U.S. Citizens Now Being Forced To Provide Their Social Media Passwords On Return

[Beet]

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http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/american-citizens-u-s-border-agents-can-search-your-cellphone-n732746

[Deblano]

Look, as long as they aren't muslim and don't have brown skin, they won't get searched. It's as simple as that.

(SARCASM)

[Hermit For Peace]

Trump-nation is getting really scary.

I hope he gets booted out of office real soon, and all his weird cabinet members with him.

Feeling really creeped out right now.

[cinyc]

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The practice began in the George W. Bush administration, and more aggressive tactics have been employed over the "past two years."  Yup, it's all Trump's fault.

[Beet]

It's bad no matter who does it.

[cinyc]

Well it sounds like the pace has increased substantially this year...

As the article says, based on 150 year old court precedent upheld since, the Fourth Amendment doesn't apply to people reentering the country.  Many a child pornographer has been caught by a computer search at the border.  Customs can and does search people's physical and electronic assets when reentering the country.

Is this the right policy?  Well, that's debatable.  But if you blame Trump for searching electronic devices, you also have to blame Obama and Bush - and possibly earlier presidents, too.  Otherwise, you're being intellectually dishonest.

[cinyc]

Well it sounds like the pace has increased substantially this year...

As the article says, based on 150 year old court precedent upheld since, the Fourth Amendment doesn't apply to people reentering the country.  Many a child pornographer has been caught by a computer search at the border.  Customs can and does search people's physical and electronic assets when reentering the country.

Is this the right policy?  Well, that's debatable.  But if you blame Trump for searching electronic devices, you also have to blame Obama and Bush - and possibly earlier presidents, too.  Otherwise, you're being intellectually dishonest.

I did not blame Trump, I simply pointed out that it has increased significantly under him.  As the article notes, this should be done very selectively in a probably cause like manner, not widespread. 

I also do not understand the logic of searching an American's phone at the border.  If they were up to no good they could just not take their phone out of the country now.  Further, I don't see the correlation between exiting and re-entering the country and needing to examine the person's entire personal life.  It seems like this goes beyond investigating what they plan to do overseas, etc.  I think it's fair and reasonable to give people an extra search if they seem suspicious, but not to just randomly copy the contents of their entire phone.

You may not have blamed Trump, but Hermit and others did. 

Checking of electronic devices at the border has been going on for years, as this 2009 article shows.  And, as that article points out, there have been some criminal prosecutions as a result of these checks - both terror and child porn related.

[Blue3]

This is a really old practice, there were reports like this back in 2008.

Many employers and cities/states have since banned this.


This isn't a "Now Being Forced To..." thing.

[Adam Griffin]

This is a really old practice, there were reports like this back in 2008.

Many employers and cities/states have since banned this.


This isn't a "Now Being Forced To..." thing.

This has escalated from being something that might have been reasonable and prudent (in my opinion, no) to something that is now entirely excessive and merely being bolstered by an authoritarian blivot of a President and the merry little authoritarian goons who operate under the guise of "protecting freedom". There aren't suddenly several times as many suspicious people entering the country...unless of course you consider "brown" and/or "Muslim" to constitute reasonable suspicion.

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[Mr. Reactionary]

I think CBP will be the new TSA when it comes to annecdotal stories about dickish behavior. Giving bureaucrats too much power and discretion can lead to this.

[krazen1211]

Isn't it amazing how the mainstream media sat on an incident that occurred on January 1, 2017?

And what's even more amazing is that there was a second incident which allegedly occurred on January 4, 2017. The author links to a director of immigration enforcement appointed on January 30, 2017!

Is there a time machine at work here?

[KingSweden]

I think CBP will be the new TSA when it comes to annecdotal stories about dickish behavior. Giving bureaucrats too much power and discretion can lead to this.

Anecdotally, CBP have been dicks to me way more than TSA. I've been searched every time I've driven into the US from Canada besides the times I've been in the car with my dad

[pbrower2a]

Reasonable responses --

1. Do not take a smartphone out of the USA. Use a 'dumb phone' (probably pre-paid wireless)  for which you activate throwaway service, and rent a tablet for use in the Free World, including Canada but apparently not the USA anymore, if you must. Or quit using social media altogether outside the USA. Isn't the Uffizi Gallery, the Prado, or the Rijksmuseum more interesting without it? Do you really need to tell people that you are listening to the Vienna Philharmonic while you are at the concert?

Photos of the Alps in their truest glory? Do you need to send those in real-time? Use a separate camera.

2.  Use private browsing for social media. Treat American politics as if it requires the same circumspection as if it were pornography. The President has been acting much like a dictator, and he may already be confused between his role and that of the Presidency as defined in the Constitution, by statue, and by precedent.

3. Assume that American surveillance is as oppressive as that of China.  

4. Stay clear of Daesh and other known terrorist states (like North Korea) and organizations.

[KingSweden]

This is a really old practice, there were reports like this back in 2008.

Many employers and cities/states have since banned this.


This isn't a "Now Being Forced To..." thing.

This has escalated from being something that might have been reasonable and prudent (in my opinion, no) to something that is now entirely excessive and merely being bolstered by an authoritarian blivot of a President and the merry little authoritarian goons who operate under the guise of "protecting freedom". There aren't suddenly several times as many suspicious people entering the country...unless of course you consider "brown" and/or "Muslim" to constitute reasonable suspicion.

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So it already quintupled just last year?

I mean, nobody should get chokeholded for not giving up their phone. The guy in question should definitely consult a lawyer - he probably has grounds for a suit against the CBP agents who assaulted him. I think this flows less from Trump, though, and more from increasing prevalence of smartphone use and the increasing prevalence of social media as a terrorism recruitment tool (see: Daesh's Twitter presence)

[dead0man]

This is a really old practice, there were reports like this back in 2008.

Many employers and cities/states have since banned this.


This isn't a "Now Being Forced To..." thing.

This has escalated from being something that might have been reasonable and prudent (in my opinion, no) to something that is now entirely excessive and merely being bolstered by an authoritarian blivot of a President and the merry little authoritarian goons who operate under the guise of "protecting freedom". There aren't suddenly several times as many suspicious people entering the country...unless of course you consider "brown" and/or "Muslim" to constitute reasonable suspicion.

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You seem to have missed Blue's point.  This isn't a "Trump" thing...as your own quote shows, it's a "law" thing that the Feds started abusing excessively LAST year.  Even 5000 a year is too many.  The fact that we didn't hear about this much at all over the last few years is yet another black mark on the media.