Crossing the U.S. Border? Keep Your Electronic Devices Safe from Searches.

Officials at the border have the power to paw through sensitive data on your phone.

It's not difficult to attract the attention of government officials, especially if you have a relatively high profile in business, political activism, or journalism. That can lead to difficulty crossing borders, even in countries with relatively firm civil liberties protections, such as the United States. Officials at border crossings often have powers beyond those of police within the country, meaning that even returning citizens might have to submit to searches of their possessions and their electronic devices. But travelers can take steps to keep information safe and beyond the reach of nosy enforcers.

Growing Scrutiny at the Border

"A growing number of news reports indicate that travelers heading to the US are facing scrutiny at the border, with some subjected to electronic-device searches," Sarah Grevy Gotfredsen of the Columbia Journalism Review reported in April. Gotfredsen cited the case of Jeremy Dupin, a documentary filmmaker who, upon returning to the U.S. from a trip to Haiti, was interrogated and pressured to provide his phone password.

"With my phone unlocked, agents were able to access some of my most sensitive reporting work, including communications with editors about particular projects and photographs taken while on assignment," he wrote about the incident. "After extensively questioning me about my work for several hours, agents finally let me go."

Journalists have been specifically targeted based on their work, according to a 2019 story by San Diego's NBC affiliate. "In addition to flagging the individuals for secondary screenings, the Homeland Security source told NBC 7 that the agents also created dossiers on each person listed," the story noted.

All Merchandise and Persons Are Subject to Inspection

For its part, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) claims that "all merchandise and persons crossing the border, both inbound and outbound, are subject to inspection by CBP pursuant to its authority to enforce immigration, customs, and other federal laws at the border. CBP's search authority extends to all persons and merchandise, including electronic devices, crossing our nation's borders." A separate document details the legal authority for the search policy.

CBP divides its searches of electronic devices into "basic searches" which can be conducted "with or without suspicion" and "advanced searches." Of basic searches, CBP adds, "this search may reveal information that is resident upon the device and would ordinarily be visible by scrolling through the phone manually (including contact lists, call logs, calendar entries, text messages, pictures, videos, and audio files)." Advanced searches are triggered by suspicion of illegal activity and require a supervisor's permission. An advanced search is "any search in which an Officer connects external equipment, through a wired or wireless connection, to an electronic device not merely to gain access to the device, but to review, copy, and/or analyze its contents."

Supposedly, less than 0.01 percent of travelers legally entering the U.S. suffer device searches. But if it's your unlucky day, there you are. Even suspicion-less basic search subject travelers to intrusions into their personal lives and the exposure of potentially sensitive information—if they don't prepare beforehand.

Use Printed Boarding Passes, Purge Messages, and Sign Out of Accounts

Working together, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) created a list of tips for international travelers. (TSA doesn't claim authority to search the devices of domestic travelers.) The first concern is what to do if tagged by CBP for extra attention: "At an international airport or other port of entry, you have to decide whether you will comply with a request to access your device, but this might not feel like much of a choice if you are a non-U.S. citizen entering the country! Plan accordingly."

Among their suggestions is to use old-school printed documents, such as boarding passes, so you won't have your devices on and unlocked. They also suggest minimizing the number of devices you bring and considering dedicated travel devices that contain a minimum of sensitive information or else backing up your devices before factory-resetting them and adding only necessary data.

Devices should be encrypted and passcodes should be long and unpredictable. Separately, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urges: "turn off biometric access to your phones and laptops. To secure your devices, use the longest PIN possible."

If traveling with your usual devices, "remove any apps, files, chat histories, browsing histories, and sensitive contacts you would not want exposed during a search." Also, "log out of accounts you do not want accessible to border officials," delete messages, and purge all deleted data from the trash.

With the federal government now scrutinizing travelers' social media accounts, CPJ advises that "journalists may wish to make their social media accounts private before travelling."

Keep Sensitive Information in the Cloud

One tactic for maintaining access to sensitive data is based on limitations to CBP's authority. As CBP puts it, "border searches extend to the information that is physically resident on the device and do not extend to information that is located solely on remote servers." So, sensitive information can be stored in the cloud, with devices signed out of the appropriate accounts, to be accessed once past the port of entry. Keep in mind that not all cloud services work everywhere. Dropbox, for example, isn't available in Crimea, North Korea, or Syria because of international sanctions. That shouldn't be an issue when entering the U.S. and it might be bypassed by a VPN, but plan accordingly.

If all of this sounds like a lot of effort to go through when crossing the border into a country that continues to have regularly scheduled elections, a lively opposition press, and courts that slap down government officials, it is. But the Trump administration rightly draws a lot of heat for screening students and travelers for their political opinions. Alistair Kitchen, a Substacker from Australia, was recently refused entry to the country, apparently for his pro-Palestinian views (CBP claims it was because he lied about his drug use, but they discovered that only after questioning him and searching his phone).

Before Trump, the Obama administration was caught spying on journalists who reported stories inconvenient to the White House. Margaret Sullivan, then-public editor for The New York Times, accused the Obama White House of "unprecedented secrecy and of unprecedented attacks on a free press."

Which is to say, no matter who is in charge, governments don't consistently respect rights to liberty and privacy. That's especially true for places, like border crossings, where protections are few and limited.

So, consider your own circumstances. Protect your data. And enjoy the trip.