers involved. Phone, explain, give all details of the officers involved, and wait for clearance to give up the PIN to border patrol.

      I have a SECRET security clearance because I work for DoD. I didn't bother to RTFA (does anyone do that anymore?) but I have at least a couple of problems with this story as I see it. First, what the hell is this guy doing crossing a border with a device that may contain sensitive information? That, alone, is going to give his boss major heartburn; I sure hope he had all the proper paperwork filled out before he went on this trip. Unless there are truly unusual circumstances, he should have sent the phone on ahead of him through a courier service that is authorized to handle classified information. Also, if the phone really does have sensitive information on it, he should under no circumstances give that over to anyone who does not have the proper clearance and need to know. Inconvenience and delay to his schedule be damned. The proper thing to do is to call the boss and ask for guidance. Bottom line, this story sounds fishy to me, like it is designed to elicit an emotional response from the reader. (How dare a CBP agent demand access to my phone!) But I do agree that the quickest way to make the CBP agents sweat is to ask them for their names and the names of their superiors so that you can call the boss to ask for guidance on how to handle this situation.

    103. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Solandri · · Score: 1

      Ironically, that is almost exactly what the Colombian drug lords used to do to obtain the IDs of US DEA agents entering Colombia.

      This is one of those cases where transparency is more important than security. Because the lack of transparency actually compromises security.

    104. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yip, so those guys are not honest, so you cant trust them - you have no idea what their alternative agenda(s) might be.

      Best policy when traveling international I think is to not take anything that can store data, and factory reset your phone before traveling if you must take it. You can always restore it from cloud backup later.

    105. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      Well besides that when they see the encrypted portion where the work connection software resides they're going to try to claim he's required to open that, too, at best they'll have a record of what software you're using. Even the best software is going to be more vulnerable if it is easy for the attackers to know what they're up against. At worst, once open, they put in some NSA software that will phone home once they log into the secure vault on the phone. You have to treat it as compromised even if they didn't get into the authenticated VPN client. The average TSA guy isn't going to comprehend anything that is export controlled, anyhow, even if it was in the clear, but that doesn't mean letting him in to poke around is a good idea.

    106. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      stand for something or fall for anything.

    107. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 2

      It isn't an illegal search, because he was transiting onto US Soil. There are special cases where 4th and 5th Amendment protections do not apply, and the border is one of those. Yes, even for US citizens. This is why Customs can search your luggage when you are entering in the country.

      My suggestion (check with your attorney first) is to offer to "unlock the phone" and navigate anywhere on the phone that the Customs people want to see, to verify that there is no dangerous material on the phone, but never relinquish the custody. There is much easier ways to smuggle info that could be in a phone across the border, like encrypted Email or files storage.

      As a libertarian, the whole specter of security theater is ludicrous on just about every level, except for the statists who want to control everyone else's lives.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    108. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's not sad in the slightest. That is a natural consequence of liberty being at odds with freedom. I say let the terrorists in. I'll actually start worrying about them when there isn't a 1000x higher chance of being gunned down as I walk through Chicago than actually getting killed in a terrorist attack.

      I don't ask that I government official stands next to me and individually pre-tastes every bit of food I eat either on the off chance that some of it may contain salmonella.

      Now that I think of it, that's the opposite of sad, that's a sign of a rational mind at work. I'm not going to quote anyone. I'm just going to say don't give up your liberty for security. It won't end well for you.

    109. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by John+Napkintosh · · Score: 1

      If you live in Maine, you cannot theoretically have your car searched without a warrant or probable cause. Probably cause needs to be more than just "I want to" or "I think you did something", but in reality it can be many things and is hard (or just exhaustive) to prove wrongdoing on the part of the officer who really had no actual probable cause. Really they aren't supposed to be able to pull you over either without a reasonable suspicion, but that is hard (or just exhaustive) for the same reason.

      --

      Long signatures suck.
    110. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes. Youllll be so tough when you're shitting your pants after acting like a smart add to the border police. Lol.

      I bet you comply. You know you'll visit mr. Assfucker in jail if not. Bitch. Internet tough guy.

    111. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Motherfucking+Shit · · Score: 1

      Simple solution, do NOT place classified info on phones or computers that are traveling out of the country and coming back in. Or ship them freight instead.

      No, that's a pain in the ass solution. The simple solution would be for the government to not conduct illegal searches, and not harass its citizens.

      --
      "BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
    112. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Motherfucking+Shit · · Score: 1

      So what Trump claims about the big media not reporting about important events is true.

      He didn't claim the media doesn't report "important events," he claimed they don't report terrorist attacks, which is patently untrue. This story has nothing to do with terrorism and does not, in any way whatsoever, corroborate Trump's bullshit.

      --
      "BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
    113. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Great, except what if their is priceless (or pricey) information on that phone so you cannot wipe it? The laws contradict each other, there is no point trying to make sense of it.

    114. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by WheezyJoe · · Score: 1

      This. I immediately thought the CPB officer was on Putin's payroll, instructed specifically to seek out a brown-skinned man who will claim he is with NASA.

      Mission accomplished. Well-done, comrade. Pick up your new Camaro at the pre-arranged location, and your family in the motherland will be rewarded with TWO loaves of bread plus a signed poster of Putin shirtless (and a dollar "finder's fee" goes to Trump).

      --
      Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...
    115. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      Why was the phone in Chile to begin with? Should not have been allowed to remove it from JPL premises

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    116. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ALL of the USA is within 100 miles of national border. Look up ... there is a border less than 100 miles away: SPACE

    117. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by haruchai · · Score: 3, Informative

      "There are special cases where 4th and 5th Amendment protections do not apply, and the border is one of those"
      The "special cases border" is also a moving target and now extends 100 miles inland from the physical border.
      https://www.aclu.org/other/con...

      So if you live in Seattle, San Francisco, ALL of Florida, 2/3rds of New England, New York, Charleston, Augusta, Washington, DC & Philly - among many other places where up to 200 million Americans live, you're a "special case" at any time.

      --
      Pain is merely failure leaving the body
    118. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by networkBoy · · Score: 2

      You'll have to call [employers] lawyers. This is not my phone, it is theirs and I am forbidden from giving out the code.

      --
      whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
    119. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As far as CBP is concerned, NOBODY has any rights at the border, citizen or not. Citizens might be treated very slightly better, because there's a reasonable chance that might have lawyers, but they can't really expect it. And as citizens they are unlikely to see the wrong side of the wall at Gitmo, but even there it wouldn't rate it as impossible, just improbable. Citizens have been deported wrongly before, then have to spend their life savings on lawyers to get back in.

      Next time, try shipping the phone? FedEx it from the hotel to work or vice versa, sans battery of course (buy a new one when you get there). Inform work that you won't be available on your official phone for several days while it and you are in transit. Carry a burner through Customs for emergency calls.

    120. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Was it official NASA travel or racing cars in South-America on his vacation time?

    121. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by zedaroca · · Score: 2

      Both Nasa employees, ordinary people and terrorists should have this. The evil group here is clearly the border patrol. If it wasn't evil, or at least contrary to the country's values, it would be legal inside the country.

    122. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or sit perhaps..

    123. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by F.Ultra · · Score: 1

      It's even sidestepped far earlier since no terrorist worth their name would go through customs with a "secret evil terrorist mode" on their phone in the first place, these people know that they can be searched and forced to give up their pin and thus plan accordingly.

    124. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      why do you have to say - (sieg heil) Hail victory! ?

      Is there something bad in victory?

    125. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by dinfinity · · Score: 1

      Leave the phone and keep walking.

      They did not let him, according to TFA:
      "More importantly, travelers are not legally required to unlock their devices, although agents can detain them for significant periods of time if they do not. “In each incident that I’ve seen, the subjects have been shown a Blue Paper that says CBP has legal authority to search phones at the border, which gives them the impression that they’re obligated to unlock the phone, which isn’t true,” Hassan Shibly, chief executive director of CAIR Florida, told The Verge. “They’re not obligated to unlock the phone.”

      Nevertheless, Bikkannavar was not allowed to leave until he gave CBP his PIN."

    126. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      This word "freedom".

      What country do you hail from, where you can carry suitcases of baking powder through customs without the threat of search?

      I don't think you

      I don't think you've ever traveled outside whatever country is the site of your mom's basement.

    127. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And slavery used to be okay, according to the constitution. That's why there was such a fuss about changing it that time.

      Merely because something's wrong, doesn't make it unconstitutional. As any president could tell you.

    128. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by ghoul · · Score: 1

      But But The Constitution has slavery built into it. Dont over idolize the Constitution. It was the best effort of White middle class landowners of an Agrarian Economy. It was ahead of its times but doesnt mean it covered every issue we face in modern life. A Constitution is meant to change as society changes. Thats what Constitutional amendments are for.

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    129. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by surd1618 · · Score: 1

      Personally i think this methodology would be unethical. Besides, if someone is ever expected to carry any material that sensitive, precautions should be taken that preclude one agent caving in from releasing the sensitive data. I would buy 2 or 3 microSD cards, copy the data onto them in a hidden encrypted partition, hide them in the strap of my carry-on luggage, and never let it out of my sight.

    130. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are an absolute idiot

    131. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by 14erCleaner · · Score: 1

      Over 1 million people have US Top Secret clearances.

      --
      Have you read my blog lately?
    132. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by z0idberg · · Score: 2

      The officer may be guilty of misrepresentation, but I blame NASA for not telling folks how to handle a NASA phone. CITIZENS have no requirement to answer any questions or facilitate a search. Leave the phone and keep walking.

      Good idea. The suspicious* dark skinned guy being questioned by armed** CPB agents at an airport should just put the phone down in front of them, pick up his hand luggage and walk away through the airport ignoring their requests to stop. What's the worst thing that could happen right?

      *why else would they want to get into his phone.
      **I assume CPB agents are armed. If not I am sure there was someone of authority close by with a deadly weapon.

    133. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's arguably what he attempted to explain a couple of times. The aggressor did not care.

    134. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by MitchDev · · Score: 1

      Accidentally posted this in the wrong part of this topic...

      I agree, but whatcha gonna do to make that happen?

      The police state is getting worse everyday...

    135. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even if you're a returning US citizen?

      The only benefit that US citizenship has in this situation that they can't put you on the next flight back to where you came from.

      How is this a benefit?

    136. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by geekmux · · Score: 1

      ...in which case they'd be charged with obstruction and destruction of evidence. No easy out here.

      When accusations or justifications are truly baseless, it becomes difficult to identify "evidence" that may or may not have been destroyed, along with identifying any legal obstruction.

      If I don't even have the Facebook app on my phone, but hold an account, am I to be accused of obstruction because I haven't made it pathetically easy to rape and pillage my personal information via my cellular device? I think not.

    137. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by slashrio · · Score: 1

      I don't have to say that.
      And, if there's nothing bad in saying it, then why should I not have said it?

      --
      "Trump!!", the new Godwin.
    138. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by h4ck7h3p14n37 · · Score: 1

      I believe he did the smart thing, and probably the best when it comes to making a stand.

      He also proved that he cannot be trusted to keep secrets.

      The right thing to do would have been to refuse to provide the PIN, be denied entry and then let JPL deal with it.

    139. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by wvmarle · · Score: 1

      Be denied entry... and then? Send him back to his home country? Oh wait, that'd be the country he's just been refused entry to...

    140. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by OhPlz · · Score: 1

      He could be screwed anyway. He may not have had permission to take the phone beyond our border in the first place.

    141. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by OhPlz · · Score: 1

      Border security doesn't relate to terrorism?

    142. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      if you refuse they can't hold you indefinitely - I mean legally they can't, under trump they do wtf they want.

    143. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by TechnoJoe · · Score: 2

      and for the sake of the argument, let's just assume they have the legal right to do so

      That is both a HUGE assumption and quite wrong.

      They have the legal authority to search the physical device, BUT NOT to compel you to reveal any pin/passcodes. They can't compel you to reveal the contents of your mind, even if their search is hindered by not having it, and courts have ruled that way.

      Social Media at the Border: Can Agents Ask for Your Facebook Feed? (No).

      If I spent more time on this, I could get you better sources. The real different is whether or not you're a US Citizen. A citizen cannot be denied entry; a green card holder can.

    144. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now I know why I stopped reading Slashdot comments for a while. I'm looking for added information or intelligent observation and I get comments like yours.

    145. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Joce640k · · Score: 1

      Me? I've visited two other countries so far this year (and it's only February).

      From my house I can drive to three different countries in half a day without even seeing a checkpoints.

      (unless it's an old abandoned one)

      --
      No sig today...
    146. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      Don't keep me in suspense. Which countries?

    147. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Reziac · · Score: 1

      I'm wondering why he took a JPL phone containing potentially-sentitive info out of the country in the first place. THAT is the initial security breach.

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    148. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by frovingslosh · · Score: 1

      His boss likely made him take it so that he could be reached if "needed".

      --
      I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    149. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Reziac · · Score: 1

      Probably, but why couldn't he take a burner phone instead?

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    150. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      And by him I mean the CBP officer guilty of breach of national security.

      It was a fucking scientist for God's sake. These agents of Satan have led us down a primrose path of evolution, vaccines, and global warming. If the leave th eUS they should not be allowed back in. Only when we get rid of this sciency bullshit and return to the infallible book of science, will America be great again.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    151. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Said scientist is not allowed to reveal the pass code to anyone. Scientist did reveal the pass code to someone. Thus scientist has shown themselves as incapable of handling sensitive documents.

      He caved after being to US border control and handed over the information because they threatened to detain him for a while if he didn't. Do you think he might cave if some other country made much more serious threats while he was outside of the US?

      A temper tantrum has nothing to do with anything.

      If the scientist had sensitive data on his phone, the Border Patrol is the least of his worries.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    152. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Personally i think this methodology would be unethical. Besides, if someone is ever expected to carry any material that sensitive, precautions should be taken that preclude one agent caving in from releasing the sensitive data. I would buy 2 or 3 microSD cards, copy the data onto them in a hidden encrypted partition, hide them in the strap of my carry-on luggage, and never let it out of my sight.

      If you are carrying classified information and the border guard demands to see it - or TSA for that matter - you tell them that they will need to call the local FBI and have someone with a clearance to review what they are demanding to see. They need to comply or be in violation of the law, putting themselves at risk of imprisonment.

      Regardless, an inherently insecure device like a smartphone is no place to be stowing data like that.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    153. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      That was my thought too, but I was thinking lock away the supposed scientist that just let some oaf bully him into giving up access to a JPL phone that might have had important security related information on it. The oaf will never learn and will continue to enjoy playing the bully, but people need to learn not to give in to them.

      Not how it works. If you are under threats of violence or imprisonment by a border guard, you merely need to remind him that you will accept a properly identified FBI agent to review the data.

      IF you had classified data on a secure device, and IF you are being strongarmed by some border guard and IF he forces you to reveal your passcodes, well then afterwards you call the FBI and he will be an extremely unhappy ex-border guard, awaiting trial on theft of sensitive data. You do not have to give your life or health to protect the data. The guy that has you in a headlock is the one committing the crime.

      The story is bollocks anyhow. Perhaps the person submitting might be willing to tell us how much of this sort of data he stores on his Smartphone. Or maybe not.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    154. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by frovingslosh · · Score: 1

      Some bosses can't deal with the complexities of having more than one phone number to bother an employee with.

      --
      I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    155. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by ghoul · · Score: 1

      Breaking News : Trump announces a Science Ban. No one to be allowed entrance the US of A if they believe in Evolution or Global Warming.
      You ask how will they test for it?
      Same way they will test an Iraqi who says he's a CHRISTIAN Iraqi and not a MUSLIM Iraqi.
      The CBP will know. They have powers .....

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    156. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, you can say that, but it doesn't matter what you, or me, or anyone else here who isn't on the SCOTUS think. The Supreme Court of the United States is the ultimate arbiter of what is and what is not constitutional. Once they say it is, it is, until they come back later and say it isn't. This is part of the basis for the debate between the strict constitution types and the living document types.

      Absolutely incorrect. The authority of the Supreme Court was defined by the original Constitution - which was superseded by the Bill of Rights.

      The Bill of Rights was written to be open-ended, in order to address the concern of the Anti-Federalists that the entities defined in the original Constitution - individually or collective, and most certainly including the Supreme Court - would exceed the legitimate authority of government.

      They were right, of course - this has happened MANY times and continues to happen on DAILY basis. No ethical student of US legal history can possibly escape this conclusion. But this behavior is absolutely illegal: the Bill of Rights provides for unspecified rights "retained by the people" (9th Amendment) and "reserved to the people" (10th Amendment). Hence wrongful government conduct - irregardless of whether or not it violates the other Amendments - violates rights arising under the 9th and 10th Amendments.

      Laws purporting to authorize unreasonable searches, or precedents or executive orders to that effect, are ALL in conflict with the Bill of Rights - the highest law in the land - and hence are illegal.

      By definition, rights "retained by the people" can not be taken away by ANY entity of government, for if they could, they would no longer be retained by the people - a contradiction, and hence a violation of the right to ethical practice of law (and the constitutional requirement of "Good Behavior").

      It follows, as a matter of simple logic, that the Supreme Court is only Supreme over other federal courts, but not over the Bill of Rights. This is, in essence, a proof by contradiction - a technique of logic that you should have been exposed to in your high school geometry class, and one that has been understand for thousands of years - but a lot of people today do not seem to understand this kind of reasoning.

      Further, the Nuremberg precedent applies to US law under the 9th Amendment - creating an individual responsibility on the part of government officials and legal professionals to refuse to obey illegal laws - whether or not those laws are upheld by the courts. Germans courts, on many occasions prior to WW2, upheld the laws that were later held to be illegal laws at the Nuremberg Trials.

      In short, the Bill of Rights says that any person - even just ONE person - asserting a reasonable individual right has that right. Laws passed by Congress are only legitimate to the effect that no person can make such a reasonable argument.

      The idea that the government that "governs best, governs least" is built-into the US legal system - but frequently ignored.

      The old tale "The Emperor's New Clothes" is a classic description of US government and US law: there are many legal professionals and government officials who routinely violate the law - but they pretend otherwise, and so long as nobody calls them on it, they get away with it. Often, they not only get away with it, they make a lot of money in the process - who says crime doesn't pay?

    157. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Reziac · · Score: 1

      When I need to switch phones, I move my SIM card from one to the other. But yeah, I know the type.

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    158. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Man those guys at the border patrol are real noce guys in my experience... the one with the rubber glove was surprisingly gentle...

    159. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Demena · · Score: 1

      Thusly all progress is due to unreasonable men......

    160. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Demena · · Score: 1

      Escalation of privileges is possible. Give no privilege.

    161. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Demena · · Score: 1

      No. What it shows is that you don't want non-american border officers to have unlimited search powers. You forgot exceptionallism.

    162. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Ihlosi · · Score: 1
      How is this a benefit?

      I don't know about you, but after eight or more hours on a plane I'd like to get at least eight hours of sleep and a shower before I board another plane.

      I agree it's not a huge benefit though.

    163. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are so caught up in your own pseudo-intellectual babble that you completely ignore reality. The bill of rights does not "supersede" the constitution. It augments it. Further, nowhere in the bill of rights does it say that the SCOTUS' job is any different. They are still the body charged with making the ultimate judgment as to whether a law or government action is in violation of the Constitution. If they say something is not a violation, then for all intents and purposes it is not. And going forward it will be enforced that way.

      Clearly, the government has overstepped in the name of "interstate commerce" and "general welfare" on many occasions, but not everyone is going to agree on what is and isn't appropriate for the Feds and that's why we have the process laid out in the Constitution. Some body has to have the authority and responsibility to make that call and that body is the Supreme Court. Anytime something gets up to that level it is likely going to be controversial and someone is going to end up unhappy. You may have strict, literal interpretation of the exact words written in the constitution on your side, but not everyone agrees that we should take it that way, and they elect like minded people who appoint like minded judges. (re: the parent poster's "living document" jab)

    164. Re: Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the trumpkins keep it up, they'll find out how much the Second Amendment applies to them alright. They think they're the only people who can do the applyin', but they're dead wrong there.

    165. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by surd1618 · · Score: 1

      I don't know too much about the culture of working for the gov. Is it possible that this is forgivable on account of it's someone from NASA and not say DOD?

    166. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      I don't know too much about the culture of working for the gov. Is it possible that this is forgivable on account of it's someone from NASA and not say DOD?

      Pretty simple - Classified information on an unclassified phone - not good. It can happen, you'll get a security violation

      An uncleared person forcing you to reveal that data - an actual crime on their part. If this is a device that is secured, the password is also classified.

      If there is a question, call the FBI and they will clear it.

      However, I am inclined to think that this possibly sensitive information stuff is just anti-border guard FUD. NASA is pretty sensitive to this sort of thing. If there was, the employee would have known what to do.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    167. Re:Arrest him and throw him into Gitmo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If determining whether someone is a terrorist or not is based on what is on that persons phone you've got a lot of problems. Our intelligence needs to actually be intelligent. Gathering data from sources, travel patterns, wireless wiretapping (you know, the targeted kind designed to monitor suspicious targets), field work, etc. Pretending you're going to stop terrorism by forcing people to give up their cell phone pin is exceedingly naïve.

  2. What information? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Everything. If they had it for more than a couple minutes, then they very likely have a carbon copy of its entire contents.

    1. Re: What information? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now _that's_ fast typing!

    2. Re: What information? by unixisc · · Score: 1

      No, just copy all contents of the flash drives in the phone to something, and give it back to him. If they need to revisit that later for any reason, they have what they need

    3. Re:What information? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Everything. If they had it for more than a couple minutes, then they very likely have a carbon copy of its entire contents.

      My company will provide loaner laptops if an employee needs them. Traveling oversees definitely counts and not just because of the boarder. Take a clean laptop and remote back in to your system via the secure vpn on the loaner laptop. That is about as safe as you get. I suppose if you were moving oversees it might be more difficult but I'd still avoid hand carrying anything at all that you don't want copies across any border. Protect your right to privacy and cherish it.

      I'm so tired of everyone wanting to sacrifice freedoms for some illusion of security..

    4. Re: What information? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How did we get to indo-chimp from "US born"?

    5. Re: What information? by Demena · · Score: 1

      A misspelling of americhump. The permutations of that word in this context are fascinating.

    6. Re:What information? by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Depending on how the phone or that corporate laptop is set up, they will also gain access to (parts of) the corporate network. Do border cops have the authority to search that as well? I'm all for protecting my privacy and the privacy of my clients by applying good security practises, but protecting your privacy is not at all the same as protecting your right to privacy. You can bring a blank laptop through customs and work through VPN, but you shouldn't have to. How about waking up your government to the fact that today's mobile devices constitute a hell of a lot more than the electronic equivalent of physical work-related papers and books, and contain acutely privacy-sensitive material that cops have no business poking their noses into? (Good luck with that...)

      And what if they come across an encrypted file or a password vault, do they also have the right to ask for access to those? Because if they do, then you're also going to have to change the passwords on perhaps hundreds of accounts. If a cop copies the keys to my front door, you bet I'll be changing the locks, and that goes double for digital keys; I have very little faith in their cyber-security.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    7. Re: What information? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He has a job, you don't, he's better than you, e.g. give us a break and kill yourself. Thanks bud.

    8. Re: What information? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh fuck off back to 4chan you fat fuck.

    9. Re: What information? by tepples · · Score: 1

      The US Constitution and laws made by the Congress pursuant thereto are written in English, an Indo-European language.

  3. I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' but by sandbagger · · Score: 0

    Once there was a mayor from somewhere in the US that got his computer searched at the border and he was outraged. Turns out he also liked to video teens in strip poker games. There may be some reason to wait for additional facts in this story but...

    Wasn't this the USA that was horrified in 1989 after the revelations in Eastern Europe of mass spying on citizens?

    --
    ---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
  4. wha? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Federal government law enforcement agency requires federal government employee to unlock federal government owned phone for inspection. Controversial!

    1. Re:wha? by unixisc · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Yeah, I just don't get why JPL would be upset at another government department accessing their material. Since there's nothing criminal, and the CBP is not a foreign spy agency, what they should have done should have been to require the CBP to show authorization to access that level of secrecy

    2. Re:wha? by toastjam · · Score: 2

      Can't they be upset precisely because CBP did not show authorization to access that level of secrecy?

    3. Re:wha? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      nothing in the article said the phone contained classified material.

      "Still, he’s left wondering the point of the search, and he’s upset that the search potentially compromised the privacy of his friends, family, and coworkers who were listed on his phone. He has since gotten a completely new device from work with a new phone number."

      Personal stuff on a work phone that has sensitive NASA material on it. Good job.

    4. Re:wha? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, I just don't get why JPL would be upset at another government department accessing their material. Since there's nothing criminal, and the CBP is not a foreign spy agency, what they should have done should have been to require the CBP to show authorization to access that level of secrecy

      No one is saying the CPB is a foreign spy agency, we're saying that particular CPB officer is an agent of a foreign spy agency.

    5. Re:wha? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      First, there's nothing in the TFA indicating that the phone has classified information. Secondly, how do you know the CBP didn't have authorization to search the phone even if it did?

    6. Re:wha? by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      More like undertrained and underpaid bottom rung employee decides to exert his authority.

    7. Re:wha? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      thats right, it dont matter. nasa is gonna get tossed to the curb and significantly de-funded anyway.

    8. Re:wha? by hey! · · Score: 2

      It should be controversial if he exceeds his authority. And if you expect a border agent to treat a private citizen better than an another government official you're naive.

      In an atmosphere of pervasive fear it is especially important to constrain officials to operating with the limit of their authority.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    9. Re:wha? by OhPlz · · Score: 2

      I don't even work in government, but we're trained not to expose any data to our own people unless they have a valid reason to see that data. I imagine government agencies would have similar policies.

    10. Re:wha? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Classified information has the same restrictions. You've probably heard the phrase "need to know" before. Access to classified material was two requirements: the individual must have a proper clearance, and they must have a need to know. So, yes, you are not allowed to give classified material to just anyone, even if they are cleared for it. (As has been demonstrated by certain Wikileaks, this gets broken all the goddamned time. But it's government. Tons of bureaucracy and red tape, but no actual access controls to prevent anyone from ignoring the forms and just looking up whatever they want.)

      That being said, there's no way he would have been allowed to put classified information on a cell phone. So if there was classified information, it wasn't the CPB breaking the law, it was the guy. But it doesn't sound like that's what happened.

      He probably had access to what's called "sensitive but unclassified" information: information that isn't classified, but should still not be released to just anyone. For example, his email and calendar would likely be considered "sensitive but unclassified."

    11. Re:wha? by ChromeAeonium · · Score: 1

      The CIA and your local DMV are also government departments.

    12. Re: wha? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's not how security clearances work. Every person privy to whatever might have been on that phone would have to have the proper clearances to view it. The only thing that would have made sense is for this individual to forfeit the phone at the border and let NASA tell the border guys to fuck off, which probably would have worked just fine. Property of the US govt doesn't have to be subject to US laws, its that whole sovereign immunity thing. I'm sure the phone was encrypted (they needed a PIN) so leaving it with the border guards wouldn't have revealed anything. I'm sure this guy is getting a few lectures on proper protocol for handling devices containing classifieds information.

    13. Re:wha? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While the CBP is not a foreign spy agency that doesn't mean some of its employees aren't foreign spies. Or industrial espionage ones. Or simply lowly-paid agents who spot an opportunity to make some money on the side. Not saying they're an of these things, but the point is they could be. So classified material should not be seen except by those who have explicit permission to do so.

    14. Re:wha? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Phone numbers and such hardly makes it "stuff". I have family and friend phone numbers on my work phone, because i might not be able to use my own phone, while i'm abroad for example. You tell me, you don't have family phone numbers on your work phone?

    15. Re:wha? by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      You're not allowed to show classified information to people--even with sufficient clearance!-- if they don't have a 'need to know' the information. Border Patrol most certainly does not have 'need to know' anything scientific that is a matter of national security.

    16. Re:wha? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      DMV is not a part of the federal government.

    17. Re:wha? by unixisc · · Score: 1

      I overlooked the cited portion, but you're right. When I get a work phone, I don't give family or friends that number. In this age of cellphones, where all of us have our own and carry it around, if Sasha needs to call me, she has my number

      I can understand it some 20 years ago, when laptops and phones were expensive, and therefore employees used those for both work and personal use. These days, when just about everybody can afford both, there is little justification for putting the names of your friends or families on work equipment. From a personal POV, particularly since none of that data is private: the employer legally has access to it.

    18. Re:wha? by unixisc · · Score: 1

      No. If I go abroad, I'd take my own phone w/ me and use things like WhatsApp audio or video calling to contact family members (in addition to the normal text messaging on WhatsApp). Your company doesn't ask you to make your international calls on roaming, does it: they'd probably install a VOIP app on your phone like 8x8 or MagicJack and ask you to use that. Anywhere you'd travel for work, there'd probably be WiFi, and that can be used to run either app to make the calls.

    19. Re:wha? by unixisc · · Score: 1

      I thought that sensitive stuff is automatically classified at birth. His email definitely! Besides, if his phone is well encrypted, he may well have been allowed to put classified stuff there, since that would be backed up on their private cloud.

    20. Re: wha? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The only thing that would have made sense is for this individual to forfeit the phone at the border and let NASA tell the border guys to fuck off, which probably would have worked just fine.

      As he sits in jail...

    21. Re: wha? by slashrio · · Score: 1

      So, the government could now sue a CBP officer for forcefully accessing data which he doesn't have the security clearance for?
      Nah, after what Clinton got away with, I doubt anyone could be convicted for that.

      --
      "Trump!!", the new Godwin.
    22. Re:wha? by flink · · Score: 1

      Federal government law enforcement agency requires federal government employee to unlock federal government owned phone for inspection. Controversial!

      Of course it's controversial. Did the officer show proper security clearance? Did he have a need-to-know? Was there a completed dd2875 on file for the officer? Did the officer give the scientist a chance to validate his credentials and need to know with the program manager?

      Another interesting question would be what is red material doing on a cell phone, especially one that was taken out of the country? I suspect there was no classified material unless this scientist was grossly negligent. Probably just some FOUO communications. Still bad, but not as bad as it could have been. I imagine he will still get chewed out for not just surrendering the locked phone instead of unlocking it though.

    23. Re:wha? by Cederic · · Score: 1

      Other way around. I have work numbers on my personal phone.

      I bought a phone I like and want to use. I occasionally carry a work issued device because it includes unlimited 4G data and a secure way to view work email.

      Use the work device as a phone? I don't hate myself that much.

    24. Re:wha? by hucker75 · · Score: 0

      And "Bikkannavar" doesn't sound American to me. Being born there doesn't make you look innocent.

  5. Yawn... by js290 · · Score: 2

    Govt searches govt property. So who's for more govt?

    --
    "Tempers are wearing thin. Let's just hope some robot doesn't kill everybody." --Bender
    1. Re:Yawn... by ghoul · · Score: 1

      This guy works on image analysis for telescopes in other words spy satellites which just happen to be large telescopes pointed downwards. Dont worry NASA will get its own back. Just who do you think launches the spy satellites? Are you telling me NASA has not put backdoors into the satellites used by DHS and the cops. This CBP agent may suddenly get pulled over because his license number showed up as wanted for kiddie porn. God help him if he happens to be a black male during that traffic stop.

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    2. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >God help him if he happens to be a black male during that traffic stop.

      Yeah, like the average black male, he'll be overly aggressive at a normal traffic stop, attempt to attack the officers, resist arrest, probably try to grab a gun, and get shot.

    3. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FACT: Nobody at NASA works with spy satellites and because of his parents the guy would never be able to get cleared to work on anything in that level.

    4. Re: Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Riiiiight that's the "average" response of black motorists.

    5. Re:Yawn... by JBMcB · · Score: 1

      This guy works on image analysis for telescopes in other words spy satellites which just happen to be large telescopes pointed downwards.

      The NRO runs the spy satellites and the Air Force launches them. NASA has nothing to do with them besides providing rockets and launch platforms.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      --
      My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
    6. Re: Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That's what the cops say. And when was the last time a police officer lied?

    7. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How do you know that the CBP didn't single the guy out because of an order that originated from the FBI or intelligence service?

    8. Re: Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ya because we all know black people are naturally more aggressive and prone to deviant behavior. Because who needs to discard racist 19th century myths when we have Breitbart, right

    9. Re:Yawn... by SethJohnson · · Score: 1

      This is a very good suspicion. By downloading a full image of his phone's storage, the FBI or NSA gets photos of all the places he's been along with GPS breadcrumbs. It could very well be that this engineer crossed paths unintentionally with another surveillance target while traveling. Checking these breadcrumbs helps them determine whether they should add him to the surveillance list.

      I wholeheartedly disagree with his compliance with their requests. I just want to support the AC's rationale for why the engineer was selected.

    10. Re:Yawn... by grcumb · · Score: 2

      This guy works on image analysis for telescopes in other words spy satellites which just happen to be large telescopes pointed downwards.

      The NRO runs the spy satellites and the Air Force launches them. NASA has nothing to do with them besides providing rockets and launch platforms.

      You're right, but there's still a decidedly non-zero chance that the hi-res optics he has access to see a lot of classified things.

      --
      Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
    11. Re: Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    12. Re: Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nobody at NASA works with spy satellites?

      How do the spy satellites get up there in the first place? Magic? They may not get the feed from the satellites piped into NASA, but they sure as shit control and monitor it's every movement in orbit. I'd say that counts as "works with".

    13. Re: Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's what happens every time the camera has technical problems. It's like angry violent black people emit an aura that damages police surveillance equipment. That's the only logical explanation.
      -FOX News viewer

    14. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And you think whatever party you voted for want less of that government?

      Yep, I'm going to assume that you are easily fooled.

    15. Re:Yawn... by popoutman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is a very good suspicion. By downloading a full image of his phone's storage, the FBI or NSA gets photos of all the places he's been along with GPS breadcrumbs. It could very well be that this engineer crossed paths unintentionally with another surveillance target while traveling. Checking these breadcrumbs helps them determine whether they should add him to the surveillance list.

      And that is a fishing expedition, and not allowed under the law, without a specific warrant.

      --
      - This sig deliberately left blank. Nothing to see, move along.
    16. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except it is, at the border

    17. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And therefore never happens, being against the law and all.

    18. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who is going to stop them?

    19. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As noted many times here and elsewhere, warrant not required at the border. Fishing expeditions are just fine.

    20. Re:Yawn... by Wisp · · Score: 1

      That completely depends on the kind of work he is doing. Although you have to get a clearance it rarely means you have access or work on classified data.

    21. Re: Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NASA has NOTHING to do with spy satellites. They are handled and launched by the USAF

  6. No, this isn't by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    First, the United States is not a monolithic entity. Second, educational standards across the country and over time are different, and lately have been generally regarded as poor. Third, 9/11 happened and many people think that everyone getting a trophy affects kids more than being raised by parents affected by this tragedy and the subsequent clamp-down by US authoritarians.

    1. Re: No, this isn't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Everyone getting trophies and the breakdown of the family have both had negative affects on today's youth.

    2. Re:No, this isn't by Mashiki · · Score: 0

      Third, 9/11 happened and many people think that everyone getting a trophy affects kids more than being raised by parents affected by this tragedy and the subsequent clamp-down by US authoritarians.

      That's because it does. It instills the idea that no matter what, you'll be given something by someone in power. People who work hard to gain a position/skill/ability are less likely to be cowed. If you hand things to kids, they don't learn to stand up to authority when they're treated unfairly. They simply learn that "if I wait, I'll get my own thing in time. And if I don't, I'll just stomp my feet until I do." In turn, raising kids and telling them that they're the "most special one around." Well that does nothing but create narcissists. Put the two of them together, and you get a good explanation of a lot of millennial's that follow social justice.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
  7. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by Scutter · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm not prepared to give up my (and everyone else's) 4th Amendment Rights on the off-chance that we might maybe catch a dirtbag. The cost of making that collar is just too high.

    --

    "Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
  8. Factory reset before you get off the plane. by quenda · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wow, am wondering if I should be doing a factory reset before the plane finishes taxiing.
    Or will they then demand my Google/Apple password?

    Nah, I'm white. I'll wait 'till they come for us.

    1. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

      I'm white and not born inside the US, and not US citizen. But I've been stopped and searched inside the US. So have many other friends and family. So from my experience, I know these searches exist and it seems critiques are as or more racist than the government ;)

    2. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unless airports now don't count as inside the US anymore, it's entirely true.

    3. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      White male, US born. I've been stopped and questioned at the bottom of the ramp just before stepping onto the plane leaving the country.

      I guess I looked like a courier because the questions were about carrying cash. Answered because I knew damn well if I didn't I was not getting on that plane. (and I had ~$100 in my pocket)

    4. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Basically don't make any funny faces, give back any sass, or make eye contact while going through security or customs lines. The only joy in life these guys have is hassling people. It's a boring job, they're never going to get promoted and they know it, so they're going to take out their bullying instinct whenever they can. This is not government policy, these are individuals trying to prove that they have authority over you.

    5. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Haha, when's the last time you went through the security check point at an airport?

    6. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by hey! · · Score: 5, Informative

      Technically CPB agents may need reasonable suspicion to stop you and probable cause to search you, but in practice they routinely exceed their authority, and they usually aren't challenged when they do. People just acquiesce to get it over with. That's a problem because if it remains customary long enough the courts will inevitably tend to view it more positively.

      Additionally, the "Border Zone" in which CPB operates is within a hundred miles of the US border including coastlines. This means cities like Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, Sacramento and Portland are "border cities". Two thirds of Americans live where they can be stopped and searched by CPB. The ACLU has a convenient map of the "border zone" on their website.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    7. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They been doing this to White people before Muslim was a thing. Idiot. You really have to make everything about race.

      I get that you feel guilty for not being a dirt poor third world scum. But please, go signal your virtue somewhere else.

    8. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Authorities" (maybe not CBP) often setup roadblocks on the highways that lead out/into Canada. Separately, my car was searched while going on a ferry. I guess I could have made a fuss, though, and have the Sheriff come. Another time, a friend was searched and asked to produce his passport when "caught" jaywalking in LA. I'm not talking random airport screening ;)

      Maybe all these folks exceeded their authority (ferry guard surely must have), but it definitely happens.

    9. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Probably because of your tiny mustache.

    10. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by Miamicanes · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'd be more worried that they'd install NSA-grade bootloader-compromising malware capable of surviving anything short of JTAG-reflashing everything from the motherboard BIOS to the hard drive, videocard, and network card firmware, and turn my kick-ass laptop into one that mysteriously crashes for no apparent reason thereafter, even after I've reinstalled Windows multiple times (without even getting into the fact that it would be permanently compromised from a privacy and security standpoint). Think: Sony rootkit on steroids, with the nearly-unlimited of the US government and support from the legal system behind it (for the few who don't know, Sony's rootkit was distributed as a file that auto-ran if you inserted certain audio CDs to play them on your computer. It literally REFLASHED YOUR DRIVE'S FIRMWARE to disable functions used by ripping software).

      The question isn't whether the NSA has malware like that. They absolutely do. Google "Advanced Persistent Threat" ("APT"), and know that it's common knowledge that the US, Russia, Britain, China, and Israel (plus countless more) ALL have state espionage agencies with the resources to develop and deploy APTs... and they actively do it every single day.

      The NSA is full of self-perceived super-patriots who've willingly sacrificed every shred of their own privacy, and see nothing wrong with inflicting large-scale collateral damage to American citizens' computer hardware in the holy name of protecting the American homeland from any threat... major or minor, real or perceived. To their mindset, if deploying malware to the laptops of 14 million American citizens crossing the border in some given year causes Windows (or any network hardware that might be subsequently used by those laptops) to occasionally crash for no apparent reason thereafter, but enables DHS to prevent a single terrorist attack, it's 100% worth it, and as far as they're concerned, anyone who thinks otherwise is an evil commie terrorist-loving scumbag who hates America.

    11. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People are stopped for driving while brown on the goddamn highways. At the airport, you will be cavity-searched if the officer feels like fucking with you. Maybe you're living in the 70's but the rest of us aren't.

    12. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by terminal.dk · · Score: 1

      I agree. Factory reset before crossing the borders, and restore your iCloud backup when you have passed it.
      Of course it will kill the hotel Internet, but if that is what the US wants, that is what the US gets.

    13. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1. Factory reset the phone.
      2. When that's complete, smash the phone and grind it into 200 micron particles.
      3. Delete all your accounts (uh, better do this before step 1)
      4. Erase your memories with a portable electroshocktherapy/USB battery device.
      5. Incinerate your brain so that the memories can't be restored.
      6. Scatter the ashes over several continents
      7. Wear tinfoil cuffs to interfere with their RFID scanners
      8. delete your cookies

      It's the only way to be sure.

    14. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by gnasher719 · · Score: 1

      Additionally, the "Border Zone" in which CPB operates is within a hundred miles of the US border including coastlines. This means cities like Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, Sacramento and Portland are "border cities". Two thirds of Americans live where they can be stopped and searched by CPB. The ACLU has a convenient map [aclu.org] of the "border zone" on their website.

      Don't tell Theresa May, or she will declare all of the United Kingdom to be "Border Zone".

    15. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Wow, am wondering if I should be doing a factory reset before the plane finishes taxiing.

      Destroying evidence, eh? Enjoy you jailtime.

    16. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe the majority of people that complained about the electoral college should have been more concerned about the effects of big government.

    17. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      Yeah that is a lie. "I've been stopped and searched inside the US" Unless you smelled distinctly of pot or are acting dangerously suspicious, no one has the authority to do any search of your person within the US.

      Unless you live within 100 miles of a border where the constitution doesn't count, which includes airports and is most of the US. Look it up.

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    18. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by Cederic · · Score: 2

      Odd. I find making eye contact and smiling works very well. They're doing a boring dull shitty job and they know it, you know it, and why not treat them as humans.

      It also shows I'm not nervous, I don't feel threatened by them, I'm comfortable engaging with them and I don't feel I have anything to hide.

      Of course, ask me for the disk encryption password for my work laptop and it's going to be a more difficult conversation. One that involves an unfortunate level of memory loss and a recommendation to contact the information security team at my employer, who will be delighted to assist and could I perhaps get a cup of coffee while we wait?

    19. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Basically don't make any funny faces, give back any sass, or make eye contact while going through security or customs lines.

      Not making eye contact is considered evasive and suspicious behavior. Not breaking eye contact is considered menacing and challenging to their authority. You initially make eye contact, but break it before they do. Maintain eye contact while you are speaking or being spoken to and break it a few seconds after completing any dialog. When not making eye contact, fix your gaze on your documents or possessions and maintain an unconcerned expression. If they refuse to maintain eye contact while speaking, you should not attempt it either.

    20. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Technically CPB agents may need reasonable suspicion

      OMG the many isn't pasty white! TERRORIST!

      That's about the level of thinking that goes into this process.

    21. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      I'd be more worried that they'd install NSA-grade bootloader-compromising malware capable of surviving anything short of JTAG-reflashing everything from the motherboard BIOS to the hard drive, videocard, and network card firmware, and turn my kick-ass laptop into one that mysteriously crashes for no apparent reason thereafter, even after I've reinstalled Windows multiple times (without even getting into the fact that it would be permanently compromised from a privacy and security standpoint). Think: Sony rootkit on steroids, with the nearly-unlimited of the US government and support from the legal system behind it (for the few who don't know, Sony's rootkit was distributed as a file that auto-ran if you inserted certain audio CDs to play them on your computer. It literally REFLASHED YOUR DRIVE'S FIRMWARE to disable functions used by ripping software).

      Are we still talking about border security here? I'm more worried that the mental strain of reading the fingerprinting procedure out to passengers will cause them to uncontrollably drool and short out my device.

    22. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by rahvin112 · · Score: 1

      There is a reason the ACLU has that border zone map on their website and it's to draw attention to the issue the courts have allowed to happen. There is solid supreme court precedent on the CBP having the right to basically search anything they want at entry and the only way it's going to change is if people get mad enough that congress takes that power away from CBP.

    23. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      Wow, am wondering if I should be doing a factory reset before the plane finishes taxiing.
      Or will they then demand my Google/Apple password?

      Nah, I'm white. I'll wait 'till they come for us.

      Good plan. I heard it worked well in Germany.

      --
      ~X~
    24. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While I don't doubt that the NSA has shit like that - I'm less convinced that they hand it out like candy to every TSA drone.

    25. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not evil, nor communist, nor a fan of terrorists (Especially American ones), nor really a scumbag, but I sure fucking hate "America" these days ...

    26. Re:Factory reset before you get off the plane. by WaffleMonster · · Score: 1

      Wow, am wondering if I should be doing a factory reset before the plane finishes taxiing. Or will they then demand my Google/Apple password?

      Factory resets are worthless.

  9. Re:"Bikkannavar says he was..." by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    yea! clearly he is an H1B Indian tester in SV who is here abusing the visa program and depressing the wages of good ole white programmers! probably cant write two lines of clean code if his life depended on it. Let's hear from the CBP side! JPL my a$$! this guy works for Qualcomm at best.

  10. Stop complaining you crybabies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    Democrat and republican alike, you voted for this. Now live with it! Until you vote them out, shut. the. fuck. UP!

    Thank you that is all...

    1. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Darinbob · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why shut up? One of the few benefits left in this country is that we are allowed to criticize our government. This is actual our moral and civic duty to bitch at the government, otherwise the power goes to their heads and they start turning authoritarian. Democracy is not just something that happens every 2 years after which we go home and put up with whatever bullshit the government spits out.

    2. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Grishnakh · · Score: 1, Informative

      AFAIC, you really have little right to criticize the government if you voted for it, meaning you voted for the people you're criticizing. Doing so just makes you a hypocrite.

    3. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Without your vote, all your criticism and bitching is empty bullshit. You just become another sad clown.

    4. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So what? Being a hypocrite is within our rights. Of course you criticize who you vote for! We've done that in the US ever since the very first election; we do it at the presidential level and at the level of the local dog catcher. Even when a president gets a majority vote, in both electoral and popular vote, the president is still accountable to the people and the people are free to express their opinion on the matter.

    5. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Their opinion means squat when they reelect the politician they're bitching about. It amounts to plain old simple whining.

    6. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Yosho · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually, you have the right to criticize the government as much as you want, regardless of who you voted for or even if you didn't vote at all, thanks to something call the first amendment. Suggesting otherwise makes you anti-free speech.

      --
      Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
    7. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Grishnakh · · Score: 2

      The First Amendment fails to keep you from being a hypocrite and an idiot though.

      If you didn't think the candidate would be very good (and apparently they're so bad you're out there complaining about him), then why did you vote for him?

    8. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Grishnakh · · Score: 2

      Just like the other poster said: if you complain about the person you voted for, and then you go and re-elect him, you're a moron and a whiner, and your criticism is useless.

    9. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Yosho · · Score: 1

      Being a hypocrite and an idiot have no effect on your rights.

      I didn't vote for whoever you're talking about. Why are you assuming I did?

      --
      Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
    10. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      I'm not talking about any candidate in particular, I'm speaking abstractly. Fill in the blank with any candidate you want. I'm also not talking about legal rights here; you're reading too much into my earlier comment.

    11. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you voted for a democrat or republican you're part of the problem. Yes, you do have the right to say idiotic things, like bitching about politicians or corrupt political parties you reelect. But you will be tagged as an idiot. Maybe that matters to you, or maybe not

    12. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      Re-elect? I wasn't talking about that. I was talking about being elected period.

      And if you're voting for the lesser of two evils, then how is it hypocrisy to complain that the lesser evil is still evil?

      Most people these days vote against one candidate by voting for the opponent. They're not usually thinking "I love every single thing this person says" when they cast the vote. For example, Dubya runs against Kerry; should the people who complained about some of the things Dubya gone and voted for Kerry even if they didn't like Kerry? Should the people complaining about Obama have gone and voted for Romney even if they don't like Romney? No. If you prefer candidate A over candidate B then you should vote for candidate A even if that candidate isn't perfect.

    13. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you don't like either candidate, you should nominate somebody else. And besides, there are frequently more than two people on the ballot. Your 'lesser evil' meme is bullshit. That is what puts us in this predicament. The buck doesn't stop with the president. It rests squarely on the people that vote for him and the corrupt party he serves. Stop trying to pass the blame. It's unbecoming.

    14. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Demena · · Score: 2

      Oh, Yes!

      Two political parties, 300 million voters.

      You are expecting a one-to-one relationship on every possible issue?

      Look dear, you need to take some basic lessons in thinking if you are attempting a species upgrade. Human thought can be sophisticated.

    15. Re: Stop complaining you crybabies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've literally never seen a "good" candidate for any position. Neither have you. Guess that means the only way to avoid being a hypocrite is refusing to vote. Wait.....

    16. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Human thought can be sophisticated.

      The primaries and subsequent election demonstrate that it doesn't have to be.

    17. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Demena · · Score: 1

      I made no claim to that. The only reason that I responded was because it is extremely rare to find such bald stupidity. Even the least of us reason better than that. There were so many flaws with his (lack of) reasoning that trying to address anything would have been like trying to address an ever growing fractal image while the actual significance reduces. An exercise in futility and a miserable task to attempt.

      So, I just addressed the basic stupidity. You can not get one to one correspondences with different numbers and to expect so borders on the insane.

      It might seem a bit ad hominem but that is not the intent. The intent was to address the basic flaw from which fractal silliness follows before we descended into it.

    18. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Someone can vote for the lesser of two evils, criticize who they voted for, and not be inconsistent with their values.

    19. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Rockoon · · Score: 2

      And if you're voting for the lesser of two evils, then how is it hypocrisy to complain that the lesser evil is still evil?

      It is hypocritical to help evil and then complain about the evil you helped.

      If you vote for the lesser of two evils, you are still supporting evil.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    20. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Yes, the candidates were not really "evil". It's a figure of speech. It means voting for the candidate that is the least imperfect.

    21. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, in fact that attitude is exactly what's wrong right now. If you vote for someone, you damn well hold them accountable after the fact. I'm sick of all these people who voted Trump trying to cover for him. I voted for Obama and spent eight years protesting things he did I disagreed with, as did most of the other people I know who voted for Obama.

    22. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      OK, to state the blindingly obvious:

      1. You generally only have two options, and usually those options are "If you don't vote for me, the even worse one gets in." Trying to prevent Neo-Mussolini from being elected by voting for Neo-Nixon doesn't mean you support Neo-Nixon's views.

      2. All politicians do things they weren't associated with previously.

      3. All politicians support a range of policies, there's never going to be an exact match between a voter's and the person they vote for.

      4. Politicians require feedback from you, the citizen. Saying people who support a particular politician should shut up if that politician does something they don't support essentially ends that feedback loop.

      5. People change their minds.

      So no, nobody's a hypocrite for criticizing a government they voted for. When you're a little older, and vote for the first time, you'll learn this the hard way.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    23. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Baloney, you have full right to criticize the government if you voted for it. Especially if it's not doing what it promised or you expected it to do. Thus many conservatives complained when the neo-cons went on a massive spending spree when they had both houses of congress in the early 2000's. That was not what we had voted for and so we complained, and pulled our support leading to the Democrats taking over.

      The only people who don't have credibility to complain are those who can't be bothered to vote. Regardless of how you voted, if you vote you have credibility to complain. If you can't bother to vote, then you have no credibility because you didn't care enough to help pick the government.

    24. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by mjwx · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why shut up? One of the few benefits left in this country is that we are allowed to criticize our government. This is actual our moral and civic duty to bitch at the government, otherwise the power goes to their heads and they start turning authoritarian. Democracy is not just something that happens every 2 years after which we go home and put up with whatever bullshit the government spits out.

      That's the point.

      The same people who whinged and bitched about Obama now want you to shut up about their golden boy. They're so brainwashed that they cant even see they're party to destroying freedom in the US. If it means keeping the other team down, they'll happily sacrifice everything.

      Also dont get used to being able to criticise your government. They're already eroding that right by going after the press that isn't towing the party line. Those people telling you to shut up over the internet, they could be out in brown shirts telling you to do it in person sooner than you think.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    25. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, the candidates were not really "evil". It's a figure of speech. It means voting for the candidate that is the least imperfect.

      Ordinarily true. For this last election, I'm only able to concede that Hillary wasn't evil but merely self-serving. I cannot make such a concession for the other guy.

    26. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Voting for the "lesser of two evils" is why you have such bad candidates. Ergo, it's all your fault.

      Except for things like local elections, I've literally never seen an election with only two candidates.

    27. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      If you'd pick a better candidate in the first place, you wouldn't feel the need to expend so much energy in "holding them accountable".

      The Trump people are doing the right thing from their perspective: they're covering for him because it keeps them from looking like idiots for voting for him. What does that mean for you?

    28. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Thus many conservatives complained when the neo-cons went on a massive spending spree when they had both houses of congress in the early 2000's. That was not what we had voted for and so we complained, and pulled our support leading to the Democrats taking over.

      Oh bullshit. It *IS* what you had voted for. You were just too stupid to recognize it. It's always been plainly obvious that GOP politicians will go on a spending spree whenever they're in power. So again, you prove my point: you have no right (I don't mean a legal right) to criticize the people you elected: it just proves that you're a moron for electing them.

      The only people who don't have credibility to complain are those who can't be bothered to vote.

      Wrong. Anyone who didn't vote for the winning candidate has every right to complain. Obviously, if you didn't vote for the winner, you're not getting what you were promised, and are not hypocritical in pointing out how the winner is doing a bad job. Basically, you can say "I told you so" to all the idiots who voted for the winner.

    29. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Wrong. You hit it in #1: by assuming "you generally only have two options", and voting accordingly, you're guaranteeing a bad candidate gets elected, so it's really your fault and you're a hypocrite for complaining about the person you voted for.

      As for #4 and #5, I don't think this is what we're talking about here. We're really talking about people voting for a candidate based on either #1, or some dumb idea of what they think the candidate is going to do (see the AC responder who's a conservative and then complains about the GOP going on a spending spree) and then gets mad when the candidate does what was blindingly obvious to everyone who wasn't a blind-faith believer in that party and its obviously false rhetoric ("we believe in small government!!") when there's decades of history proving that that party does something entirely different when in power.

    30. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      You're a fucking moron, and it's proven by your assertion that there's only two political parties. Funny that you talk about "basic stupidity" and you can't even figure that out.

    31. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you advocate not voting at all? How about laying over and playing dead? How about no compromise, no negotiations? How exactly is it that you expect the world to work?

      We criticize, complain, and INFLUENCE decisions and policies. We make noise and draw attention so that the pressure is on to manipulate the government into doing what we want, instead of just steamrolling over us every time they give us crap or no choices for elections. Don't be a fool and expect that there are perfect candidates out there and perfect fits for the jobs of public office. The clowns on the election ticket are often the worst suited for the job, the least moral, and crooked. We hold them in attention in the public eye so that they are ACCOUNTABLE and have to make some reasonable actions.

      Telling everyone to STFU because they voted for this or that person is just retarded. You never complained about a boss? You took the job, you action the actions, right? You can't complain about parents, you accepted the role of being born to them. You can't complain about kids, you made them, etc etc etc. *eyeroll*

    32. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by tepples · · Score: 1

      Then what action on election day is effective against evil?

    33. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...what?

      Politicians lie all the fucking time.

      Julia Gillard said there would be no Carbon Tax. I voted for her. Then she made a Carbon Tax.
      Why the fuck should I not be able to criticize her for this?

      Even without such an obvious example, without criticism and scrutiny, how the fuck do you stop these weasels becoming even more corrupt?

    34. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It must be nice living in such a black and white world.

    35. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      how the fuck do you stop these weasels becoming even more corrupt?

      Stop reelecting them! Is that too simple to understand? Don't blame the politician for winning. The people that reelect them and nobody else are to blame.

    36. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's also true, though, that elections are a balancing act and one doesn't have to agree with everything a candidate says. That's especially true in the balancing of 2 evils that we've mostly been subject to in recent lifetimes (if not before). One simply agrees with more (or more important) things than not. So I'll happily criticize what the person I voted for does if I think it's evil, stupid, otherwise harmful, or even just not the best way (IMO) to do it. I'll advocate for laws and regulations that I agree with, and against those I disagree with, regardless of whether or not I voted for the clown(s) in charge. That's my right (freedom to petition the government for redress of grievances). None of that is hypocrisy per se, though of course as with some other things the appearance may be more important than the fact depending on the circumstances.

    37. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Demena · · Score: 1

      Moron? No, that would apply to people like you who so obviously lie and make false claims. Like you. Now would you please like to defend your assertion that there are only two political parties? It is not a claim that I made or would make since it is obviously intrinsically false. Your malice or your mistake I do not know (or care).

      Now you want to talk about basic honesty? A characteristic you seem to lack in equal measure to intelligence? You think a lie and a straw man will win you an argument? You think it demonstrates your intelligence? The fact that you seek to 'win' rather than seek the truth shows your maturity.

    38. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Now would you please like to defend your assertion that there are only two political parties?

      I never asserted that, you did you fucking moron. Holy shit.

    39. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Demena · · Score: 1

      Nor did I but you claimed I did.

      My advice to you is to stop digging....

    40. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Um, aren't the two the same thing? To use D&D terminology, most "evil" people aren't chaotic evil, people who gleefully do sadistic horrible things in order to cause suffering for others. Most of them are the lawful-evil or neutral-evil types. These days, we call them "sociopaths" usually: they're people who have little or no conscience, and only work for their own benefit and self-interest, not anyone else's. "Self-serving" sounds like a pretty polite way to describe them. The only people who would fit the "chaotic-evil" description are true psychotics.

      From what I've seen of Trump, I don't think he's a psychotic, I think he's mostly self-serving though. Notice how some of his actions are directly benefiting his businesses. But that's not unusual for highly corrupt politicians. Hillary seemed to be just the same, just less obvious about it, and not in league with such horrible people (e.g. Bannon), and not likely to pick such horrible cabinet members who'll truly harm the country in a significant way (e.g. DeVos, Sessions). But I do think Hillary was (and still is) evil. But at least she would have done some somewhat useful stuff in order to appease her base and to get her place in the history books and get re-elected. I think Trump is doing the same now, but his base is very different and the policies they want are far more destructive.

    41. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      D&D alignments were always deeply flawed in expressing human behavior, but then, so is a lot of pseudo-psychological babble.

      Still, if we're going to stick with D&D concept, I have to give Trump a low Wisdom score. I wouldn't quite call Trump as Chaotic Stupid (though some of his defenders claim he's faking that for...reasons), but personally stupid, in a lot of ways that reflect on poor judgment? Absolutely. And sadly, gross stupidity is not a barrier to success by sheer weight of resource and chance. Lots of past examples of that, in business, athletics, and more.

      Of course, if we're talking politicians, they all have to be evil to want the job, in some way or another. A good person would probably collapse into a screaming fit in the first week or so of office. An evil person can cut off thinking.

      I just think Trump's gone a bit too far over the bend. And he's not even hit rock bottom himself. Trump will try to appease his base, but also go with his style, which is aggressive, heedless, and a bunch of other stuff that makes me cringe inside at the thought of him being responsible for more than a turnip patch. He's already left destruction and misery in his wake.

    42. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a pattern now. Republicans are in charge (W. Bush, Trump)? You're with us or you're against us. Why do you hate the troops. Freedom Fries. Democrats are in charge (B. Clinton, Obama)? Remember descent[sic], the highest form of patriotic[also sic]. It's your duty to go out into the woods and be ready to shoot the usurper Muslim president.

    43. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      So you advocate not voting at all?

      Ah yes, the bullshit false dichotomy argument of the people supporting evil.

      Go away and dont come back until you learn your logical fallacies.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    44. Re:Stop complaining you crybabies! by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      It must be nice living in such a black and white world.

      The black and white world is the one painted by the evil supporters, whose arguments always rely on there somehow being only two choices

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
  11. Re: Trump doesn't run borders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Wow, you're a special type of sheep aren't you.

  12. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I'm not prepared to give up my (and everyone else's) 4th Amendment Rights on the off-chance that we might maybe catch a dirtbag. The cost of making that collar is just too high.

    Sigh. Border search exception.

  13. Exporting the Sensitive Information... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Exporting the sensitive information from the US in the first place may be considered an offence (think rocket information == weapons information). You would need to be careful claiming that as a defence against search at the border.

    1. Re:Exporting the Sensitive Information... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exporting the sensitive information from the US in the first place may be considered an offence (think rocket information == weapons information). You would need to be careful claiming that as a defence against search at the border.

      There doesn't need to be sensitive information on the phone to make it useful to foreign agents.
      Perhaps people who got the CPB officer to copy the phone wants enough info to hack Sidd Bikkannavar accounts, or his co-workers accounts.

    2. Re:Exporting the Sensitive Information... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That was my first impression. Sounds like somebody (possibly a coworker) complained about the guy taking sensitive information with him on the trip. So when he returned his name was probably on a list.

  14. Racism at work by whoever57 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is there anyone here who doesn't think that the reason the guy was detained was because his skin color was too dark?

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    1. Re:Racism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is there anyone here who doesn't think that the reason the guy was detained was because his skin color was too dark?

      Well if the darkies stopped being inherently criminals because of their skin color, then the good, white people won't need to detain them.

    2. Re:Racism at work by wvmarle · · Score: 0

      That, and his name. Very dangerous combination, darkened skin (not black) and middle-eastern sounding name. Must be terrorist. Works at JPL so even has access to rockets.

    3. Re:Racism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I see what you did there.

    4. Re:Racism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is there anyone here who doesn't think that the reason the guy was detained was because his skin color was too dark?

      Moron.
      Look at his picture in the article.
      http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/12/14583124/nasa-sidd-bikkannavar-detained-cbp-phone-search-trump-travel-ban
      http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/the-wrap/article/US-Born-Muslim-Scientist-Detained-Forced-to-10927622.php

      So the answer to your question is yes. People who aren't blind or stupid don't think this has anything to do with skin color.
      Reminder: They didn't search his bags.

    5. Re:Racism at work by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      What percentage of Muslims do this. Go on, provide the statistic and how you arrived at it.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    6. Re: Racism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well due to the amount of anti-government right wing extremists who murder cops, bomb government buildings, bomb abortion clinics, shoot abortion clinics, murder and assault immigrants and minorities, financial aid fundamentalist Christians send to dictators in Africa to implement horrific anti-homosexuality laws, genocide, and a plethora of other acts of terrorism perpetrated by right-wing extremists, I strongly feel it's only fair we exercise the same degree of scrutiny towards conservatives.

    7. Re:Racism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Too dark?

      Have you seen a picture of the guy?

      https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/53209489/SiddBikkannavar_4.0.jpg

    8. Re:Racism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know, I see some articles where the headlines state that he's a "US born Muslim Scientist", but nothing that confirms whether he actually is one or not. Given that his surname is found most commonly in India, I'd would have thought he would be more likely a Hindu if he's religious at all.

    9. Re:Racism at work by Demena · · Score: 1

      With that surname he would be more likely to be buddhist from my memories.

    10. Re:Racism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      middle-eastern sounding name

      Perhaps to somebody who has never heart a middle-eastern name.

      Bikkannavar sounds like what it is: an Indian name.

    11. Re:Racism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Buddhist, muslim, hindu, arsonist, child rapist, terrorist. Doesn't matter which one. We admit Jews these days so that we have some means of distinguishing ourselves from fascists.

      But the rest can strip naked, bend over and unlock their phones. We did not steal this country from the redskins just to hand it over to smartphone wielding brownskins.

    12. Re:Racism at work by Fringe · · Score: 1

      I don't think that. For several years I was "randomly" picked for a thorough search every time I boarded a flight back from Europe... which was every other month. I'm blue-eyed, white, clean-shaven, born in the U.S. and was usually in a nice business suit. We used to joke that it was because it's safer to search someone like me, as you know you won't find anything and you won't be accused of bias.

      You are making an accusation based on a single incident. It could have been an agent responding to Sidd being, e.g., belligerent, or some other country on his passport, or even just misinterpreting a recent memo.

    13. Re:Racism at work by mjwx · · Score: 1

      That, and his name. Very dangerous combination, darkened skin (not black) and middle-eastern sounding name. Must be terrorist. Works at JPL so even has access to rockets.

      Those of us who've had experience dealing with people from that part of the world, his name sounds more Indian in origin... And his skin is not even that dark.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    14. Re:Racism at work by wvmarle · · Score: 1

      That particular skin colour is probably (part of) the problem.

      Many Muslim terrorists appear to be originally from Middle East or northern Africa (or at least from such descent). Most people from those regions are actually not that dark tinted, a far cry from those further south (around the Sahara - very dark skin tones), lighter than typical Indian skin tones. Though I've encountered much lighter coloured Indians as well, skin tones quite similar to those of the Middle East.

      I suspect nowadays that light colour is perceived as the "wrong" colour. Just like black skins are associated with criminals, lightly tinted skins may become associated with terrorism, and all the prejudices with it.

    15. Re:Racism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      His being male was probably also a factor.

    16. Re:Racism at work by tsstahl · · Score: 1

      With that surname he would be more likely to be buddhist from my memories.

      Memories? Of which life?

    17. Re:Racism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That, and his name. Very dangerous combination, darkened skin (not black) and middle-eastern sounding name. Must be terrorist. Works at JPL so even has access to rockets.

      Except that "Sidd Bikkannavar" sounds as Middle-Eastern as "John Smith" sounds Chinese.

    18. Re:Racism at work by Cederic · · Score: 1

      Sounds quite American to me. Maybe I just work at a very diverse company but that name would not be remotely out of place for our employees in America.

      Plus I don't know any Indians called Sidd, although I guess it could be an abbreviation for one of those fantastic 23 character long names that even the Indians can't pronounce (or spell).

    19. Re:Racism at work by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      What you are is a calculated response in order to make the fact that they profile people of colour disappear in statistical muddle. It's the same reason why they will separately question 18 year old girls, 90 year old grandmas for security reasons because you know ... terrorism.

      Now that said I support it. Racial profiling isn't racist it's application of statistics to increase the likelihood of a positive match. If you're hunting ISIS, there's little sense in randomly pulling over blond haired blue eyed girls with a cross dangling around their neck. Sure terrorists could work around it but statistically random sampling is a huge waste of time given the number of people that come through airports.

      At least I would support it if I thought any of what the border guards do actually would make any difference. Somehow they don't make me confident that even someone claiming to be a terrorist on the way through carrying only ISIS memorabilia would actually be stopped from coming into the country.

    20. Re:Racism at work by TechnoJoe · · Score: 1

      Doubtful. If it was his skin color, they should have backed off when they saw his NASA credentials and US Passport.

      My money is on a double-agent taking an image of his phone, but the question is for whom? Someone on our side (FBI/NSA/CIA) or theirs (Russia/China)?

    21. Re:Racism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes because I am white and Canadian customs demanded the same of me.

  15. He should not have had a NASA phone in Chile by laing · · Score: 1

    He violated US export regulations by bringing his NASA phone with him. It's understandable why they wanted to search it.

    1. Re:He should not have had a NASA phone in Chile by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      For the most part, yes. I work for NASA. I have a government laptop but not a phone. I am expressly forbidden from taking the laptop out of the USA. Within the USA, I can travel with it freely, provided its encrypted (and it is, of course). We're not allowed to take unencrypted data off our facility site. If we have to ship a hard drive of data (happened before!), we have to encrypt that before shipping.

      We're not allowed to access _any_ NASA systems outside the country. This includes any email, webmail or on a device. Time cards are out, etc. Nothing. So he shouldn't have taken the phone with him because it had no work use at all.

      Now, we are allowed to use government hardware for personal use. Most of us don't have a second laptop; I use mine for occasional personal use, as do my coworkers. Those who have NASA phones don't have a phone of their own. But the expectation is that nothing on the laptop is private to NASA; my boss could come search my laptop if he desired to do so.

    2. Re:He should not have had a NASA phone in Chile by Overzeetop · · Score: 1

      True (well, I suppose - I never did international travel with NASA when I was there), but JPL is not NASA - it is a government contractor. Note that Sidd Bikkannavar was not identified as a government employee working for NASA, but rather that he worked at JPL. The only people NASA has in Pasadena are, essentially, contract managers. All the work is done by Cal Tech and outside contractors, if I remember my contracts correctly. The line is very blurred there from a public perspective, but from a contract one it is clear. It may have been NASA hardware, or it may have been CalTech hardware, or it may be hardware of another contractor.

      It does make me wonder if Android should add a "PIN to Wipe" to their "PIN to Unlock" screen.

      --
      Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
  16. Is This To Find Rogue NASA Tweeters? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Like this one that may not be following the new Trump line?

  17. sensitive information in a foreign country !!!!??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    if it really did have sensitive government information on it... WHAT WAS IT DOING in a foreign country !!!!????

  18. Could be worse by RevDisk · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Back when I was in the Army, I unfortunately had a clearance. Which means when you go on TDY, you become a classified material pack mule. In this particular case, in addition to a bunch of sealed envelopes, I had to carry a stickered laptop. Unshockingly, electronics certified to handle classified material are labeled clearly to include the words "US Government Property" and "Protect from unauthorized disclosure". I was also traveling on a government purchased ticket using government ID. But in civvies, because post-9/11.

    Sadly didn't have my crypto carrier card as I wasn't carrying crypto material, that one gets you waved past any security checkpoint. TSA had semi-recently been spun up. Naturally US military people are high risk on aircraft, so we got selected for 'random searching'.

    TSA: Sign into the laptop and turn it over.
    Me: Uhm. No? It's a classified laptop, and I have no proof you have proper clearance.
    TSA: We handle government laptops all the time.
    Me: Not my problem. You can swab it for explosives all you want, but if it leaves my line of sight, I'm grabbing the real cops to arrest you while I call the FBI to report theft of classified material.

    They squawked like a bunch of chickens. Dumped out all of our stuff, triple checked everything. Sadly none of our stuff was easily breakable, because well, soldiers. Not for a lack of trying. They also tried to make us miss the flight. Like we cared, as again, government travel voucher. This was before body cavity searches and sexually assaulting folks, but it got pretty hands on. Laptop however remained within my line of sight and turned off the entire time. You could almost taste the bureaucrat rage. Got the "special" random selection treatment every time I flew (again, usually on govt dime) for a long while afterwards, so I guess they did get the last laugh.

    Hell, that's TSA and pretty expected. Fed buddy was made to bin his bottled water, but his loaded Sig and spare loaded magazines were fine. CBP made me dig out receipts to prove the booze I picked up in Ireland were from the duty free shop. I had him hold my SAW (a not small belt fed machine gun) while I dug around for the bottles and receipt. He didn't even blink. Never underestimate a government employee's ability to follow stupid rules.

    1. Re:Could be worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Reminds me of a story I read about a group of armed soldiers returning from Iraq and going through a TSA check as they switched from military transport to civilian transport.

      A TSA agent got in their face over a pair of contraband nail clippers. That TSA agent was very lucky that a Sergeant was still there and able to keep the men calm. Otherwise one of them may have decided to use one of the loaded weapons he was carrying.

      It was okay for the men to carry loaded weapons. It was not okay for them to carry fingernail clippers. After all, they may have tried to threaten someone with one, or unscrewed something.

    2. Re:Could be worse by blindseer · · Score: 5, Funny

      A friend of mine was on his way to one of those "fun" places in SE Asia. The TSA agent insisted on the soldiers, in full uniform, put their rifles through the X-ray machine. He, a Speicialist, began to protest but was quickly quieted by a senior officer. I guess the man in charge thought is was just easier to fulfill the idiotic request than voice any protest.

      Just what did this TSA flunky think they could find "hidden" inside these rifles? Might someone sneak a fingernail clipper inside? I'm not absolutely certain but I'm quite sure they had bayonets in their packs.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    3. Re:Could be worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No way in hell they had loaded weapons. They might have had weapons with their bolts removed though.

    4. Re:Could be worse by Grishnakh · · Score: 4, Funny

      I see a good way of cleaning up the TSA here. Send military people, fully armed, on commercial flights, carrying classified information, with orders to protect--at all costs--this material from anyone without clearing accessing it. Anyone who attempts to take the material can be shot on sight.

    5. Re:Could be worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A friend of mine was on his way to one of those "fun" places in SE Asia. The TSA agent insisted on the soldiers, in full uniform, put their rifles through the X-ray machine. He, a Speicialist, began to protest but was quickly quieted by a senior officer. I guess the man in charge thought is was just easier to fulfill the idiotic request than voice any protest.

      Just what did this TSA flunky think they could find "hidden" inside these rifles? Might someone sneak a fingernail clipper inside? I'm not absolutely certain but I'm quite sure they had bayonets in their packs.

      Probably because the TSA agent would have been written up for not requiring all carry on luggage, even machine guns, to go through the x-ray machine. He wasn't an idiot (1) he was just covering his ass because his boss is an idiot and the boss was acting like an idiot because (goto 1).

    6. Re:Could be worse by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      Excellent. We need more people like you.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    7. Re:Could be worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I like this idea. I like it a lot.

      But they really need to have the rest of the force move in on the rest of that chain of command: DO recall that TSA goon was authorized to steal sensitive data by his bosses, after all.

      If all they get rid of are the ones in those fugly uniforms, they'll just hire more highschool dropouts to replace them.

    8. Re:Could be worse by Goldsmith · · Score: 5, Informative

      Back when airport screeners were contractors they had the right to make that mistake and get a funny story out of it, but government employees can't legally ask you to turn that laptop on in public. The question itself was enough to get that guy arrested. When I was in civil service with DoD, I would travel without any government electronics if possible, because despite the laws, the TSA was a liability. Traveling internationally, forget about it, I don't think I was allowed to bring anything that had ever been in my lab with me. This NASA guy was on a personal trip to Chile with a phone with sensitive info on it... that's just stupid on his part. Get another phone for the trip.

      I used to do development and testing for explosives detectors. Nitro-toluenes are very, very hard to get off your skin and clothes. I was pulled aside for random searching and swabbed for explosives. So I come up positive for DNT residue. I thought this was great, because I wasn't sure the machines they were using at the time would pick up the very small amount of residue from somone who used appropriate lab attire (in-field positive test!). I then told them that the reading wasn't likely a false positive and that I worked with explosives. Maybe I should have led with my Navy ID and an explanation that I was a scientist in the civil service, but they did NOT like that I admitted to having explosives residue on me.

    9. Re:Could be worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      SE Asia? Probably checking there was no cocaine hidden in the barrels.

    10. Re:Could be worse by Miamicanes · · Score: 4, Insightful

      TSA confiscates nail clippers from pilots, too. The fact that there's a literal AXE hanging behind them in the cockpit (so they can smash the window and escape if the plane crashes and they somehow manage to survive long enough for the axe to be useful) has no effect on TSA's logic.

    11. Re:Could be worse by Strider- · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I used to do development and testing for explosives detectors. Nitro-toluenes are very, very hard to get off your skin and clothes. I was pulled aside for random searching and swabbed for explosives.

      In a past life, I was a contractor who spent 3 months bouncing between FOBs in Iraq and Afghanistan. The day before I flew home, I was on a CH-53 flying back towards Kuwait where i caught commercial back to Canada. I was sitting next to the door gunner, and as we flew along I think we crossed a range, and he let loose a dozen or so rounds out of the .50 cal. I spent the entire trip home thinking "Please don't swab me, please don't swab me..." and thankfully they didn't. Of course, trying to explain where you had been for three months when you had two in/out visas from Kuwait and a blank spot in between was another matter...

      --
      ...si hoc legere nimium eruditionis habes...
    12. Re:Could be worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know shooting things in a plane at flight is not a good idea right?

    13. Re:Could be worse by whoever57 · · Score: 0

      CBP made me dig out receipts to prove the booze I picked up in Ireland were from the duty free shop.

      That sounds bogus. Why would CBP care if you paid duty in Ireland or not? You are allowed to bring in a certain amount of booze with you without paying the US duty.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    14. Re:Could be worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Drugs?

    15. Re:Could be worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also known as Chinese marching powder, which fits perfectly with military theme.

    16. Re:Could be worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I had him hold my SAW (a not small belt fed machine gun) while I dug around for the bottles and receipt.

      The army asked you to travel on a commercial airline in civilian clothing while carrying a squad automatic weapon (light machine gun)? Really?

    17. Re:Could be worse by mhotchin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The logic is that the TSA doesn't 'know' the person in front of them is, actually, a pilot. He's just *dressed* like a pilot. If the TSA waves through pilots, then the bad guys will just pretend to be pilots.

      See 'Catch Me If You Can'.

      So, not *completely* stupid. The completely stupid part is taking toenail clippers away from anyone at all.

    18. Re:Could be worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The TSA's logic has absolutely nothing (0's to at least five significant digits) with actually protecting anyone or providing safety for anything at all. Their only raison d'ètre is to acclimate the population to being searched, accused and seeing their children molested by those "above themselves" on a daily basis, with the threat of the entire law enforcement apparatus coming down on them for "terrorism" should they balk at the dehumanizing treatment.

      After all, terrorism is like every other business; they want to keep a monopoly and won't accept rival startups.

    19. Re:Could be worse by Ihlosi · · Score: 1
      Why would CBP care if you paid duty in Ireland or not?

      That wasn't the purpose of the question. They wanted to know whether those bottles were bought from a shop and therefore contain what's on the label, or whether they were not bought at the duty free shop and therefore could have been refilled with something that provides a little more kick.

    20. Re:Could be worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Military do not carry loaded weapons on civilian aircraft, and only very rarely on military aircraft. Not that such stories did not occur, but usually it was the TSA agents ignoring the extensive collection of rifles, machineguns and pistols as well as multi-tools to throw a fit over a pair of nail clippers.

    21. Re:Could be worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I see the TSA wave through pilots and fight crew all the damn time.

    22. Re:Could be worse by RevDisk · · Score: 2

      Probably because I admitted it was potcheen, which is Irish moonshine. I assume he wanted to make sure I was carrying the legal kind, not the illegal kind. Or he was making sure it was actually duty free. He asked if I was importing alcohol or tobacco. I said yep, potcheen and a 21 year old Glenlivet that I picked up in Shannon. He asked to see the bottles and receipt.

      So I forked over my SAW until I snagged the bottles. Then traded. He looked at the receipt for about a second then moved onto the next guy.

    23. Re:Could be worse by RevDisk · · Score: 1

      You'd love this article if you're a nitro-toluene guy: http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pi...

      Because adding hexanitroisowurtzitane isn't quite nerve wracking enough. You know, stuff that gets more stable when you add TNT. Someone added 98% hydrogen peroxide, then crystallized with acetonitrile. Same crazy chemists co-crystallized the beta-phase of HMX with CL-20, which I'm sure deeply interested the USAF folks.

    24. Re: Could be worse by RevDisk · · Score: 1

      Sadly, I own my own home. And my water heater just died, so it's yet another trip to Lowes this week. Still have to reseal the driveway, lay down engineered hardwood flooring in the living room, finish the trim work in the bathroom, always more landscaping, put in more curtains, the list never ends. Still, I got it for a very good price and I like having the extra space around the house.

      Happily am putting 10% (combined) into the 401K, plus $50 every week into direct investments. Retirement is on track. My parents were from the age were companies had pensions, so they're already retired and have an annuity for the rest of their lives. Actually, they just got back from a wine tour in Italy. I would like to travel more, but I mostly do more long weekend road trips rather than one or two week long trips per year. Spent a very nice long weekend in Harper's Ferry on kinda an extended date. My siblings and I are renting a cabin up in NY wine country on a lake for a vacation this year, house looks incredible.

    25. Re:Could be worse by swb · · Score: 1

      Maybe I should have led with my Navy ID and an explanation that I was a scientist in the civil service, but they did NOT like that I admitted to having explosives residue on me.

      I doubt it would have worked, I think most security people are in the don't-believe-anything-they-say mode. The only thing that overrides it is force majeure -- a higher ranking individual within their own organization, or another security agency with greater power and authority and the ability to apply it to the conflicting agency on the spot.

      What I wonder about is how many TSA people have pissed off local or state PD, only to later feel the power of local authority. Probably nothing like experiencing a felony traffic stop, having your car impounded and spending the night in jail to re-evaluate the limits of power.

    26. Re:Could be worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Errm, no...the pilot has a special pilots badge when going through security.

    27. Re:Could be worse by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      TSA agents are not on airplanes in-flight. Are you stupid or just completely ignorant about air travel in the US?

    28. Re:Could be worse by whoever57 · · Score: 1

      What about TSA agents themselves?

      Why are pilots searched if the TSA agents can leave their posts and return to them without being searched?

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    29. Re:Could be worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, the logic the TSA agent follows is "someone wrote it down so I have to follow it or lose what is probably the only job I can get".

      You an tell from the behavior that they do not seriously believe any of the items are dangerous (like how they juts dump them in the trash or a collective bin right next to the line).

    30. Re:Could be worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's not stupid at all, it's actually a clever end-run around the 4th amendment. "I have to search your bag without reasonable suspicion because you might have forgotten something on the inane list of forbidden common objects."

    31. Re:Could be worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're acting like pilots don't already have ID badges and swipe cards.

    32. Re:Could be worse by CrashNBrn · · Score: 1

      The logic of the TSA. They confiscate Zippos, but not matches nor disposable " Bic" lighters.

    33. Re:Could be worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I went to The Gun Store in Vegas and fired off a SAW a few hours before I flew home. They swabbed my hands and the machine didn't blink. No worries.

      However I used one of those instant ice packs before a flight back from new orleans and got swabbed. That left some residue on my hands that made the machine go off like a slot machine when they swabbed it. Found that interesting.

    34. Re:Could be worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I had him hold my SAW

      I am mildly disappointed you weren't trying to include a SAW as a carry on item. I would have loved to see the TSA agent's reaction!

    35. Re:Could be worse by chpoot · · Score: 1

      To rate how good/bad better/worse things are, it's worth listening to the WNYC "On the Media" broadcast "What we know about the border". It begins with one of their own journalists being stopped and takes it from there.

    36. Re:Could be worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I deployed to Iraq. Unloaded weapons with a magazine in the pocket actually. This was on a chartered plane, not a military plane. Everyone had a magazine on the off chance you survived being shot down over enemy territory. They took our lighters. So every smoker dropped a lighter in the bucket on the way on the plane. We all had more in our pack.

    37. Re:Could be worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Replace toenail clippers with freedom if you want that sentence to make more sense.

    38. Re:Could be worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The missing part of your recipe is where you give these out to troops as a reward. "Ever wanted to shoot some TSA agents? Yeah, well, who of us didn't. You did real good on that marksmanship qualification, though, so here's your chance - go make us proud".

  19. Export Controls? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As much as I'm opposed to this, why was he taking a Government provided phone outside of the USA?

    1. Re: Export Controls? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Probably because he needs to be available to his job while he's traveling? Do you civilians get everything you think you know from sitcoms or something? The level of confident ignorance in this thread is depressing.

    2. Re: Export Controls? by Perl-Pusher · · Score: 1

      B.S. I work for NASA and was previously in the Air Force. You cannot take a government phone with any kind of restricted information on it. Period, end of discussion. Since nobody at the Verge did much in the name of research beyond this guys Facebook posts, I wouldn't be surprised if a whole lot of information about this incident isn't left out. When I went out of the country on business I was specifically given a laptop that had nothing that could not be viewed by the public. I was also told and signed a form that stated I would not put any classified or restricted information on it and that I had no expectation of privacy. Its government property not yours, what if the the Chilean government had detained him? He is going to tell them no? That's why we have regulations in place on taking devices out of the country. In fact if you take your own phone you still have to sign a form saying your doing so and the it is not connected to a government email account. Every year we take a refresher course on the rules.

  20. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm not prepared...

    Well, now's the time to get prepared. If you voted for a democrat or republican you gave your rights away. So bend over and grab your ankles babe.

  21. Congress and the courts know by AHuxley · · Score: 2, Informative

    what can be asked for when moving in and out of the USA.
    Having diplomatic immunity from another country is really the only way around that...
    If been from the USA was legally special, everyone from the USA would demand rights not to be searched..
    So Congress made sure everyone entering the USA would face equal, fair questions and searches.
    If a person would like not to be searched, find a way to get full diplomatic immunity...
    i.e. persons and property can be examined. No probable cause, no warrant, no "suspicion" protection to stop every search request.
    You can be searched, asked questions, have to show a device is what it should be.
    Until federal courts or Congress sets new laws or comments on the need for "suspicion" of criminal activity all searches are legal.
    Copies of your data are fine too. e.g. a camera can have its digital files looked at or recovered if deleted.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    1. Re:Congress and the courts know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They can't ever compel speech- ever- and good luck with my encrypted drive. I'd not reveal any passwords period. If I'm not mistaken they can't even take the computer from you and then mail it back to you six months later like they used to be able to do.

    2. Re:Congress and the courts know by Gramie2 · · Score: 1

      Except that a former Norwegian Prime Minister with a diplomatic passport was detained at Dulles Airport because he had visited Iran in his official capacity.

      No one is actually safe from these buffoons, encouraged by the buffoon-in-chief.

    3. Re:Congress and the courts know by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Thats fine in the USA but entering the USA is legally different.
      AC that laptop can be turned on, data copied and the device returned.
      Think of a digital camera. It can be turned on, all images looked at to see if a persons travel history is the same as what they said it was when asked.
      The camera card can be examined for images that got deleted or any use of encryption. The encryption might hold, the use of most encryption is detectable given the US federal budget.
      The images can be recovered and more questions asked.
      If everyone demanded "rights" as they entered the US then nothing could be searched and no questions asked. The normal inspections would slow up with the need for court orders for every bag inspection..
      US citizens could just wonder in with anything they wanted in their bags...

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    4. Re:Congress and the courts know by TechnoJoe · · Score: 1

      If been from the USA was legally special, everyone from the USA would demand rights not to be searched

      Actually, being a US Citizen IS legally special. Specifically (IANAL):

      • Under international treaties ratified by Congress, a citizen of a country cannot be denied entry into their country. They can be detained/arrested but not denied/deported.
      • Property can be seized, but must be returned, eventually.

      Ultimately, this is what the person should have done. Refused to turn over the PIN, and then call NASA and tell them CBP confiscated his phone. Let someone above his pay grade sort it out. If his bosses want to turn over the PIN to CBP, they can turn it over.

    5. Re:Congress and the courts know by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Every digital file can be opened. Encryption use can be questioned.
      The facts surrounding any file can be asked about. e.g. a recovered photo.
      i.e. you can be asked about a photo, have any device searched for a photo when questioned at the time.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  22. Re:"Bikkannavar says he was..." by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did you miss the part where he was born in the US? No H1B visa required.

  23. No words... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    US is fundamentally broken. From example to the world to laughing stock.

    1. Re:No words... by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      Key disclosure laws are common around the world:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    2. Re:No words... by OhPlz · · Score: 1

      That's when you give them the code that wipes the device.

    3. Re:No words... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I read an article on self destructing phones the other day. This seems like an ideal use case.

    4. Re:No words... by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      That may seem clever, but it may well subject you to criminal penalties (destruction of evidence).

    5. Re:No words... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except you aren't the one destroying evidence, they are. You simply gave them enough rope... And if they hadn't fucked with it, it wouldn't be wiped at all.

    6. Re:No words... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What crime was alleged?

    7. Re:No words... by Cederic · · Score: 1

      What evidence? Of which crime?

      Come on, there isn't even probable cause.

    8. Re:No words... by green1 · · Score: 1

      I hate to break it to you, the US has never been an "example to the world". But I will admit that it didn't used to be the laughing stock it became just over 15 years ago.

    9. Re:No words... by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      What evidence? Of which crime? Come on, there isn't even probable cause.

      The crime/probable cause that justifies them unlocking your phone.

      If you pull this stunt at the border, they'll likely refuse admission.

      If you pull this stunt with a court, they'll charge you with destruction of evidence.

      The spoliation inference is a negative evidentiary inference that a finder of fact can draw from a party's destruction of a document or thing that is relevant to an ongoing or reasonably foreseeable civil or criminal proceeding: the finder of fact can review all evidence uncovered in as strong a light as possible against the spoliator and in favor of the opposing party.

    10. Re:No words... by OhPlz · · Score: 1

      What foreseeable civil or criminal proceeding was underway? None. And if there was, they'd have a search warrant naming the individual and what they're wanting access to. This was a fishing expedition, nothing more.

      Also, it's unlikely that US customs and border patrol would deny entry to a resident of the US. They could detain the guy, but to what end? The phone was wiped, there's nothing else to pursue. It's not actionable because he wasn't suspected of a crime, it wasn't evidence.

    11. Re:No words... by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      They could detain the guy, but to what end? The phone was wiped, there's nothing else to pursue. It's not actionable because he wasn't suspected of a crime, it wasn't evidence.

      Border control doesn't have to prove a crime; there is no innocent until proven guilty or due process. Admission for non-citizens to the US is not a right, it's a privilege. If you wipe your phone when they ask to inspect it, that is likely more than enough justification for them to exclude you.

    12. Re:No words... by OhPlz · · Score: 1

      He's a US citizen.

    13. Re:No words... by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      In the message you were responding to, I was referring to general circumstances where key disclosure laws apply.

      Even in his case, it would have been risky to erase the phone. For example, if they suspected him of espionage, they might have taken erasing the phone as justification for detaining him and then searching his home with a fine tooth comb.

      Unless you know what you're being investigated for, erasing the phone may cause you more trouble than unlocking it. In fact, even just having the kind of software that can erase the phone in response to certain passwords would be viewed as suspicious by courts, as would "deniable encryption" software.

      I'm not saying that it's right, I'm simply pointing out the way it is: if you play such games with border control or police, the cost to you may be quite high.

    14. Re:No words... by OhPlz · · Score: 1

      If he was suspected of espionage they should have secured a warrant. They also can't tear apart his home without a warrant. I get that you're taking the path of least resistance, but I'm at the other end. I'd rather risk further provocation in order to defend what I think is right. The problem is, not many people will do that anymore, the authorities know this, and our rights are becoming indefensible.

    15. Re:No words... by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      They also can't tear apart his home without a warrant.

      If he uses a password that causes his phone to self-destruct, that is just the kind of probable cause they may need to get a warrant.

      I'd rather risk further provocation in order to defend what I think is right

      Both key disclosure laws and border control are unsettled legal and moral areas, so I don't even presume to know what's right.

      The problem is, not many people will do that anymore, the authorities know this, and our rights are becoming indefensible.

      Government has become bigger and more intrusive, certainly. On the other hand, people probably have also become more knowledgeable and less respectful of government. I think that's part of the political upheavals we're seeing right now.

  24. Re:Not a real American by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This poster is not a real human. They're a worthless bigot. They don't belong anywhere on Earth.

  25. Re:Not a real American by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't you mean, bigot belongs in India, for the irony.

  26. Re:If You Don't Like To Follow Trumperica Rules Th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Moron. He was going back to where he was from, which is the US.

  27. Re:"Bikkannavar says he was..." by MightyMartian · · Score: 0

    He's got a foreign sounding last name, and that makes him a potential terrorist. They should have beat him a bit, y'know, just in case.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  28. Re:Trump doesn't run borders by Darinbob · · Score: 0

    Have you actually read the constitution? Have you read and understood over 200 years of legal precedent regarding the abilities of the courts when asked to adjudicate a conflict over a law? There is legal precedent that the president does not have carte blanche over border rules. We do not have a dictatorship.

  29. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by NonUniqueNickname · · Score: 5, Informative

    But you don't have any 4th Amendment Rights at an airport. Searches and seizures at an airport are not subject to any requirement of reasonable suspicion, probable cause, or warrant. It's called the Border Search Exception ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ), it has been in effect since the 1970s (or earlier?), and pretty much every related case was ruled in favor of the government.

  30. Use a burner phone going out of country every time by sasparillascott · · Score: 2

    The new administration is going to go for mass/personal surveillance even more than the prior administration (which was terrible) - count on these guys making a copy of every bit of personal data and messaging on that phone.

    I'd get a burner phone with very limited personal data on it and use that for international traveling unless you don't mind the govt getting a copy of everything on your daily driver phone and saving it forever to be possibly used against you when the time comes (and the tyrant is right, we can elect anyone). JMHO....

  31. Re:Trump doesn't run borders by mmell · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The US Government. Not a monarchy. Three branches. Checks and balances. Deal with it.

  32. I stopped flying in the US after 9/11 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We, the 'most powerful' nation have become so damn paranoid. Drive to Canada via a mid west state.

  33. If this happens to you by guruevi · · Score: 1

    Ask them to contact your attorney and the attorney for whatever organization you're with and let them fight it out. Off course they'll insist they have the authority, but if your device is marked as classified, they don't.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  34. Re:Trump doesn't run borders by ChrisMaple · · Score: 0, Troll

    There is legal precedent and explicit, clearly written law that says the President has just such power for the reasons the President stated. The judge who made the original decision is a vicious leftist hack and the 9th circuit court is no better.

    This is a decision by people trying to get petty political gains and not caring how many people are killed as a result. They are worse than murderers, because they are not even risking their own lives.

    --
    Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  35. Ironically by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well ironically, if he'd been called Melania or Annika or Dashia they probably wouldn't have batted an eyelid. Even if you're heading to a modelling convention and staying at a modelling agency house without work visa paperwork.
    (Trump's modelling agency hired a lot of undocumented models from eastern europe without work visas to model in the US, his wife Melania was one of these illegal workers, yet nobody is expecting the new Trump laws to be applied to her).

    " adding that the cybersecurity team at JPL "was not happy about the breach.""
    You have a cyber security breach in the whitehouse now. FFS, he wouldn't even sign the cyber security bill, and meetings between his team and of the Putin's team have been confirmed by US governmental investigators.

  36. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Then pretty much every case was decided wrong. It's happened before you know. See, for instance, the moving to detention camps of US citizens of Japanese descent during WWII, which was ruled constitutional by the same screwed up institution. Heavy emphasis on "US citizens" there, because it's kind of important.

    There is nothing in the Constitution that says there's a 'border search exception' to the 4th amendment, and there's nothing in the Constitution that grants the government that power. This is wrong and it needs to be stopped.

    What they should do at the border is verify that you're a US citizen, do their tax thing if you bought stuff overseas, and that's it. People not covered by the Constitution (as in, non-US citizens) we can do what we want just as they can with us when we visit their countries--but this harassment of US citizens has to stop and I don't give a damn what happened on 9/11 that they use as a made up excuse for their illegal behavior. I feel trapped in my own country now because despite being a natural born citizen I don't feel safe leaving. I'm not afraid of other countries (well, most) but I'm very much afraid of my own government when I return.

    Now, I don't know if this person is a US citizen or not. A non-US citizen working for the US government is an interesting conundrum but at the very least the power tripping border guard should've checked with someone before proceeding on.

  37. Re:Trump doesn't run borders by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

    The courts cannot legally act as legislators, but they do anyway. It is the courts that are destroying the balance of power.

    --
    Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  38. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by CaptainDork · · Score: 2

    Actually, the person who handed over the phone probably did not have standing to claim 4th amendment rights.

    The phone is not his.

    It belongs to NASA.

    For reference, see this about Microsoft:

    “Standing has been a barrier in cases that seek to vindicate people’s privacy rights,” said Jennifer Granick, a Stanford Law School professor. “It’s a serious issue in conducting constitutional litigation, and this case is no different.”

    Four court decisions listed by U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle all reached the same conclusion -- Fourth Amendment protections can only be cited by individuals, and not vicariously by third parties. The most recent was a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the family of a driver who was shot and killed by police after a high-speed chase couldn’t invoke that right on his behalf related to a lawsuit over his death.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  39. it's been like that for a while (EFF) by ooloorie · · Score: 2

    Here is the EFF advice for crossing borders with digital devices, from 2011:

    https://www.eff.org/wp/defendi...

    1. Re:it's been like that for a while (EFF) by naughtynaughty · · Score: 4, Informative

      Some more up to date advice:

      https://www.wired.com/2017/02/...

    2. Re:it's been like that for a while (EFF) by tepples · · Score: 1

      That site misdetects my tracking blocker as an ad blocker.

    3. Re:it's been like that for a while (EFF) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I use uBlock Origin and it didn't detect anything.

    4. Re:it's been like that for a while (EFF) by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      That site misdetects my tracking blocker as an ad blocker.

      I didn't realise there was a difference.

    5. Re:it's been like that for a while (EFF) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That advice probably applies to the "free" country called USA only.

      I travel around occasionally, Europe, around Asia, etc.

      Never had a problem with my Laptop / other electronic devices.

      Guess why I have no interest in visiting the US? LOL.

      Too bad US doesn't want to earn the tourist / traveller money .....

  40. It sucks but it happens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When you are dealing with border security, they have the right to do some pretty invasive searching. It's happened to me and (gasp) I'm a straight white US-born Christian male.

  41. Re:Trump doesn't run borders by Darinbob · · Score: 2

    The president can not make a ban based on religion, and yet that is what he claimed this was even though the wording in the order itself made it muddled. Thus, put it on hold until the lawsuits go through. This is not judicial activism, this is the courts doing what they are supposed to do - the president does not have the power to dismiss a lawsuit unilaterally and so the courts must get involved.

    So the original judge, appointed to Dubya, is a leftist hack? No one is getting killed over this. If we cared about safety we would have had the ban on Saudi Arabia and Pakistan as well. This is 100% about Trump keeping a poorly thought out campaign promise.

  42. Re:sensitive information in a foreign country !!!! by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

    And if he was really concerned with protecting data on his phone, instead of surrendering it he should have dropped it on the floor and crushed it. Unlocking it then becomes moot.

    --
    Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  43. Non story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    JPL employee violates policy and causes unauthorized disclosure. If he were white the same thing would have happened but there would be no story nor the alt-left virtue signaling.

  44. What's JPL's policy on taking equipment abroad? by scottpig · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If the guy's abroad on a personal trip, why's he carrying his JPL issued phone with him? That seems like a security no-no.

    I've never worked at NASA but I have been issued equipment by government contractors and taking it out of the country while on personal trips was expressly forbidden. I never traveled abroad on company business but my understanding was that for at least some destinations the security department would require you to take a different laptop that only had the data you needed for the trip on it instead of your usual one. I'm not sure if that was for every destination or just for the more hostile ones.

    1. Re:What's JPL's policy on taking equipment abroad? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It could be as simple as "we might need to call you so keep your phone at all times".

      Workplace policies contradict eachother on occasion: the only constant resulting from these is that it's the employee caught in the middle that's exactly wrong no matter what he does.

    2. Re:What's JPL's policy on taking equipment abroad? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I work for NASA. I have been issued a government-owned laptop but not a phone.

      Government property can be carried domestically without issue. There's a form I'm supposed to carry at all times but it really only matters going out of the facility gate. No one at the TSA knows about this NASA form. Internationally....nope. Can't take the laptop out of the country. I'm not sure about phones but I suspect it's the same story.

      Almost none of what NASA does is classified. Some of it falls under ITAR or EAR materials, but that material is viewable by US Citizens and Permanent Residents who work for a US company. Thus, it wouldn't be an issue for the TSA agents to see some of the data.

    3. Re:What's JPL's policy on taking equipment abroad? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed. This was his fault. Shoulda left home without it.

    4. Re:What's JPL's policy on taking equipment abroad? by RTR_1 · · Score: 1

      I used to be a NASA Civil Servant (now a NASA contractor) and for the last few years we were NOT given permission to take our government-provided smart phones out of the country for any reason (probably because too many got lost or stolen). It could be a Cal Tech phone and not really a NASA one? Or he's just stupid?

  45. Re: I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    BS, if it's crossing and physical, search it. If it's crossing and electronic (data), then don't bother because it's coming in either way (network) and to search it means risk of permanent retention and data abuse.

  46. Re: I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All men created equal, it says. Means US citizens or not. Everyone should be treated with dignity under the Constitution. This is not to be confused with "don't ask, don't tell" attitude at the border. If you're a known bad actor, beat it. But rummaging through everyone's electronic data at the gate is rude and pointless. Data's getting in no matter what

  47. CPB spies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Guaranteed they wanted to sell some of that info to other countries.

    There's not a single honest person working for our border organizations.

  48. Re:Definition of left by hackwrench · · Score: 2

    Depending on your definition, pretty much everyone involved with government is Leftist. https://www.reddit.com/r/expla...

  49. America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is no more.

  50. Re: Trump doesn't run borders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And the Executive doesn't have agencies which write their own legally binding regulations. Such regulations that if you violate them you find yourself in legal trouble? Regulations that the Legislature did not write?

  51. Re:Not a real American by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're trying too hard, libtard.

  52. Doesn't matter by Snotnose · · Score: 1

    Until a celebrity gets the same treatment it won't matter, because 99% of the sheeple don't follow /.

    Let this happen to Beyonce and rejoice.

  53. Welcome to by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nazi America.

  54. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by Woldscum · · Score: 1

    Why did he take NASA issued equipment out the US? What if another country did the same search?

  55. Getting data across the border by naughtynaughty · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just put your data on a micro SD card and hide it in a Rubiks cube

  56. Re: Trump doesn't run borders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But the legislature have the administrative agency the right to promulgate regulations. That's how adminstrative law works. Legislature gives up it's powers to the executive. Of course they also have the right to take them back.

  57. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is nothing in the Constitution that says there's a 'border search exception' to the 4th amendment

    Indeed.

    This is wrong and it needs to be stopped.

    Like the ACA, which is exceedingly illegal, if we're playing the Constitution game.

    Thankfully, that boat set sail during the Washington administration, and is not coming back into port.

  58. Re:sensitive information in a foreign country !!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Phones can be, y'know, encrypted...

  59. Re:Trump doesn't run borders by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They act as legislators only by clarifying laws that are brought before the court during a lawsuit. And yes, the laws are indeed vague many times. They are made vague because it's easier to get them passed that way.

    So for example, someone commits a crime, during the trial the defendant complains that evidence was seized illegally, or that he didn't know about certain rights; this gets brought before the courts to decide. The courts do not seek out these cases on their own. Then there's a conflict at the heart usually; the executive has some authority to do searches and obtain warrants, but the constitution forbids unreasonable searches, both sides have very good points. So the courts have to decide. Very often the conflict is between what current legislators think the meaning should be and what the current executive thinks the meaning should be. It's a tug of war, both sides want to enhance their own power while diminishing the power of the other side.

    Note that almost nothing gets to the supreme court without there being a real solid conflict at the core with complex legal issues involved (except maybe the bush v. gore case). This is because most cases trickle up through the court systems, there have been appeals already and usually a disagreement between different circuit courts. Many of these "activist judges running amok!" cases would have that accusation no matter which way they ruled.

    Citizen's United case is cited as an "activist court" decision, people hate that decision on the left and the right. Politicians love it though so it won't change anytime soon. However it was a real case brought all the way to the court with very good justification on both sides of the issue. Just because the decision was awful (and I think it was) does not mean the supreme court was being activist. Their job was to settle the dispute. And they decided that a group of people has the same rights as a single person, essentially, and that you could not restrict the free speech of a group of people even if that happens to be a corporation. People don't hate that decision because it violates the constitution or various laws, but because it violates how we want the law to be. The only way to fix that is with a constitutional amendment.

    Now if congress does not like how a court rules, then the congress already has the power to override this, if they can get a law passed to clarify rules and enough votes to overcome a veto. But it's easier to just bitch that the courts are out of control because it agrees with the executive branch on occasion. If they don't like the courts then they need to be more clear with the laws and make sure the laws don't conflict with each other or conflict with the constitution. Also, complaining about the courts is an easy way to get re-elected.

    There's a long history here too. Jefferson hated that Marshall did not allow the executive more power and accused that court of being "despotic", the same dispute that started to give the constitution actual weight instead of just a pretty piece of paper that could be ignored when politically convenient.

  60. Re:Definition of left by Demena · · Score: 2, Informative

    Pretty much everyone human is leftist. Even Republicans.

    The US uses its own (wrong) definitions that confuse the rest of the world.

  61. Re: I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' by bigfinger76 · · Score: 4, Informative

    All men created equal, it says.

    If by 'it' you mean the Declaration of Independence, then you'd be correct. The Constitution, however, does not contain these words.

  62. Re: If You Don't Like To Follow Trumperica Rules T by Demena · · Score: 1

    After you, sir.

  63. Re:"Bikkannavar says he was..." by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He is way smarter and cooler than you would ever be.... AH!
    http://www.principiaalumni.org/from-space-to-solar-car-races

  64. US Citizen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I knew as a Canadian I am privileged to cross the US border but I had no idea a US citizen had to deal with this. I always assumed if a Canadian border guard gave me shit I (and I had nothing to hide) I could tell them to go fuck themselves. Who are they and what added rights have they been given to keep me out of my country? And I will tell them to go fuck themselves if they try this garbage with me and I can't think of a thing they could to do retaliate (again, because I have nothing to hide).

    So then the question becomes, why do Americans have to deal with such bullshit? The guy is a citizen (it's irrelevant that he was born there - a citizen is a citizen either way). What right does some powertripping asshole have to detain him? I really don't know the rules, so I'll ask: what if he resists and just drives off? If he's he's not committing an offense and if has nothing to hide, what right does one man have to tell another man he can't enter his own country? This kind of shit makes me very angry.

    1. Re:US Citizen by Straif · · Score: 1

      Canada border services has pretty much the same powers as their American counterparts. They can't keep you out of the country since you are a citizen but your goods and possession are subject to almost any search they want to perform, without a warrant.

      So while telling the border agent to "go fuck themselves" when they ask for your laptop won't keep you out of the country, it will most likely mean you are going home sans 1 laptop until such time that they 'decide' it's no longer of interest for them to hold it.

      --
      Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!
  65. One Possible Approach by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Border Services think they are Gods. And it's true they have formidable legislation on their side. Formidable, but not beyond question.

    I've long since decided, if I have to travel with a work laptop. We too have formidable legislation on our side; the kind of legislation that *Does Not* permit exceptions. So what I've decided is that "I do not have the authority to release that information to you. If you want to deal with my corporation's security department, that's your call. I won't be doing that. I can give you the initial contacts but after that you have to navigate the system."

    If they want to seize the laptop, I'll be taking notes and reporting that to corporate InfoSec. Border Services can make your life difficult it's true, you'd better be prepared to be detained for several hours if you go this route. In fact due to this I don't want to travel with any corporate devices; seriously, it's not worth the time and effort.

    Also, try to minimize the attitude. That alone will take a serious act of will, believe me! However any attitude you give the agents will only increase the time they decide to hassle you.

  66. Climate data by Camel+Pilot · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Border guard was just being sure the guy wasn't trying to sneak any climate data into the US

    1. Re:Climate data by Drethon · · Score: 1

      The Border guard was just being sure the guy wasn't trying to sneak any climate data into the US

      I'm pretty sure that was an executive order...

    2. Re:Climate data by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Border guard was just being sure the guy wasn't trying to sneak any climate change into the US

      FTFY

  67. Re:"Bikkannavar says he was..." by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    He's got a foreign sounding last name, and that makes him a potential terrorist.

    Unless you have a native American name, you have a foreign-sounding last name in the USA. Unfortunately, the descendants of the first batch of invading foreigners are having a hissy fit about subsequent foreigners following in their footsteps.

  68. Re:Not a real American by Demena · · Score: 2

    You are a native american then?

    If not, then as you say, fuck off home. Back where _you_ came from.

  69. Re: Definition of left by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's because French Monarchists are very rare in the US.

    I think there's two in Baton Rouge.

  70. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The constitution is very clear on the fact that it also applies to non-citizens. When something only applies to citizens, the word "citizen" is used, and when something applies to everybody, it uses words like "people".

  71. Did he have something to to hide? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Some publicly funded secrets? Nothing to fear.

  72. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    The "US citizens" thing is also based on erroneous case law. The 4th does not say anything about citizens, it applies to foreign nationals too.

  73. TSA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I make sure I bring a bottle of salt water. So in case they get salty, I can take a sip of victory.

  74. Re: I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They have more guns than you do.

    They win.

  75. Don't get a burner phone, get a drop phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I'd get a burner phone with very limited personal data on it and use that for international traveling

    Why? That seems super annoying.

    Instead get the burner phone, and do nothing with it. Take your real phone, and enjoy it. Then as you are traveling through customs, if they ask to see your phone hand it over... the burner phone that is, and provide them the PIN. If you swap in the SIM on the plane they can't say it's not your primary phone, and how would they know anyway... they are just going to attach the device to some system that sucks data. So give them something to suck on, as it were - and everyone is happy. The show goes on!

    Posting Anon so only the CIA knows who I am. Hi Bob! How are the kids?

  76. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by EvilAlphonso · · Score: 3, Interesting

    To date, my electronic devices have only been inspected (beyond "can you turn it on?") by the US border control. Granted, there may be others in the world but I normally don't travel to totalitarian hell-holes.

    One of my previous employers made a policy in 2008 about what devices could be taken through the US border control and under which circumstances. Exec summary: if not on official business, no device from the employer can be taken to the US. If on official business, a loaner laptop is handed out and it will be re-imaged on return.

  77. Not A Chance With Our Guys... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

    Our aircrew flying back from a one way trip carry classified laptops all the time. TSA can look in the bag we carry them in, but they can't touch the laptop. Not a chance. Ever. For any reason. Not going to happen. Tough shit. And they are not curriers, their aircrew in civies.

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  78. Its his OWN fault ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    WTF is he doing with a NASA issued phone on a personal trip ? What if it got stolen while he was on vacation ? He should be fired.

    1. Re:Its his OWN fault ! by Z00L00K · · Score: 1

      He may very well have represented NASA on the site in Chile - it was electric cars, something that NASA has an interest in.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    2. Re:Its his OWN fault ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Solar powered electric cars none the less. Sounds like fun. Now the need to make me a solar sail.

    3. Re:Its his OWN fault ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "WTF is she doing with a short miniskirt on? What if someone got aroused when she walked by? She should be raped."

      Classic victim blaming, typical of the right.

  79. target: climate science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    not sure how involved NASA is with climate science, but clearly that is the reason; why is this a surprise?

  80. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well maybe if you'd get up off your apologist ass and DO something about it instead of quoting the obvious status quo, this government thing wouldn't be a problem, or even exist.

  81. Follow Proper Procedure: Call Company's Legal Dept by BBF_BBF · · Score: 2
    The proper procedure is: If stopped by any US agent and asked to reveal passwords for equipment issued by one's employer is to refuse to reveal the password until permission is granted from one's employer.

    The phone/computer/whatever IS NOT YOUR PROPERTY and ALL THE INFORMATION on it is the property of YOUR EMPLOYER.

    So just kindly tell the border agent that one must obtain permission from one's employer before revealing proprietary company information. Pretty much tell them that one has to get permission from one's company's legal department to reveal the unlock code for any company equipment because it's not one's own decision to make to reveal company proprietary information to a third party. That's pretty much standard policy for any company.

    However, if it's one personal device, it's definitely it's within one's right to not give the border agents the password, but then it's also the border agent's right to detain you till you do, or till some other agreement is reached. Unless you can contact a lawyer immediately and have the funds to pay one, then without a lawyer helping you out, it's going to be difficult for you to navigate the legal minefield.

  82. hmm by superwiz · · Score: 1

    Why would JPL not wipe any sensitive info from phone cache after it gets locked (or worse gets put in a plane mode). If nothing else, if there is lost luggage or a plane crash, wouldn't they want to make sure that national-secret level info is not in the wrong hands? And after the phone is unlocked, why isn't there a separate security handshake before any sensitive data is populated in the phone's apps from the network?

    --
    Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
    1. Re:hmm by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      They could remote wipe the phone, but he probably wasn't allowed to call it in... if they copy the encrypted partition before giving the phone back then the bad guys have however long they need to try to crack it.

  83. Re:Not a real American by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No humans are native to the Americas, not even the "native Americans". They are from northeast Asia.

  84. They should have shot him by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Like they should do with all Space Nutters. Nobody is going anywhere, there is nothing there for us. Just a dead radiation-blasted vacuum. And yet those idiots cling to their childish Space Age fantasies with the zeal of a Daesh suicide bomber.

  85. Re:Not a real American by Demena · · Score: 1

    I too had believed that to be the case. I have recently read that there is some reconsideration of this from a number of disciplines so my judgement is currently served. But even the Americas are not native to America. It all comes from what was before.

    But all you do is reinforce my point. There is no "home". We are a migratory species. That is why we have survived so far.

  86. Re:Trump doesn't run borders by Darinbob · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There are laws that the president cannot break. Treaties are laws. He would need congressional approval to break the treaties, including UN treaties. The president cannot increase the number of green card holders without congressional approval. Deportations require review by the courts, as constitutional due process applies to everyone in the US, legally or not. Opposite of that, the president also can't make all illegal immigrants legal by himself. Current immigration law forbids discrimination of immigrant visas on the basis of race, sex, or place of residence; though the president can impose stricter background checks ("extreme vetting"). Of course presidents have often overreached here.

    Congress has the plenary power to regulation naturalization in the constitution, and because the constitution does not mention immigration the supreme court has held that this clause gives congress plenary power to regulation immigration. Nowhere in the constitution is the president granted powers over naturalization or immigration, although the executive does enforce these laws and regulation with some latitude granted by congress.

    Unless you can point to the clause in the constitution that says otherwise, this is the job of congress. Which is one reason everyone was so angry at unilateral action taken by president Obama.

  87. Not New by JimSadler · · Score: 1

    Clear back in the mid 1980 era we had engineers on domestic flights that were held at airports until FBI folks could bring in an engineer to inspect the circuits with a fear that we could be handing over technology to foreign agents. It was an odd sort of thing as apparently the fear was that an engineer could hand over a circuit board while in flight, to a person who would transfer to another flight leaving the US. Usually our people were carrying either computer boards or robotic boards, none of which were in violation of any guarded secrets.

  88. He didn't have authority to grant permission by buss_error · · Score: 5, Informative

    As a matter of law, because he is not the owner, he cannot grant permission to search. Since he divulged his access, he and the TSA agent can be prosecuted under the CFAA.

    IANAL.

    That being said, anyone carrying anything they wish to keep confidential within 200 miles of a boarder, or while not in your own home effectively has no rights at all. Not as a matter of law, but as a simple matter of fact. Not just 4th amendments rights either. The police shoot dead unarmed people at least two times a week on average. As a simple matter of statistics, you are 300 times (times, not percent) more likely to be killed by a police officer than you are by a terrorist.

    You people supporting these actions are insane.

    --
    Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
    1. Re:He didn't have authority to grant permission by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That being said, anyone carrying anything they wish to keep confidential within 200 miles of a boarder, or while not in your own home effectively has no rights at all. Not as a matter of law, but as a simple matter of fact. Not just 4th amendments rights either. The police shoot dead unarmed people at least two times a week on average. As a simple matter of statistics, you are 300 times (times, not percent) more likely to be killed by a police officer than you are by a terrorist.

      On a practical level, your stuff is secure from 'border' searches if you're not at the border. Sure, they might claim a legal right to search it, but other searches with other justification are far more likely to happen. Civil asset forfeiture, for example. And the police shootings you mention have nothing to do with the border.

    2. Re:He didn't have authority to grant permission by Perl-Pusher · · Score: 1

      Not only are you not a lawyer, you also know nothing about export control. This story is crap. Not only does he not have any expectation of privacy on that device he had to sign a waiver saying as much when he was given it. And if there were anything sensitive on it he would be in jail not posting on Facebook.

  89. Re:Follow Proper Procedure: Call Company's Legal D by dargaud · · Score: 1

    Now, slightly different case. Hear me out:
    - You work for a FOREIGN gov agency on critical material (say nuclear for instance)
    - You are invited to the US for a collaboration, so you take work (encrypted) laptop with you.
    - You are not allowed by your gov to give access to anyone
    - At US border, TSA asks for access.
    What do you do ? What CAN you do ?

    --
    Non-Linux Penguins ?
  90. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 3, Insightful

    In other words, "think of the children". A poor excuse for this sort of thing if there ever was one... because if it is an excuse, why stop at border checks? Why not have cops bust down people's doors on a regular basis to go through their porn pile? Do random stop-and-searches?

    There may be valid reasons for allowing searches at the border that are not allowed elsewhere, but finding kiddie porn isn't one of them.

    --
    If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  91. Don't vote for fascists if you value privacy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's all there is to it. And you can't just sit through the primaries until only fascists are left, either, and then complain about a lack of choice.

    1. Re:Don't vote for fascists if you value privacy. by Straif · · Score: 1

      The laws allowing for this search exist both in the US and most other countries and have for decades. This has absolutely NOTHING to do with who currently occupies the White House. Even if it did, I doubt if Trump's had time in the last 2 weeks to personally replace every border agent with the imaginary fascist thugs you seem to think exist.

      International travellers have been telling stories like these forever back to the days of being requested to open up your locked briefcase.

      The basic rule is if you don't want to comply, and you still want to enter the country in question, then either contact your employer for further instructions and wait it out or be ready to surrender your device which will be returned whenever border services decides they're done with it.

      There is nothing new here.

      --
      Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!
  92. Re:Follow Proper Procedure: Call Company's Legal D by ledow · · Score: 2

    "but then it's also the border agent's right to detain you till you do"

    Or get a warrant to say it's necessary.
    Which would probably be refused.

    The fear of "we'll just hold you until you co-operate" is not due process.

    You object.
    You wait.
    Then you call in the lawyers (in this case JPL's, I imagine).
    Because - as stated - they have no right to demand the passcode.
    Hell, I'd be making them sign an NDA. As in YOU PERSONALLY sign the NDA to tell me what you'll do with the information in the phone. They'll refuse, of course they will, but it's not like I'm being uncooperative, I'm asking you to document, receipt and provide data security for that thing you're trying to access, which is a core part of evidence preservation anyway.

    But there is a reason that I a) wouldn't enter the US, b) wouldn't try to take any electronic devices even if I did.

    This guy worked for JPL. Imagine what that's doing to your foreign workers and people on business trips from other countries. They just aren't going to want to do business with you if their secret patents are being shared willy-nilly around the TSA offices without some kind of guarantee.

    Hell, if they asked for my social media, I'd refuse beyond showing them my (locked-down) public Facebook page. If that gets me detained, even theoretically, then I'm not risking going at all.

    The US is so anti-foreigner nowadays that they are basically going to cut themselves further off from the world than their own ignorance takes them anyway.

  93. Re:Use a burner phone going out of country every t by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

    Burner phones are not very convenient for individuals though. Expensive to keep getting good ones, and of course you need a burner laptop as well.

    With the phone I do a backup and factory reset. With an encrypted device it's safe. With the laptop the SSD is encrypted and it needs a USB drive with the decryption software on it to boot. I don't carry that USB drive with me, I just keep an image of it online so I can download it when I get where I'm going. Instead, I throw a Windows install on it that I show to the border security people if they ask.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  94. Re:Trump doesn't run borders by Damouze · · Score: 1

    Checks and balances...

    --
    And on the Eighth Day, Man created God.
  95. Re:Trump doesn't run borders by gnasher719 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The Ninth Circus arrogated a power they do not have.

    Many people disagree with you. Most important, the right-wing judge whom Trump wants to add to the Supreme Court of the USA disagrees with you. In public. If _that_ man says that a court is right and Trump is wrong then you can believe it. (Like when _the NSA_ says that backdoors in phone encryption is bad for national security, then you can believe it).

  96. Re:Definition of left by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And in the US they use the normal colors for leftist and rightist wrongly. Socialists and other leftwing groups have traditionally gone under a RED banner.

    Remember the old chant: "Better dead than red!".

  97. Re:Follow Proper Procedure: Call Company's Legal D by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You inform you government of the situation and sit down.
    The TSA can then decide to detain a foreign government worker that is important to both their and US nuclear program.
    It might be that you will have to return and can't proceed with whatever collaboration you were invited to.
    Write a report to you government and let them ask the US side what is going on.

  98. Social engineering by CptLoRes · · Score: 1

    If you find yourself in need of access to some restricted information, just pretend you are from CBP and get them to unlock the phone/computer for you. Pretty much makes encryption worthless.

  99. Government issued mobile device by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Shouldn't be carrying a GFE phone outside the country unless ones traveling on a diplomatic passport, that is on official business. Even then, one is best to use a 'throw down' device with the minimum apps and data downloaded to perform tasks specific to that trip.

    1. Re:Government issued mobile device by Perl-Pusher · · Score: 1

      And the fact he had to sign a waiver saying that there was no restricted information on it and that he no reasonable expectation of privacy. But hey, the story was on the Verge and corroborated by Facebook so it must be true right?

  100. Re:Follow Proper Procedure: Call Company's Legal D by Ihlosi · · Score: 1
    > What CAN you do

    Two words: Diplomatic incident.

  101. Self-destructing cellular policy and Catch-22. by geekmux · · Score: 1

    Our corporate devices are protected with an MDM policy that essentially wipes the phone after X number of failed attempts to unlock it.

    I'm wondering how would he have fared if his nerves got the best of him and he accidentally wiped his device prior to handing it over. Or if he would have wiped his device on purpose if his company held a corporate policy against coercive acts designed to avoid data breaches.

    This activity certainly begs the question as to what corporations should do in order to protect their data, which ironically it is often times US Government policy that mandates federal contractors protect sensitive data.

    Thanks to the War on Terror for this bullshit Catch-22.

  102. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Like the ACA, which is exceedingly illegal, if we're playing the Constitution game.

    Supreme Court begs to differ. lol.

  103. Re: "Bikkannavar says he was..." by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I dub thee "indo-chimp" guy. Like many ignorant, dumb people, you repeat yourself ad-nauseum. Yes, we know you hate "indo-chimps" because they're smarter than you, and because they can get work while you can't. It's not because you're white, it's because you're a useless, useless cunt. Go ahead and throw that rope up, we know you've been considering it. Get it done. Thanks bud.

  104. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Courts, i.e. the ones who get to arbitrate what the Constitution actually means, disagree with your interpretation, and have done so repeatedly for decades. Therefore you are wrong.

  105. Re:Trump doesn't run borders by Maritz · · Score: 0

    Aw diddums, he's moaning that the president doesn't have all the powers of an emperor. Maybe you'll get your wish soon, dumbass.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  106. Re:Trump doesn't run borders by Maritz · · Score: 1

    LOL. The last time an American was killed by an immigrant from those 7 countries was 1975. The Saudis, who did 9/11, are still allowed in. "Safety". Pathetic.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  107. Re:"Bikkannavar says he was..." by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

    He's got a foreign sounding last name, and that makes him a potential terrorist.

    Unless you have a native American name, you have a foreign-sounding last name in the USA. Unfortunately, the descendants of the first batch of invading foreigners are having a hissy fit about subsequent foreigners following in their footsteps.

    And even then the natives came from somewhere else first. Following this logic unless you're African living in Africa (could even narrow this down to South Africa) you're an immigrant.

    --
    Wanna buy a shirt?
    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  108. Alternate Facts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Was in Paris in 2015, by refugees from Syria. They killed over 100 people that day.
    Funny how I have "alternate-facts" that are actually truthful, while you don't.

    1. Re:Alternate Facts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Was in Paris in 2015, by refugees from Syria. They killed over 100 people that day.
      Funny how I have "alternate-facts" that are actually truthful, while you don't.

      If you are referring to the November 2015 terrorist attacks, then it is you who is working from "alternate-facts". According to wikipedia most of the attackers were French and Belgian citizens and two attackers were Iraqi. I seem to recall that at least one of the attackers had a fake Syrian passport on him. Some of them had apparently been to Syria and been in contact with Daesh. It doesn't appear that any of hem were actual Syrian refugees, although it does appear that at least some of them used the mass immigration crisis to slip into Europe. Next time, check your facts before posting. Remember: Read, Think, (optionally) Post; do not change this order.

  109. Hindsight by nehumanuscrede · · Score: 2

    The good folks in US Intelligence might want to whisper a few things into the ears of Customs regarding their search rules.

    It is a bit more difficult to keep tabs on folks traveling abroad when they decide to leave their tracking devices. . . . . .er phones at home due to the issues experienced at the borders.

  110. Just a second. . . . by Salgak1 · · Score: 1

    . . . .why are we keeping "sensitive information" on a PHONE ?? If it's protected government information, then protect it ***properly***. Yes, it's a pain to label, wrap, register, and put into a courier pouch for transit. And get a validated courier ID card and a Transit Letter for the particular documents and/or items. But that is the protocol.

  111. Plus those who handled the classified system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Without access, they're as guilty as Snowden or Manning, no MORE guilty, since they had been given access to the systems.

  112. Re:Trump doesn't run borders by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

    Perhaps you forgot, Trump isn't allowed to run the borders. They are now run by the 9th circuit court of appeals. You don't like it, take it up with them.

    They unconstitutional took control of the borders and who enters and under which rules from the executive branch based on "I don't like what he is doing" without even mentioning the law that they used to do it.

    Give lefties an ounce of power and this is what you get.

    I'm curious, how much power do you think Trump has, or should have versus how much you think Obama had, or should have had?

    --
    Wanna buy a shirt?
    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  113. Ignorance of the law is no defence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Therefore the CBP officer AND EVERY HANDLER OF THAT CLASSIFIED PHONE are guilty of forced entry to a military classified secret document resource without authorisation or legal right.

    Forget Hilary, these people FORCED someone to hand over the keys, just like if they held a literal gun to their head.

  114. Re:Trump doesn't run borders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Proper response by the President would have been to ... defy their bullshit ruling

    So, you're saying that since you disagree this one time, it's ok to throw away entire system of checks and balances that our Constitution mandates.

    That is how authoritarian governments take hold - with applause, from those who do not actually believe in democracy.

  115. So Manning, Snowden WL are also "Yawn...."? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    After all, WL is not beholden to the US government's laws. So Manning and Snowden was just government searching government property.

    Yawn....

  116. How many baggage searches are done midflight? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You just shoot dead the criminal trying to access DoD materials in front of the officer tasked with "Top Secret- Guard", who, being the TSA agent with a stick up their ass, is on the ground, not the plane in mid flight.

  117. Illegal search by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    NASA more standing than the oldest US LEO?

    You know what should have more standing than "the oldest US LEO"? (which the border authorities aren't, constables and sheriffs are, but we'll let that pass)

    The bloody constitution.

    The person was a US citizen.

    The search was not reasonable, and was therefore not legal. Because:

    o There was no warrant describing the place to be searched or the things to seize
    o There was no oath or affirmation
    o There was no probable cause

    The constitution explicitly says that the right against searches and seizures defined by the above shall not be violated. The constitution is what authorizes our form of government. No one who isn't a drooling sycophant could possibly read the 4th amendment any other way.

    While complying may have been the thing to do in the sense that the US government has indeed arrogated the power to do unconstitutional searches, and there could have been significant consequences based upon that unauthorized power, let's be 100% clear: The USG was acting entirely out of bounds here.

  118. You mean, "government out of control" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    There is no border search exception in the constitution. There is, however, an explicit set of prerequisites that must be met to search a citizen for sure, and probably any person as well, though in this case that doesn't even come into it.

    Before anyone starts yelling "but the courts", the courts gave themselves the power to make law that violates the constitution; the constitution did not. So they are acting illegally when they sanction such laws; congress is acting illegally when it makes such laws; border agents are acting illegally when they enforce such laws.

    As soon as someone says "there are exceptions to the constitution", you know they are making an incorrect argument. There is no such thing. The moment you accept that there are, it becomes merely advisory, and you then are advocating for a pure oligarchy. The only ambiguity in the constitution arises when one part is in conflict with another part; in that case, questions do arise with regard to which part holds sway; but in the case of search and seizure, there is no ambiguity. At all. This is an explicit limit on government.

    For those who have never read the constitution, it supplies the flexibility required to authorize such things in article five, which explains how the amendment process works. Not in article three, which defines the authority of the Supreme Court, and which contains not one word about the Supreme Court being able to alter the constitution according to their current whims.

  119. Jail has doctors that cover more then the ER and u by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    Jail has doctors that cover more then the ER and under GOP healthcare plan may be the only place to go if you have pre-ex.

  120. Re:Trump doesn't run borders by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

    The President can make a determination on who gets to immigrate based on ANY CRITERIA WHATEVER. He doesn't HAVE to let ANYONE immigrate. That's a legal fact. Sorry to intrude reality on your sorry delusion.

    If it was just people immigrating that might be fine but he basically unilaterally stopped access for any holder of passports of these countries including holidaymakers, workers, that Iranian director guy who was going to some awards ceremony and people just passing through on connecting flights.

    --
    Wanna buy a shirt?
    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  121. Extremely simple fix by kbdd · · Score: 1

    Have two pins, one that normally unlocks the phone, a second one that wipes the phone before unlocking it. Make sure you do not confuse the two when asked for the pin by CBP. Problem solved.

    1. Re:Extremely simple fix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can you provide a link which explains how to set this up on a modern smartphone?

  122. Tourism drops by kaur · · Score: 3, Informative

    Travel / tourism to US is plummeting.
    The size of the effect varies by source:

    6.5% - http://www.reuters.com/article...
    17% - http://time.com/money/4662727/...
    25% - https://www.theguardian.com/tr...
    50% - http://ttgnordic.com/interest-...

    I am European.
    I have been to United States tens of times, both on company budget and on my own.
    I won't come back, unless pressed really hard by my employer.
    Why should I?
    The world is full of wonderful places.
    Why should I choose a country which is openly hostile to visitors?

    1. Re:Tourism drops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      See my above comment :

      https://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10236167&cid=53863235

      I travel around occasionally, Europe, around Asia, etc.

      Never had a problem with my Laptop / other electronic devices.

      Guess why I have no interest in visiting the US? LOL.

      Too bad US doesn't want to earn the tourist / traveller money .....

    2. Re:Tourism drops by TechnoJoe · · Score: 1

      Why should I choose a country which is openly hostile to visitors?

      Um, Saudi Arabia will put you in prison if you try to bring in alcohol; show up intoxicated; bring in more Bibles than you need for your own personal use; or eat, drink, or smoke in public during the month of Ramadan. They will cut off your head if you try to smuggle in drugs (although I have less sympathy for this one).

      I wouldn't run the CBP the way it's being run now. However, if you think looking through facebook posts and electronics is "openly hostile," then you have been living a very sheltered life.

  123. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by Holi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    While that's a lovely fiction created by our government, it really does not pass constitutional muster.

    It really is cut and dry as written and not really open to "exceptions".

    "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

    It is easy for the government to stay within the law, just issue a warrant stating what you are looking for, but the 4th is specifically designed to stop fishing expeditions. That along with the right to travel freely really makes these laws questionable on the surface.

    Kent v Dulles:
    The right to travel is a part of the 'liberty' of which the citizen cannot be deprived without due process of law under the Fifth Amendment. If that "liberty" is to be regulated, it must be pursuant to the law-making functions of the Congress. . . . . Freedom of movement across frontiers in either direction, and inside frontiers as well, was a part of our heritage. Travel abroad, like travel within the country, . . . may be as close to the heart of the individual as the choice of what he eats, or wears, or reads. Freedom of movement is basic in our scheme of values.

    --
    Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
  124. Re:Not a real American by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fucking bigoted fat fuck alt right 4-chan trolls, you vile scum are dumb as fucking bowling balls

  125. Re: I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 1

    All men created equal, it says.

    If by 'it' you mean the Declaration of Independence, then you'd be correct. The Constitution, however, does not contain these words.

    Which is why we have been in a need for amendments.

  126. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 1

    Why did he take NASA issued equipment out the US? What if another country did the same search?

    It is always a possibility for another country to conduct such a search, but the government (as well as companies that deal with sensitive information or IP) have guidelines that more or less resolve to this: 1. Do you need it for your job?

    2. Are you going to a country that is hostile to us, or

    3. That has a history of equipment check on US citizens.

    If you answer "yes" to any of these, you might still be permitted to carry the equipment (and no otherwise.)

    In the end, we are not talking about searches in Chile. We are talking about idiotic searches by US customs, of equipment belonging to NASA carried by a US born scientist, without any fucking cause.

  127. So, a CBP 'plant' can spy on Top Secret? Stupid by lamer01 · · Score: 1

    So now if someone wants to spy on top secret work done at certain agencies of the US Govt, all they have to do is plant spies at the borders. No need to infiltrate such agencies. Nice going stupid government.

    1. Re:So, a CBP 'plant' can spy on Top Secret? Stupid by Perl-Pusher · · Score: 1

      And you can put top secret information on a phone and just leave the country? I am astounded at the level of stupidity here. He could not carry a government phone carrying any type of restricted information out of the country. When he received that phone he would have had to sign a waiver of all expectation of privacy. But its the Verge reporting on a guys Facebook post. Since his last name isn't Clinton he would be jail.

  128. Random by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Outrage at who he is may be unjustfied. Perhaps this was a randomized search to avoid profiling those who really do need to be search each and every time.

  129. Re:Follow Proper Procedure: Call Company's Legal D by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    That's fine. But if you have to catch a connecting flight in an hour, you really think this is all going to shake out in enough time?

  130. The "breach" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    LOL, the Space Age is over, dweebs. Vital 50 year old information that is already public may have been compromised!

    Oh noes!

  131. What does this accomplish? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Knowing that phones are checked, wont all those bad guys simply remove their incriminating email/social media account from the phone prior to inspection then add it back after check?

  132. he don't like it? Deport his a$$ toot sweet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    don't come whining, boy

  133. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 3

    But we do have first amendment rights and also likely 5th amendment rights. Providing a password or pin likely is protected by both and has been ruled as such. In that situation I would have basically told them to piss off but in a much more polite fashion. It wouldn't have been the first time I have told a government agent what they don't want to hear. Then again I am a white guy with an anglicized last name who has a good job, good education, and clean background so I can get away with things like that without any real repercussions. By exercising my rights I hopefully can show others that they can do the same and also show the government agents that they don't have the power they would like to think they have.

    --
    Time to offend someone
  134. Re:Trump doesn't run borders by T.E.D. · · Score: 1

    And they decided that a group of people has the same rights as a single person, essentially, and that you could not restrict the free speech of a group of people even if that happens to be a corporation. People don't hate that decision because it violates the constitution or various laws, but because it violates how we want the law to be. The only way to fix that is with a constitutional amendment.

    Well...given that our SCOTUS judges are mostly older folks, and everyone who voted for it was appointed by a Republican POTUS (it was essentially a party-line vote), you could also fix it in the long run by not voting for a POTUS from that party and making sure to vote for a POTUS from the party that nominated all the dissenters.

  135. allowed to criticize our government? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not for much longer.

    The end result of this, though, is that our opponents, the media, and the whole world will soon see, as we begin to take further actions, that the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial, and will not be questioned. - Trump senior policy adviser Stephen Miller

    Civil war is coming.

  136. Buy a brick phone for travel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just buy a brick throwaway phone for travel and reset to factory before leaving. Honestly, if every person bought an old school brick phone and offered to show TSA whether they asked or not, it would be bad enough for business just holding up the lines and they'll stop that shit. Remember when people wore bathing suites and stripped without asking? So, it really could work.

  137. Sidd Bikkannavar? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sounds like a brown person name! You can't be too careful with them brown people!

    They might get the idea that they are welcome to come and go from this country as they please! Don't think they know this is TrumpMerica now?

  138. But where's the evidence that theory's correct by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    I don't see the evidence that theory is the correct one out of other theories. There's too many other potential outcomes for being given trophies that that theory doesn't explain. For example, why don't they reach the conclusion, like I did, that trophies are essentially worthless.

    1. Re:But where's the evidence that theory's correct by Mashiki · · Score: 0

      https://scholar.google.ca/scho...

      https://scholar.google.ca/scho...

      The current model of raising children, fucks up children.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
  139. Charge the Border patrol agent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sounds to me like the border patrol agent illegally accessed classified (rocket science) information, he should be charged under the plethora of national security laws. On a more serious note NEVER take data storage devices through US borders, its like walking around on the wrong side of town waiving around a stack of cash. Put it on a secured website.

  140. Re: Trump doesn't run borders by mmell · · Score: 1

    Neither can the President act as a legislator. Executive order != Law. Now, if both houses of Congress has ratified a bill for POTUS to sign into law, that'd be one thing. The courts would indeed be forced to consider only Constitutional issues in ruling. We're not discussing a law, we're discussing an Executive Order. These don't need to be unconstitutional to be overridden by the judiciary, only illegal.

  141. Re: Fail by mmell · · Score: 2

    What Law did the judiciary overrule in this case? When did Congress pass a bill for POTUS to sign into law?

  142. Re:"Bikkannavar says he was..." by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

    And even then the natives came from somewhere else first. Following this logic unless you're African living in Africa (could even narrow this down to South Africa) you're an immigrant.

    The Native Americas in North America have been in North America longer than the ancestors of almost everyone living in South Africa. The white South Africans are obviously of European descent from the last handful of centuries, but also most of the black South Africans are descended from people that arrived in the region at various times over the last few millennia.

    Native Americans have been in the Americas at least 13,000 years.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  143. What would happen if you didn't have a phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've wondered for a while now what would happen if you showed up to the US border and you didn't have a phone or any social media accounts for them to search. Would that raise red flags? Or would they accept that not everyone has those things?

  144. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by tepples · · Score: 2

    There is nothing in the Constitution that says there's a 'border search exception' to the 4th amendment

    The Fourth Amendment bans only "unreasonable searches and seizures". The exception considers searches at the border to be "reasonable".

  145. Re:Trump doesn't run borders by tepples · · Score: 1

    you could also fix it in the long run by not voting for a POTUS from that party

    That doesn't work reliably because of how gerrymandered the presidential electoral districts (i.e. the States) are. See the 2016 Presidential election.

  146. Who's winning... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...the war on terror?

    I'm pretty sure it's not the west. The more time passes, the more I hear about yet another civil liberty being dissolved. For our protection and security.

    Freedom indeed.

  147. What was he doing ... by PPH · · Score: 1

    ... traveling overseas carrying sensitive information in the first place? Assuming he was authorized, there are procedures in place for this to avoid exactly this sort of misunderstanding. And they don't involve being the next person in a customs line at the border.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  148. Putin! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well... Now we know if the Russian space program suddenly advances.... how they got the information....(Trump this!)

  149. Re:Follow Proper Procedure: Call Company's Legal D by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The USA is anti-human. No need to invoke the racist foreigner stuff. I really want to go have some fun with the TSA on a one way trip to NJ from NH. They're is a lot of stuff you could do if you wanted to proceed an entertaining video simply by invoking your rights and refusing to "cooperate" and I'm not even talking about disobeying the law- but just following recent supreme court rulings for instance. They'll likely flip out if you insist on X [which is your right even at airport] and refuse illegal thing Y. The reason I'd get a one way ticket from NH to NJ is because it's cheap and I'd have no intention of actually taking the flight. I'd be expecting to be held up for a long time. Maybe days and I wouldn't want to miss an actual trip.

  150. Re:Jail has doctors that cover more then the ER an by Sam36 · · Score: 1

    Nah, this is stupid baloney. If I am found unconscious in a ditch next to a wrecked motorcycle, trust me that ambulance isn't going to care if I have health insurance or not. I'll get a "free" trip to the hospital, no questions asked. They certainly won't turn you away.

  151. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by flink · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Heavy emphasis on "US citizens" there, because it's kind of important.

    I object to the citizen part being important. Much of the restraints placed on government by the constitution are worded with phrases like "The government shall not" or "No person shall be required to", with no mention of citizenship. If these are inalienable human rights, and if all men are created equal, then it shouldn't matter which country a person is from, the government has no business violating them.

  152. Re:Follow Proper Procedure: Call Company's Legal D by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They just aren't going to want to do business with you if their secret patents are being shared willy-nilly around the TSA offices without some kind of guarantee.

    You don't think that this has been going on in customs for decades before the TSA even existed? Lets say you work for Airbus and are flying over to bid on a refueling tanker project at the Pentagon. You don't think they'll go through your shit, photocopy everything and hand it to Boeing?

    The USA isn't much better than China in this respect.

  153. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

    Hmm... wasn't that about when the "war on drugs" kicked into high gear? How convenient for the government, not worrying about pesky Constitutional protections when searching for booty.

    --
    Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  154. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Taxes have to be passed first by the house. This one wasn't. The Supreme Court ruling is trivially demonstrated to be unconstitutional.

  155. Only one solution to restoring freedom: Organize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is a group organizing in the United States to restore freedoms and push for more liberty in our life time and its having major successes. The Free State Project was founded as a migration effort to bring people together in a low population state for the purpose of forming a free society. If you can attract enough people to a low population state (New Hampshire ended up working well) there is a possibility of having enough influence politically to impact change in the right direction. While this isn't going to solve the boarder issue in the short term the first thing you need to do if you want more freedom is start organizing others who think like you in one place. In the short term the states imprison more people than the federal government so it's not a bad start. A lot can be done at the state level in increase our freedoms even if some of the national issues will have to wait for another civil war to be resolved.

  156. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    Question not relevant.

    The relevant question is:

    What is NASA's policy regarding employees taking NASA phones with them when leaving the country?

    I don't know, and it doesn't matter.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  157. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    Nice and all, but it's speculation.

    As regards this matter, the relevant question is the legality of the events precisely at the border with precisely this phone and this individual.

    If we're going to allow speculation, my money's on "profiling."

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  158. Re:Follow Proper Procedure: Call Company's Legal D by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You do realize that The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is Part of NASA and that NASA is a govermnt agency?

  159. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by jafiwam · · Score: 1

    Why did he take NASA issued equipment out the US? What if another country did the same search?

    And then went to a foreign country to hang out with a bunch of other people from all over the world (some of whom, may come from countries that would like to steal that data).

    I am not sure I blame the border security folks for thinking they should look at the phone. His situation is RIPE for being espionage or a victim of same.

    Getting pissy about the "secret data" when he's on the way back IN the country but taking it out without a care in the world about it? No sympathy here.

  160. I have an idea by TheDarkener · · Score: 1

    There should be a phone-lock app with 2 different unlock codes - one for normal every-day use and the other which, when used, automatically activates the camera + mic and livestreams/records not only from the camera but a screencast - so those searching the phones will be exposed to what they're actually searching for. Should have ability to disable turning off data/wi-fi so it can be ensured that it streams. I bet there'd be a sizable market for something like that.

    --
    It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
    1. Re:I have an idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nice idea, but at least in my experience the customs areas in the US airports where I've been have terrible cell phone signals. I sometimes wonder if they intentionally jam cell signals.

  161. Courts have nullified the constitution in practice by kbonin · · Score: 2

    There is almost no aspect of the Constitution which hasn't been carved into shreds by numerous court rulings, especially the Bill of Rights. The fourth amendment has been reduced in practice to barely, sort of cover a locked box in a house you own, which LEO may still break into and search under a list of circumstances that grows every year. (Acceptable "exigent circumstances" now includes "I thought I heard something".) And until Immigration and Nationality Act 287(a)(3) is rescinded, Border Patrol can literally ignore the constitution, which is similar to Title 14 section 89 of the United States Code which lets the US Coast Guard conduct unlimited warrantless armed no-knock searches of ANY boat for ANY reason including training.

    There are no branches of government which treat the Constitution with anything but utter contempt. This extends throughout most state and federal governments. Try "buying" land and building something on it without asking "master may I" every step of the way...

  162. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    It's just as well that Americans have defended their rights to carry guns so they can stand up to their evil government ... when they try to take away their guns.
    It's the only right anyone seems to care about.

  163. Re: Trump doesn't run borders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Says the guy who follows MSNBC, CNN, HuffPost, Salon, Mic, DailyKOS, Jon Stewart and the rest of the mainstream media like they're religions, and you're calling *him* a sheep? That's just precious. You are bought and owned. You are told what to say and what to think. You have no original thoughts whatsoever.

  164. Re:Trump doesn't run borders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Have you? The courts can only declare it constitutional or unconstitutional, they aren't the executive branch.

  165. NASA/JPL problem by argee · · Score: 1

    Seems to me that NASA/JPL should have anticipated this, and come up with a solution BEFORE they sent this guy out.
    Lots of solutions have been proposed here, technical, legal, etc., but really the one that should pitch in is this particular
    employer.

  166. Re: I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Constitution, however, does not contain these words.

    You're correct. However, the Constitution also does not say that it only applies to American citizens.

  167. Who won the Cold War? by mydn · · Score: 1

    Your papers must be in order, comrade. THE SECURITY OF THE STATE IS AT STAKE! We should form a committee to ensure the security of the state. What could we call such a committee for state security?

  168. Re:I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' b by JesseMcDonald · · Score: 2

    The Fourth Amendment bans only "unreasonable searches and seizures". The exception considers searches at the border to be "reasonable".

    That's only half of the story. The 4th Amendment also says that no warrants shall be issued (in plain language: no permission shall be granted to perform a search or seizure) "but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." The so-called "Border Search Exception" manufactured by the courts out of thin air is an unconstitutional warrant. There is no probable cause, no supporting Oath or affirmation, and no particular description of the place to be searched or the person or things to be seized. Ergo, there is no constitutional authority to issue a warrant, which would be the only legal basis to perform any search or to seize any property.

    Probable cause—or in other words a reasonable, and evidence-based, expectation that a particular search will turn up evidence of illegal activity sufficient to retroactively justify the search—is the only thing that makes a search "reasonable". If the majority of these searches do not uncover evidence of illegal activity then there is no probable cause and they are de facto unreasonable.

    --
    "The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat
  169. Re:Not a real American by PPH · · Score: 1

    So, we're all Africans then?

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  170. Re:Fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I guessing are a fucking idiot, because every word you wrote is complete fucking stupidity.

  171. cool, we don't need you physically here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Tourists cause irreparable damage to historical and natural places. The jobs they support are pretty demeaning "yes sir whatever you say sir" types.

    Stay home and buy stuff from our factories.

  172. Security breach... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Should he have taken a secured device out of the country to begin with? I work for a small private company, but even we issue blank slate devices with no critical data other than what the person needs to do their work for the specific project they are working on whenever they leave the country. And allowing remote connection to the internal network with only the basic logon is definitely a no-no... Who is running the JPL network security department, the same guy that set up Hillary's server?

  173. I *want* them to search my thumbdrive! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So, what kinds of viruses and malware should I take with me?

  174. Re:Not a real American by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ignorant argument. "Native americans" came from somewhere else too. There were also other tribes and cultures BEFORE the "native americans" that were met by Europeans in the 15 and 1600s. The benevolent native americans had either slaughtered or assimilated them all. Sound familiar? I say that AS a "native American", with 1/4 Inupiaq heritage on one side and some of Seneca on the other side. European settlers did some nasty things, yes... but not really much the native americans didn't do to them as well.

  175. Not his phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is everyone forgetting that this is not his phone. This is technically government property and I am not sure he would have 4th amendment rights to it anywhere in the country.

  176. Rights by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Some fucking court thinks it's okay to block Trumps travel ban because it will violate a constitutional right of a non-U.S. citizen in some other country, but the same court will say nothing about violating a constitutional right (4th Amendment) of a U.S. citizen directly at the customs counter in our own country.

  177. Sensitive data by farble1670 · · Score: 1

    Since the phone was issued by NASA, it may have contained sensitive material that wasn't supposed to be shared.

    Then he probably should not have taken it on his race car driving vacation in Chile.

  178. Also... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Senators, Representatives and Billionaires and it would soon be stopped.

  179. Re: I don't mean to go all 'Papierin, mein herr,' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    All men created equal, it says.

    If by 'it' you mean the Declaration of Independence, then you'd be correct. The Constitution, however, does not contain these words.

    You are correct. I would also add, though, that the Fourth Amendment to the constitution does not make any distinction between citizens and non-citizens (i.e., it begins "The right of the people to be secure in their persons", etc.).You might say it is implied to apply only to citizens but I believe that would quickly put you into rather dodgy legal precedent.

  180. Re: Trump doesn't run borders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You shouldn't refer to Donald Trump that way, even if he does look like someone smeared him in santorum.

  181. What's the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What is the point of checking phones, if your a terrorist you'll just not carry a phone or remove all incriminating evidence from the phone, and then download anything you need once you get in the country, what is there that can only be brought into the country by phone.

  182. Re:Fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Perhaps you can point out the law they clarified in overturning Trump's EO. Hint, its not listed in their ruling because they refused to acknowledge the CLEARLY WRITTEN law. They couldn't include the law they overturned, because there was no way to include it and give the ruling they did.

    To clarify, the courts have not (yet) overturned Trump's EO; one judge placed a temporary restraining order on the EO and the appeals court kept that temporary restraining order in place until such time as the case is decided on the merits. At best, you might say that the courts are apparently of the opinion a travel ban would cause irreparable harm that could not be easily undone and that the travel ban will likely be overturned. It looks to me like the failure to understand is entirely on your part.

  183. Re:Not a real American by Demena · · Score: 1

    No, not an ignorant argument. You have told me nothing I did not know (apart from your personal history) and that is my point. There was always a before and here is no 'home' to go to. Humans are a migratory species. Not as in annual migrations but as in moves everywhere and settles in. There is truely nothing human that is 'native' anywhere.

    Which is the (accurate) generalisation of my point.

  184. Re:"Bikkannavar says he was..." by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Unless you have a native American name, you have a foreign-sounding last name in the USA. Unfortunately, the descendants of the first batch of invading foreigners are having a hissy fit about subsequent foreigners following in their footsteps.

    First batch? Not to put too fine a point on this but Donald Trump's grandfather, Frederick Trump, first stepped off the boat in 1885. By that time emigration to America was already well under way. Indeed, I'm all but certain that many of the people making the most noise about "them furriners invading mah Country" are relatively recent arrivals. In fact, let's be honest: there are large swathes of the American population that would just rather the the door had been slammed shut immediately after their family stepped off the boat.

  185. Should not have been carrying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He should not have been carrying the sensitive info.

    He should have directed the border thug to contact NASA, and have the higher ups hash it out.

  186. Prosecute by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hopefully JPL security will be pissed off enough to demand the customs agent be prosecuted for espionage (provided there was actually something sensitive on the phone).

    1. Re:Prosecute by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except that taking "sensitive data" out of the country without authorization is a crime.

      It is very probable that he was searched because somebody submitted a complain and he was on a watch list.

  187. Re:sensitive information in a foreign country !!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And encryption ... y'know can be decoded with the right tool .... which pretty much every government has.

    Unless he was authorized to take the phone he violated export laws.

  188. Re:"Bikkannavar says he was..." by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

    Humans came from Africa was my main point. Everyone else has spread from there. How many generations from a place do you need to be from there. Obviously more than ~2/300 but less than 13,000?

    --
    Wanna buy a shirt?
    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  189. Re:Follow Proper Procedure: Call Company's Legal D by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Working for an avionics manufacturer, I'm bound by ITAR - they can fuck themselves, I am NOT breaking Federal law for anybody ... I'm not allowed to reveal that data to anyone outside the company without written legal authority. For fucking good reason. The USA demands it of all its suppliers, wherever you live or work or vacation. So I don't ever carry company data, anywhere. That wasn't hard to solve at all. Send it via email, Post items by UBS. Don't fucking carry anything.
    It's lesson 1 for the Accidental Tourist: don't carry shit you aren't prepared to lose.
    Same goes for NASA personnel, and the idiot should not be taking NASA materials on his private holiday, so he's a fucking moron that DESERVES to lose his job. He IS a security risk. The worst kind, an arrogant over-privileged geek. I would lose my job, quite rightly, if I did what he did.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Traffic_in_Arms_Regulations

  190. Yeah by MitchDev · · Score: 1

    I agree, but whatcha gonna do to make that happen?

    The police state is getting worse everyday...

  191. Re:Virtue signaling... by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    I ask for proof that participation trophies are the problem and you send me links to search results of books written by people in order to virtue signal?

  192. Re:Virtue signaling... by Mashiki · · Score: 1

    I ask for proof that participation trophies are the problem and you send me links to search results of books written by people in order to virtue signal?

    Your proof is right there. In those links. Or do you think that studies are virtue signaling? Or are you saying that you don't believe the studies, in which case I'm sure you have your own peered work that disproves that.

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...
  193. International flights by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Whenever I'm traveling out of country encryption keys get deleted before plane lands and restored once safe. Not interested in Jack Bauer wannabees scraping god knows what for god knows why upon my return.

  194. If it was that sensitive... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why did he carry it out of the US in the first place? Why didn't he leave it at home and take a burner on the flight? While I do not like TSA, the fact is, I see no way that they could reasonably believe his claim that the phone contained sensitive material. They still have no reason to look on his phone as far as I can tell, but if they have some legitimate reason to check it, then he should have had something official to stop them. If it did have JPL data on it, then JPL should have something in place to handle this situation.

  195. Re:Trump doesn't run borders by TechnoJoe · · Score: 1

    And they decided that a group of people has the same rights as a single person

    Not quite. What courts have ruled in previous decisions is that individuals have rights, and individuals don't lose rights just by joining a group. It might seem like I'm splitting hairs, but the difference is profound, especially in the Citizens United case.

    Quick background: Michael Moore, during the 2004 election cycle, released Fahrenheit 9/11, which advocated de-electing President Bush. Citizens United complained that this was a violation of the campaign finance reform, but the FEC said it was just a documentary and not advertising subject to campaign finance regulation. So Citizens United did the same thing, but on the other end of the political spectrum. Citizens United created a documentary on Hillary Clinton, and released it during the 2008 election cycle. This time, however, just when the content happens to be critical of a Democrat, the FEC said it was advertising subject to campaign finance regulation, and banned the movie as illegal campaigning.. Hence, the lawsuit.

    In arguing the case before the Supreme Court, the court asked how far such a ban could go. Roberts asked a 500-page book had a single sentence in it that said “vote for X” could be banned under this same law. The government said yes, if corporate money were used to pay for the book. Given the first amendment implications banning books, the court ruled it an unconstitutional violation of the first amendment.

    While I am not comfortable recognizing corporations as persons, I think they did the right think in this case given the circumstances.

  196. Re:Trump doesn't run borders by TechnoJoe · · Score: 1

    He would need congressional approval to break the treaties

    Not quite. The question of whether or not a President can unilaterally nullify a treaty has never been settled. See: Goldwater v. Carter (1979)

  197. There is a good chance the CBP agent... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is a good chance the CBP agent knows way too little IT to either figure out what was being searched, and/or stupid enough to have actually harmed the device!

    Furthermore, CBP agent have no right to breach secure devices from another US gov't agency.

  198. Re:Not a real American by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The "Right of Conquest" was established international law during the time period you are discussing.

    I highly suggest you read about it and apply it contextually to the argument you are making.

  199. Re:Not a real American by Demena · · Score: 1

    I think you need both to read more deeply and to be more specific. Generalities are generalities and specifics are specifics. Useful in differing situations. Do not confuse the two and the differing conclusions that may be drawn thereby.