Uptick in Phone Searches at Border

By Boaventuravinicius – Own work, CC BY 4.0, Link

Wired magazine has interesting coverage on the uptick of cellphone searches at the U.S. border.

Apparently CBP searched 14,899 devices between April and June, which would be nearly 5K a month! The previous record was 12,766 devices searched January through March in 2022. (Thanks, Biden.)

Most of the recent searches have been “basic” as opposed to “advanced.” Here’s Wired’s explanation: 

Basic searches can involve a border agent manually scrolling through someone’s phone and inspecting its contents. This means an agent may be able to find some information on a device but may not have the time or ability to conduct a deep inspection of what is included in messages or buried in photo reels. Meanwhile, advanced searches involve a much more intrusive approach: connecting forensics tools to the device to extract huge reams of data.

CBP claims unrestricted authority to search electronic devices–whether they belong to citizens or noncitizens. As the ACLU advises, it’s best to travel across borders with “as little data and as few devices as possible.”

-KitJ