Wyden To Introduce Bill To Prohibit Warrantless Phone Searches At Border (onthewire.io)

Trailrunner7 quotes a report from On the Wire: A senator from Oregon who has a long track record of involvement on security and privacy issues says he plans to introduce a bill soon that would prevent border agents from forcing Americans returning to the country to unlock their phones without a warrant. Sen. Ron Wyden said in a letter to the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security that he is concerned about reports that Customs and Border Patrol agents are pressuring returning Americans into handing over their phone PINs or using their fingerprints to unlock their phones. DHS Secretary John Kelly has said that he's considering the idea of asking visitors for the login data for their various social media accounts, information that typically would require a warrant to obtain. "Circumventing the normal protection for such private information is simply unacceptable," Wyden said in the letter, sent Monday. "There are well-established procedures governing how law enforcement agencies may obtain data from social media companies and email providers. The process typically requires that the government obtain a search warrant or other court order, and then ask the service provider to turn over the user's data."

Comments

lack of foresight

[Anonymous Coward]

If only our forefathers would have had the foresight to create some sort of document that prevented warrantless searches, then none of this would be necessary.

Re:lack of foresight

[KiloByte]

Americans should not be subject to unreasonable searches and seizures.

Note the wording: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, [...]. It doesn't say "Americans" anywhere. So while I can't run for US president, if I visit, I am supposed to have thugs keep the [expletive] out of my "papers and effects". Which does include my phone.

Re:lack of foresight

[Tesen]

Could tie in with that part mentioning "We the people" found in the Declaration of Independence. Which would eliminate non-citizens from protection (possibly).

Except if you look at the full Preamble: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Or to paraphrase: We the representatives of the people of the sovereign states hereby define the owners manual for our country.

There have been many people that argued the preamble implies citizen only, but that is contrary to the the fact they enumerated citizen only restrictions elsewhere in the document, in addition, other restrictions upon the Federal Government and the rights of granted to the people via the bill of rights, seems to imply where important distinctions are made.

Re:lack of foresight

[Aighearach]

They never would have anticipated the current flow of cross border traffic that might make it an issue. Not to mention the sheer storage capacity and communication ability that modern computing devices give us.

Most of them personally arrived across the border more times than the average modern American does. And they carried storage devices with their data!

And nothing in the Constitution was there as a matter of convenience due to limited storage capacity of government warehouses.

And for everyone else...?

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

It's disappointing how these measures always seem to be about protecting the rights of whichever host country is involved, while completely ignoring any intrusion/violation of the rights of visitors.

Re:And for everyone else...?

[ASDFnz]

while completely ignoring any intrusion/violation of the rights of visitors.

Speaking as someone from another country (New Zealand) who has visited the US on several occasions (mostly social) I can tell you it has certainly become an issue.

Recently I was planning to attend an event in Las Vegas (hobby related). My first thought was to the invasive border security that is already in place but I though why not and decided to go anyway.

Others decided differently, in the end the event in Las Vegas was canceled because of the invasive border protection and we all went to Australia instead.

Re:And for everyone else...?

[ASDFnz]

As a New Zealander I hold with our national view that Australia is full of cunts :P .

Senator Wyden:

[rmdingler]

I certainly appreciate the sentiment, and I hope your endeavor is successful. Far too many freedoms are forfeited at the border, and at Customs during TSA "interviews".

Although it should go without saying, and certainly without legislating, once American citizenship is established at these checkpoints the full protection of the Constitution against unlawful search and seizure immediately kicks in.

has it come to this

[supernova87a]

My first question is why this has to be a bill, when through the normal course of judicial process such evidence would be tossed out by courts for being improperly obtained.

Then I remembered that in the area of national security and border / immigration enforcement, the executive branch has pushed their own discretion so far that Congress / courts really do have to put protections like this into law for it to be heeded. Basically they have been cut out of the loop of immigration and border enforcement as just bystanders, because the executive branch has all the guns, and it only comes to Congress/courts' attention when someone makes it in (and isn't kicked out immediately) and survives long enough to file a habeus petition.

The real check and balance needed would be for border agents and officials who abuse their authority to be penalized for it.

Re:has it come to this

[Anonymous Coward]

How do you prove that a border agent or office has abused their authority? I have personally seen CBP agents going through a person's phone and their private photos. They were sitting in the booth going through them while I waited but they did not realize that I can see what they are doing through the reflection in the glass on the booth.

They have also attempted to open my devices when I am stopped for a random check. I get the alerts in my e-mails and on my watch.

The point is with no oversight or prerequisites to make border guards follow, with required outcome, then abuse will be rampant. The guards see a good looking male or female and force them to unlock the phone just to gain access to their most private moments. These are done behind closed doors and can be copied without permission and are nothing more than abuse of power.

Bad for the economy

[seoras]

This shit can't be good for the US economy. Tourism and airlines will be most affected.
I live in NZ but I'm from the UK. I used to live in SF Bay and have friends there. So when flying home to the UK for a visit I would fly via SFO.
Not anymore. Even flying through the US without going into the country is like an Orwellian nightmare.
So I fly Emirates via Dubai. It's a damn shame as used to think of California as a 2nd home and loved visiting there.
I can't be alone in my boycotting.
The saddest thing is that modern America starting to look more and more like the old USSR.