It's not like they couldn't make you turn travel mode off if they wanted to. How about pushing for a law closing this 4th amendment loophole at the borders, at least for citizens?
Not that it'd do much. If the border agents really want to see one's social media accounts, I have zero doubt they can get that data from other government agencies. In fact, they probably already have it. It sounds to me like they're just trying to assert their power and dominance over the people whose accounts they are demanding access to as a way to get off on intimidating others. Pretty typical behavior by law enforcement officers the world over.
The idea is that they cannot in fact make you turn travel mode off, because travel mode doesn't turn off. It's a time lock. The point is that while locked, Facebook and Google Mail are still usable; they just don't have your whole history available on them.
If we stipulate that your second paragraph is true, then travel mode is in fact a complete countermeasure to that behavior. (I don't think it's true).
> “They said, ‘Next time you come through, don’t have a cleared phone,’ and that was it. I wasn’t let through.
Technological countermeasures don't seem to work. Sure, they work in the sense that they protect your data, but if the border guy doesn't like you, technology won't save you. You will be sent on your way.
The idea is that it would be common, like not carrying large amounts of cash. There are good reasons for it other than limiting border searches.
Some people have suggested making travel mode invisible, but it might be better if it showed the start and end dates. Customs will ask anyway, but if the time period covers the entire trip, there's less reason to search the account.
No, again, the point of the travel lock isn't that you can't use Facebook at all, but rather than your history and social graphs are restricted. For most ordinary purposes, Facebook will probably get more usable while travel-locked.
Yeah. Everyone* would be able to see what I’m posting during my trip (which itself could be dangerous…), but no one could see the history until after the trip.
* who is normally allowed to see what is posted in the first place.
Exactly - the correct solution is that border inspection of luggage (for contraband) NOT be considered a legal basis for searching my information storage.
Warrantless search of gadgets / accounts should be prohibited for citizens. For non-citizens, it should require a significant justification.
Finally, NONE of the data examined at the border should be stored for longer than necessary to reach a go/no-go determination.
While you get to work on repealing 223 years of jurisprudence about border searches, how about we explore things tech companies can do in the immediacy to mitigate their impact?
I think that would be difficult to achieve. If it's minimal enough to achieve the goal, it's minimal enough to look like travel mode.
If the only goal is to refuse them access to your account, you can do that already. Your devices will be confiscated, non-citizens will be refused entry, but you can do it if your device encryption is strong enough.
The goal here seems to be to give you the ability to get through the border without giving up your information. If it looks like "trip mode", it's failed at that goal, and I'm not sure it's possible to make it both mainstream and stealthy enough to work.
I don't think any part of the proposal depends on it not being possible to detect whether an account is travel-locked, but I'm curious about why you think it's so straightforward to tell if an account is locked?
Surely, if this became popular, CBP would simply start asking aliens seeking entry whether their accounts were travel locked. And the standard advice would be, "never lie to CBP".
But I'm still curious about why you think this would be so obvious.
Citizens AND permanent residents. For some reason everyone is just saying citizens. But the whole intention of asking for access to people's accounts is meant to be for verifying they are complying with their visa. [1] E.g. Similar to looking through someone's documents as they cross and seeing a letter that's an offer of work would be cause for refusal if they weren't entering with the correct work permit.
But in the case of citizens and permanent residents both have no cause for this kind of verification. They're allowed to enter for any purpose. So at the very least citizens and permanent residents should not be searched.
[1] I'm not defending the practice or saying this is how it's actually being used, but it is the only actual reasonable justification CBP have for the practice of searching phones.
Not that it'd do much. If the border agents really want to see one's social media accounts, I have zero doubt they can get that data from other government agencies. In fact, they probably already have it. It sounds to me like they're just trying to assert their power and dominance over the people whose accounts they are demanding access to as a way to get off on intimidating others. Pretty typical behavior by law enforcement officers the world over.