Coming from a district court, I think this ruling could be appealed, but it’s welcome news nevertheless.

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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    5 months ago

    It’s still an excellent idea to power off your phone whenever you are in the vicinity of a border guard and never voluntarily unlock it anywhere close to the border. You can’t (generally) be compelled to unlock your phone but you absolutely can have an unlocked phone grabbed out of your hands by a border guard with no legal right to lock it.

    • leds@feddit.dk
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      5 months ago

      never voluntarily unlock it anywhere close to the border.

      Isn’t that defined as 100 mile from the border (including international airports)

      • doingthestuff@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I believe it’s 100 miles from the border including coastlines but does not include a 100 mile radius around international airports. I don’t remember the source but Ive seen a map that represented it that way.

        Also worth noting, this ruling only benefits citizens in that specific district, as other districts aren’t bound by its rulings. Personally I’d recommend having a 2nd device you can use to record your interactions because if they violate your rights your chances of getting their body cam video of it aren’t great.

        • Skeezix@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          What if you’re 99 miles and 5279 feet from the border while being questioned? Can you take one more step and be safe?

          And are those statute miles or nautical miles?

          • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            It would depend on where they initiated contact. For instance, let’s say a cop from City A pulls someone over on the boundary with City B. Even if you pull over on City B’s side, it’s still a valid stop because they initiated it (turned their lights on) while still within their own legal jurisdiction. Even though you’re outside of their jurisdiction at the moment, what matters is that they first initiated contact when it was legal to do so.

        • frezik@midwest.social
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          5 months ago

          To add, the Great Lakes count as coastline because you can navigate to an international boarder from any of them. That’s how you cover the vast majority of the US population with this loophole.

    • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
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      5 months ago

      This is important - power OFF your phone. Your phone is more secure before you unlock it for the first time after booting. Use a strong password as well.

      • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        You can also force your device into Lockdown mode, which does the same thing, without needing to shut it down or restart it. It’s easy to do quickly once you know how.

        On Android it’s enabled by default, you just hold the power button and press Lockdown.

        https://www.lifewire.com/use-android-lockdown-mode-6287933

        Iphones have a way to disable biometrics as well with a button combo, but its more a side effect of activating Emergency SOS, not a dedicated feature and how you activate it varies depending on your device model.

        https://thenextweb.com/news/how-to-quickly-disable-biometrics-iphone

        • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
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          Lockdown mode is NOT the same. This disables biometrics, notifications, etc. But what FULLY rebooting does is protect against more sophisticated attacks like those of Cellebrite which is a company that sells devices to law enforcement that break into phones. I know border crossings often have access to a device of this type.

          Your device is encrypted pretty strongly, and before you put in your password for the first time after boot your data is essentially useless. But after that first time your device keeps the decryption key in memory so that it can be useful even while locked, serving you app notifications and processing in the background. This leaves your device open to many more exploits that could get around your lockscreen and into your unencrypted data. Leaked documents show that Cellebrite can very often get into devices after first unlock, but in the “before first unlock” state they can often only use brute force which you can protect against by having a cryptographically secure password.

          Looking at lockdown mode it’s pretty clear that it isn’t resetting to the more secure “before first unlock” state because it unlocks instantly with your password whereas after first boot there’s a small pause.

        • catloaf@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          I don’t think the lockdown mode is the same. It looks like it just disables biometric unlocking. I just tried, and it was far too quick to unlock, so it must keep the encrypted partition unlocked.

  • Media Sensationalism@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    They tried to search my laptop when they went through my car at the border, and were greeted with an encrypted boot screen. They tried to interrogate me twice. Glad to know nobody else will have to deal with that now.

    “So, you’re a tech guy, huh? I bet you’re smart.” 😐 …

    “Are you into politics? Who’d you vote for?” 🫤 …

    “I’m just trying to have a friendly conversation with you.” 🤐 …

  • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
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    5 months ago

    Note that this really only affects citizens and lawful permanent residents.

    If you’re not one of those, they “can’t force you” to unlock it, but they CAN deny you entry.

  • Justin@lemmy.jlh.name
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    5 months ago

    This is huge! Finally this loophole around the 4th amendment is getting fixed.

      • MuAraeOracle
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        5 months ago

        Definitely, I just like visiting countries that treat their tourists nice.

        It’s also a hassle to get a new phone for the trip.

        • jonne@infosec.pub
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          But you could just go to Quebec and not worry about dealing with the US federal government searching your phone because you’re within 100 miles from a border.

          • Metz@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Not so fun fact: Canadas border is not better (maybe even worse?): https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/travel-voyage/edd-ean-eng.html

            just like your luggage, our officers can examine your cell phones, tablets, laptops and any other digital device you are carrying

            if the device is password-protected, which will be written down on a piece of paper. You are obligated to provide your password when asked.

            Failure to grant access to your personal digital device may result in the detention of that device under section 101 of the Customs Act, or seizure of the device under subsection 140

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        We miss the decent people, but we fear the 1% confluence of poor armed belligerent gqp, as those people are a huge risk.

  • jimmydoreisalefty@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Well, if our government can stop Americans from going to other countries to discuss peace talks.

    They can also force you and anyone else to hand over your electronics. With multiple men that are armed in the airport, there is nothing you can do until they allow you to get a lawyer, and then that will also not help to keep your rights after the fact.

    • Justin@lemmy.jlh.name
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      5 months ago

      Sure, but we shouldn’t normalize searching through phones without a warrant, especially for journalists.

      It’s great that the courts are standing up against CBP here.