EFF to Second Circuit: Electronic Device Searches at Border Require a Warrant | Hacker News Reader

EFF to Second Circuit: Electronic Device Searches at Border Require a Warrant

eff.org

43 pointsgslin8 comments

All searched require a warrant.

That's in the 4th Amendment.

Crossing a border gives the incoming country the right to search your belongings without a warrant. It's not like a judge sits there ordering search warrants to open a suitcase.

For some people, having the right to search their phone would be like having the right to search their mind, but that aside, there are so many ways to overcome the need to carry your data physically with you across borders. If you’re motivated to do so it’s easy to find a way, which means that the vast majority of people whose privacy is being invaded aren’t even doing anything wrong, and the people who are doing something wrong just need to be slightly tech savvy to get around this.

Crossing a border doesn't strip a person of their basic human rights.

It doesn't, but it's well established laws that certain protections don't exist when you cross an international border because the government has a responsibility to maintain security at the border and manage imports/exports. They can't do that if they don't have some rights to search.

But that said, I would agree that carte blanche right to "inspect" an electronic device seems overly intrusive. It's not like the government can require a bodily cavity search at the border, so clearly there are limits that require a warrant.

The purpose of searching a person's belongings at the border is to look for contaband. What sorts of contraband data are they looking for in electronic devices? They don't stop and search other data coming over the border.

this is where we desperately needs Johnny Mnemonic

I don't think this legally limited to crossing borders in the US. My understanding is CBP asserts the right to warrantless searches in the entire border zone, which includes every square inch of several states.

https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/border-zone

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