How to Protect Yourself From Phone Searches at the US Border -Wired

[justaprogressive]

Do CBP officials have the authority to search your phone at the border? The short answer is yes. Searches are either manual, with a border official looking through the device, or more advanced, involving forensic tools to extract data en masse. To get into your phone, border officials can ask for your PIN or biometric to unlock the phone. However, your legal status and right to enter the US will make a difference in what a search might look like at the border.

Generally, border zones—which includes US international airports—fall outside of Fourth Amendment protections that require a warrant for a device to be searched (though one federal court has ruled otherwise). As such, CBP has the power to search any traveler’s phone or other electronic devices, such as computers and cameras, when they’re entering the country. US citizens and green card holders can refuse a device search without being denied entry, but they may face additional questioning or temporary device seizure. And as the Trump administration pushes the norms of acceptable government conduct, it is possible that, in practice, green card holders could face new repercussions for declining a device search. US visa holders and foreign visitors can face detention and deportation for refusing a device search.

“Not everybody has the same risk profile,” says Molly Rose Freeman Cyr, a member of Amnesty International’s Security Lab. “A person’s legal status, the social media accounts that they use, the messaging apps that they use, and the contents of their chats” should all factor into their risk calculus and the decisions they make about border crossings, Cyr says.

If you feel safe refusing a search, make sure to disable biometrics used to unlock your device, like face or fingerprint scanners, which CBP officers can use to access your device. Instead, use only a PIN or an alphanumeric code (if available on your device). Make sure to keep your phone’s operating system up to date, which can make it hard to crack with forensic tools.

https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-protect-yourself-from-phone-searches-at-the-us-border/

[underpants]

1. Good advice. Thanks.

[hlthe2b]

2. Damned paywall... Here is a free archived version:

https://archive.ph/kCswc

[MineralMan]

3. Smart international travelers are using disposable cell phones

for all international travel. It can be a bit inconvenient, of course, but not as inconvenient as losing all your data to the ICE folks at the airport.

Focus on a limited set of access points on that burner cell phone. Only use that limited set while traveling. Keep login info in your brain or written down somewhere you can bury in innocuous places in your luggage. You can also disguise login info in many ways that only you could possibly remember.

It's not that you're doing anything wrong, but that you are trying to maintain security for yourself. If they take a burner phone that doesn't have any information of value, you can simply walk away from the airport and retrieve your real cell phone when you return home.

[mitch96]

4. "disguise login info in many ways that only you could possibly remember." I had a IT guy at work tell me to

use a very familiar word, like your name, town, S.O. and spell it backwards and add a number.
Like your kids birth year.. Example: "Lincoln 65"... nlocnil 65 or Nlocnil 56...
I thought that was clever and hard to forget..
m