Amid the recent news of a U.S. citizen being asked to turn over his phone to authorities at a border crossing, Sophia Cope of the Electronic Frontier Foundation has tips on digital civil liberties.
Related, “Attorney representing a student protester detained by federal immigration agents”
When a man in Michigan was heading home on Sunday from a family vacation in the Caribbean, he was stopped in the Detroit Airport. Federal officers, border agents, detained him, interrogated him and pressured him to hand over his cellphone. The man is a U.S. citizen. He’s a civil rights and criminal defense attorney, and among his clients is an activist who has been charged in connection to a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Michigan.
Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250410185452/https://www.npr.org/transcripts/nx-s1-5357455
Tell them to fuck off.
Make sure your phone is already turned off before you go through.
Refuse to let them turn it on.
“I can’t remember my password”
Smile and be polite but make sure they hear the “fuck off nazi” in your tone.
DO NOT CONSENT TO A SEARCH.
I love the spirit of what you’re saying, but per the attorney’s advice in this article, they might seize your phone no matter what you say, password protection with no fingerprint or face scan unlock should ideally keep them out (note that law enforcement usually can take your picture or finger print you without needing a warrant or anything, but they can’t force you to tell them a password), but you will probably never get that device back and you could be detained indefinitely while they try to intimidate you into waiving your 5th amendment silence rights.
I think your best strategies would be 1) just do not travel to the United States if it can at all be avoided; 2) if you must to travel to the US, don’t bring any electronic devices capable of storing media with you, purchase new ones after you are past the border, securely download what you need, then erase and destroy those devices before leaving; 3) if purchasing throwaway devices isn’t an option, just act as white as you possibly can and just hope you get lucky and they ignore you.
Act as white as possible lol
Demand to speak to their manager!
I snorted and blew out snot at this comment. Good job.
This 100% is a thing, and it helps. My wife isn’t white but can turn it on and fool almost anyone. It has gotten her out of tickets, sticky situations, rude service industry etc… it’s hilarious to watch.
lol. I am white but I don’t know how to act white. Am I screwed ?
Act like you’re at a classic rock concert instead of punk rock, just turn the basic up to 11.
Turn the basic up to 11 lolllll. You nailed it
You know, you just don’t know you know.
Mind. Blown. Thanks.
Nah your skin color automatically gives you a free pass
If I could only keep my mouth shut
Face scan unlock is NOT enough. When crossing the border turn OFF the phone. Don’t just lock it, full off. The security protections from cellibrite attacks are much much much much stronger if it is off
Even so, off is better. Disk is unencrypted when on, leading to potential extraction. When off, there is more protection
It’s important it’s encrypted as well. Disk Encryption isn’t a default on option typically.
If it’s disk encrypted and the device is powered off, only a valid password (not biometric) will unencrypt it from off.
Edit: and a good device would encrypted it using a hardware module that will only work in that device for that hard drive, so they can’t clone the drive out and try a bunch of easier pins as it’d be missing the hardware piece. Easier pins would only work if done on your phones hardware.
How is it possible to setup disk encryption on smartphone?
Btw on Android you can enable an option, that your phone will be erased and restored to fabric settings, if you enter wrong password/pin 20 times. So its useful too
It’d be a device by device thing. Looks like Pixels do it be default, but I wouldn’t assume all do. It’d be a setting if it’s not default.
If you’re a US citizen they can only hold you for 48 hours without pressing charges. I no longer have faith that limit will be enforced, but it’s there in theory.
Didn’t you hear? Due process is suspended indefinitely. /s (sorta)
Why can they detain and seize phone of US citizens that come back from different country back to the US? I thought they are only allowed to check the phone of foreigners that visit USA.
Because fuck you, that’s why. –The Government
Do you speak Spanish? You might need it in your next destination to communicate with your cellmates.
Don’t do that. Be nice and respectful when you are asserting your rights. Nothing good comes from being an ass about it