In the first full month after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, warrantless searches of electronic devices by U.S. Customs and Border Protection — which had already dramatically expanded during the Obama administration — exploded beyond anything on record. According to numbers obtained by NBC, border agents searched 5,000 devices in February, more than in all of 2015, and on pace to more than double the number of searches in 2016.
The article at The Outline looks at the legal and privacy angles. For the innocent, it is an invasion of privacy and on shaky legal ground (except for how in the no-mans land of borders the authorities can do anything they want…)
The solution for anyone with secrets or operating in a grey area is simple – don’t have anything on devices that travel with you. And don’t use those devices to log in to anywhere that you’d rather they didn’t know about.
Tip: Maintain multiple social media profiles, and only use your real name or photos on the safe one.
