Thread

Returning from vacation? The government can search your phone without a warrant

411 points · 378 comments · rbanffy

Tangurena2 · 1790856629 · focus · HN ↗
> “In [Fiscal Year] 2025, out of the over 419 million travelers CBP processed at ports of entry, CBP only searched the electronic devices of 55,318 international travelers,” the agency wrote, or 0.0013%.
The harassment is targeted at critics & opponents of the current regime. The message is very clear: Be afraid of us. Be very afraid
There are 33 days remaining until election day. Vote out all the incumbents.
1. ct0 · 1790857250 · focus · HN ↗
  If you think that the current administration is the sole driver of this, and it will end once their term expires, I have a bridge to sell you.
  1. RHSeeger · 1790857474 · focus · HN ↗
    If you think the current administration hasn't pushed this so far beyond, and so much faster, what any previous administration has done - since maybe the red scare - I don't have a bridge to sell you. Because honestly, you shouldn't be anywhere near anything involving public welfare.
    raincole · 1790857816 · focus · HN ↗
    > The number of warrantless device searches at the border and the significant invasion of privacy they represent is only increasing. In Fiscal Year 2022, CBP conducted an all-time high of 45,499 device searches.
    <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/federal-judge-makes-history-holding-border-searches-cell-phones-require-warrant" rel="nofollow">https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/federal-judge-makes-hi...
    But sure it's the current administration what pushed this so far beyond. Beyond 40k phones into 50k phones!
    etiennebausson · 1790858364 · focus · HN ↗
    Given that travel hadn't recovered from covid in 2022, that 45k to 55k increase mean even less.
    Has the % of people searched actually decreased?
    I don't trust the current U.S. gov (or any U.S. gov, really), but the figure isn't actually increasing in a significant way. The US. remain as unwelcoming to visitors as they have been since 2001. Nothing to see in this report.
    strictnein · 1790859241 · focus · HN ↗
    > The US. remain as unwelcoming to visitors as they have been since 2001
    Strangely the stats don't back your assertion. Wouldn't being "unwelcoming since 2001" result in a decrease in travel?
    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_the_United_States#Visitor_statistics" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_the_United_States#V...
    y1n0 · 1790859721 · focus · HN ↗
    I’d look for a change in slope. A permanent change that adversely affected tourism would decrease the slope, but maybe not so much as to make it negative.
    strictnein · 1790861448 · focus · HN ↗
    <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/international-tourist-trips?tab=slope&time=earliest..2015&country=USA~ESP~ITA~FRA~GBR~DEU~GRC~AUT" rel="nofollow">https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/international-tourist-tri...
    Between 1995 and 2015 (capturing data before and after 2001) the US's change in tourism increased at a faster rate than France, Italy, Greece, Germany, Austria, and the UK. Spain may have increased at a slightly faster pace, but it's close.

Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.