
Just turning your phone on qualifies as searching it, court rules - close04
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/05/just-turning-your-phone-on-qualifies-as-searching-it-court-rules/
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t-writescode
How can this country, with one side of its mouth, say that location data on a
phone requires a warrant, but then say that browsing history doesn't. I don't
understand.

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pjc50
The US has no general, coherent, constitutional legal theory of _privacy_ per
se. Just the 4th amendment rule against unreasonable seaches. As distinct from
ECHR general right to private life.

This leads to all sorts of "I'm not touching you" shenanigans where getting
your data from somewhere else is perfectly fine, so long as they're not
performing something that could be called a search on you specifically.

~~~
mhh__
Then there's also the whole can of worms that (I'm not a lawyer but if I
understand it correctly) the NSA can collect as much data about you as they
like but it is not considered to have been _collected_ until someone actually
requests it

~~~
mindslight
Don't listen to any of NSA's, or really the entire executive branch's,
narratives about the legality of anything. It's possible to twist logic to
justify anything when you've set out to do so - the legal equivalent of "I'm
not hitting my brother, I'm just flailing my arms and walking forward". The
only effective answer about legality is when these things actually end up in a
real court, apart from the secret kangaroo "courts" they've invented. And as
we've seen, these treacherous agencies will do everything they can to keep
their activities out of open court.

~~~
mhh__
"We are overseen by the FISA courts!" \- NSA

"We don't have enough money to oversee the NSA" \- FISA courts

Repeat ad infinitum

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Ciantic
I've heard from people that they use burner phone when they enter US, because
at the border things get problematic.

Does this mean that it's now sufficient to turn off your phone in the border,
and they can't demand to see it?

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evgen
The government (via their customs agents) can search anything they want at the
border and need neither probable cause or a warrant. Not going to work.

~~~
yardie
They definitely need a warrant and definitely need probably cause. And it
definitely has to be within the jurisdiction of CBP, ie. they can't pull you
over for running a light.

What you do have is a lot of Americans will defer to LEOs without a second
thought.

~~~
evgen
No, they really don't need a warrant and they really don't need probable
cause. I could pull out USC refs but just read
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_search_exception](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_search_exception)

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gamblor956
No, they still need probable cause of an immigration or customs violation away
from the border but within the 100 mile zone.

The government's position is that they do not. The courts have disagreed,
especially with respect to using evidence found under such circumstances in
criminal cases.

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billme
Related legal basis for ruling:

(Plain View Doctrine)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_view_doctrine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_view_doctrine)

(Fruit of the Poisonous Tree)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_of_the_poisonous_tree](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_of_the_poisonous_tree)

