posted in Technology

beep@beep@piefed.world

The 4th Circuit Says Border Agents Can Search Your Phone By Hand, No Suspicion Required

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1281688/the-fourth-circuit-says-border-agents-can-search-your-phone-by-hand-no-suspicion-require

www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/07/fourth-circuit-says-border-agents-can-search-your-phone-hand-no-suspicion-required
Electronic Frontier FoundationThe Fourth Circuit Says Border Agents Can Search Your Phone By Hand, No Suspicion RequiredLegal intern Suzanne Castillo was the principal author of this post.The Fourth Circuit issued a disappointing opinion in U.S. v. Belmonte Cardozo, a case in which EFF filed an amicus brief, alongside the national ACLU, its Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia affiliates, and the...
dogslayeggs@dogslayeggs@lemmy.world

Replying to @⁨kylian0087@lemmy.dbzer0.com⁩

This ruling doesn’t get into that question. Based on how courts treat refusing to take a breathalyzer, I’m guessing it opens you up to being detained for 24 hours on suspicion of a crime, giving them time to obtain a warrant. A different write-up says that if you do not give a password, they can detain your device and make you wait; but you are not required to give up the password. No other write-ups I can find mention the password issue.

I know previous rulings have said that Face Unlock does NOT count as forcing your password and is allowed by police in searches. When I go on international trips, I disable Face Unlock on my work phone before going to the airports to block that pathway since my phone contains company proprietary information and Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). I have nothing embarrassing or illegal or incriminating on my personal phone, so I usually don’t bother.