AP: What travelers should do before phone checks at borders

Washington, April 20 - Planning a trip abroad? Then you should also be prepared for the fact that your phones may be subject to increased scrutiny when crossing borders, especially to the United States. The AP wrote about this.

Canada warned its citizens in a recent travel advisory that American border officials may search their electronic devices upon entering the United States and that they do not have to give a reason when asking for a password to unlock them.

Several recent cases have travelers nervous about their privacy, including the case of a Brown University assistant professor and visa holder who was deported to Lebanon after U.S. border agents found a photo of the leader of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah on her phone.

"While 100 percent privacy is impossible in these situations, there are a few things you can easily do to make it much harder for someone to access your private information, even if they have physical access to your device," said Patricia Egger, head of security at encrypted email service Proton Mail.

The best strategy for protecting your electronic device’s privacy, experts say, is to limit the amount of information you carry with you when you’re on the road.

Leave your phone at home if possible. If you need your phone on the road, use a tactic that corporate executives use to avoid hackers: get a spare phone. It should only contain the information you need. You can download the rest from cloud storage when you need it.

If you need to take your phone or laptop with you, upload sensitive information to cloud storage that uses end-to-end encryption, then wipe the original data off the device.

Also, encrypt your phone or laptop’s storage drive and protect it with a strong password. Keep in mind that this is different from simply locking your device with a passcode, which is easier to crack, or using end-to-end encryption on your favorite messaging apps.

Turn off fingerprint or facial recognition features and use a PIN or passcode instead.

According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) website, there are two types of device searches at the border. In a basic search, an officer looks through your phone’s photos, email, apps, and files. The officer doesn’t need to suspect wrongdoing to conduct this type of search.

In an advanced search, the contents of your phone can be copied for analysis. However, this type of search must be approved by a higher-level manager and there must be “reasonable suspicion” of a violation of the law, except in cases where national security is at stake, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

CBP agents conducted more than 47,000 searches of electronic devices last year, a tenfold increase from a decade ago.

A basic search “can be unwarranted, completely random, or based on a mere hunch about the person, such as their appearance or the way they answer a question,” says Sophia Cope, an EFF attorney.

Travel history can also play a role, for example if the traveler comes from a country where terrorism, drug trafficking, or child sex tourism are prevalent. Border officials can also search devices based on instructions from other agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Under current rules, U.S. border agents can only view information stored on the device, not information stored on a cloud server. So if you must leave your phone on, make sure it’s in airplane mode or otherwise disconnected from the Internet via Wi-Fi or cellular data.

U.S. citizens cannot be denied entry to the United States for refusing to consent to a search of their device. The same should apply to permanent residents, such as green card holders, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

However, agents can make things more difficult if they refuse. Passengers may be questioned, temporarily detained, or have their devices confiscated and not returned for days or even weeks, rights groups say.

International travelers may be turned back to their country if they refuse.

If you are forced to unlock your device, it’s best to do it yourself. “If you can, log in yourself rather than sharing your PIN or passwords, and if you are forced to share your passwords, change them as soon as possible afterward,” Egger advises.

You shouldn’t use fingerprint or facial recognition, as experts say it’s easier to force you to unlock your device using biometrics. A border agent could simply hold your phone up to your face or force you to place your finger on the device. There are also concerns that police could use fingerprints stored in government databases to unlock your device.

Another way to protect yourself from sophisticated attacks if you refuse to consent to a check is to turn off your device.

Most modern phones and some laptops encrypt their data using strong cryptographic keys that are only accessible when the user unlocks them with a passcode, said Will Greenberg, EFF chief technologist.

If the device is locked but not turned off, the key remains stored in the device’s memory. Powerful hacking tools from companies like Cellebrite can recover the key and decrypt the data. But if the device is turned off, the key is not retrieved and cannot be accessed until it is turned back on and unlocked with a passcode. “That’s why a border guard can’t just turn on the device and use a tool like Cellebrite,” Greenberg said.

To be on the safe side, delete social media apps from your device and reinstall them later. While most of the content is stored on the social media company’s servers, Cope says some posts or images may remain in the phone’s cache, making them viewable even in airplane mode.

It’s not just phones and laptops. Digital cameras, smartwatches, tablets, external hard drives, and other electronic devices can also be searched.

But some tactics can backfire. If you’re tempted to completely wipe your phone or laptop’s hard drive before you travel, experts warn that doing so could draw attention.

"If you are caught by a border agent, the fact that you erased your hard drive may make them ask why you did it. Even traveling without the devices or data that most travelers typically carry could raise suspicion and questions," the EFF guide states.

Don’t try to hide information on your device, as border agents could find it, the EFF advises. “Lying to border agents can be a serious crime, and agents can have a very broad definition of what constitutes lying,” the foundation says.

Check the local laws of your destination country before you travel. For example, the UK’s anti-terrorism law allows police to ask travelers to hand over their devices, along with passwords and PINs, when crossing the border. If they refuse, they could be charged with terrorism.

AP | WT.24