U.S. customs agents are searching more cellphones - including those belonging to Americans

["Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: Sat, Jan 6, 2018 at 8:14 AM
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] U.S. customs agents are searching more cellphones -
including those belonging to Americans
To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>


U.S. customs agents are searching more cellphones — including those
belonging to Americans
By Nick Miroff
Jan 5 2018
<
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-customs-agents-are-searching-more-cellphones--including-those-belonging-to-americans/2018/01/05/0a236202-f247-11e7-b3bf-ab90a706e175_story.html
>

U.S. customs agents conducted 60 percent more searches of travelers’
cellphones, laptops and other electronic devices during the government’s
2017 fiscal year, according to statistics released Friday by U.S. Customs
and Border Protection (CBP).

The agency said it searched 30,200 devices but the inspections affected
only 0.007 percent of the 397 million travelers — including American
citizens as well as foreign visitors — who arrived from abroad during the
12-month period that ended Sept 30.

CBP published the figures as it issued new guidelines formalizing the way
its officers conduct searches and handle the information they obtain.

The agency said the increase was not the result of a policy directive, but
rather an indication that electronic devices are increasingly viewed as
critical sources of information on potential security threats.

“In this digital age, border searches of electronic devices are essential
to enforcing the law at the U.S. border and to protecting the American
people,” CBP official John Wagner said in a statement.

American citizens and other travelers have expressed astonishment and alarm
in recent years at requests to hand over their cellphones from U.S. customs
officials at airports and border crossings.

But CBP said the practice is justified and its standards have been
thoroughly reviewed to ensure they are not an unreasonable violation of
privacy rights.

The agency said it sometimes needs information it obtains from devices to
determine the admissibility of foreign visitors, viewing them as potential
sources of intelligence on terrorism, child pornography or other criminal
activity.

Under the new guidelines, travelers who are selected by its officers for
additional screening could be asked to unlock their electronic devices for
inspection or provide passcodes. They will be asked to disable the devices’
data transmission, according to a senior CBP official who briefed reporters
on the changes Friday.

Only information physically stored on the device — such as photographs or
phone numbers — would be subject to search, said the official, who the
agency would not allow to be quoted by name. CBP agents would not be
allowed to seek information stored externally or on a “cloud” linked to the
device.

Such inspections would constitute a “basic search,” the agency said. But in
cases where officers determine they have reasonable suspicion of a criminal
act or potential threat to national security, they may, with a supervisors’
authorization, conduct an “advanced search” by connecting it to other
applications and potentially copying its information.

Passwords provided by travelers would be destroyed and not retained by the
government, the CBP official said.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a key ally of privacy rights groups, called the
new CBP guidelines “an improvement” but said they’re still too intrusive
for U.S. citizens.

“Manually examining an individuals’ private photos, messages and browsing
history is still extremely invasive, and should require a warrant,” he said
in a statement. “I continue to believe Americans are entitled to their full
constitutional rights, no matter where they are in the United States.”

[snip]

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