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Comment by ThePowerOfFuet | Hacker News Reader

>because of jokes in her text messages about a [Green Card] marriage

Let this be a lesson to all those who think it's fine to unlock their phone and hand it to cops.

It's either that, or get denied. Interestingly enough, however, it's quite easy to "prepare" for a phone search in advance since border agents can only search the actual content of your phone. You just need to delete apps and reinstall them after you passed the border. Their "advanced" forensics tools would likely find traces of those deleted apps, though.

"CBP officers can only search and access data stored on the device’s hard drive or operating system. The search does not include data that is stored remotely in a Cloud format. The officer must ensure that data and network connections are disabled before starting the search, for example, by asking the traveler to turn the device into airplane mode and disabling Wi-Fi."

[https://hselaw.com/news-and-information/legalcurrents/prepar...]

I'm not sure what customs and border patrol would do if you refused to unlock your phone for them. I doubt they would just let you go.

You would be detained and eventually denied entry. You have no rights when you cross the border no matter which country you're in. China and other countries have just as draconian enforcement.

ESTA applications ask for your social media accounts even before you get to border patrol. You can of course omit them but that may or may not backfire. I have only ever listed GitHub since I don't really use anything else they have in the drop down.

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