Customs officials have copied Americans’ phone data at scale

Customs officials have copied Americans’ phone data at scale(washingtonpost.com)

44 points by alanwong 3 years ago | 5 comments

Havoc 3 years ago |

Thankfully we know the drill already - use burner phones when visiting privacy hostile countries.

Sad for how many traditionally "free" countries that is becoming true on border crossings

jefurii 3 years ago | |

Except that the U.S. is a privacy hostile country so if you live here you risk a search whenever you leave.

moonshotideas 3 years ago |

https://archive.ph/UXy9o

FractalHQ 3 years ago |

How does this phone data capture work? Do they need to physically plug in your phone to a machine of theirs? I travel a lot and have never been asked to hand over my phone to a customs officer.

advisedwang 3 years ago | |

The article suggests "10,000 electronic devices per year" so that's not every traveller, not by a long shot. They are taking some people's phones aside, plugging them in and sucking data off.