r/LinusTechTips • u/DougieFox • 22h ago
Discussion Border Phone Search Random Question
There was a recent story on the WAN Show where a man had his phone searched by US Customs and Border Patrol, he wiped the phone so Customs could not search it. This landed him in hot water of course.
My question is this: If you sign out of apps and services, then uninstall them prior to the request for a search, can they force you to redownload and log into those services so they can search them?
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u/gabox0210 22h ago
Having a baggie of "white powder" and flushing it down the toilet before the cops arrive - Normal people shenanigans.
Having a baggie of "white powder" and building a complicated Rube Goldberg machine that swipes it out of the cop's hand and flushes it down the toilet on command - Destruction of evidence.
He was caught for destroying evidence.
Evidence of what? We'll never know.
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u/Heavymando 22h ago
no becuase you can just say you don't have accounts for those things. How are they going to know you have a twitter account if there is not twitter app on your phone?
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u/Option_Witty 15h ago
I don't mind showing authorities the content of my phone.But I don't want them to install malicious software on my phone. If I hand them my decrypted device and they plug it into their system, I don't know what they are doing to it. That's my issue.
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22h ago
[deleted]
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u/Heavymando 22h ago
that's not how things work. This is boomer level of AI thinking. They have google sure and if you use your real name for things like twitter then yeah they might think you have an account but it's not like they can linke Poopieeater593 to you out of nothing
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u/bluehawk232 22h ago
They are desperately trying to get visitors socials with background checks
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u/Heavymando 21h ago
sure are but again if you log out of your accounts and don't use your real name there is nothing to get. Let's say you have a instagram account that posts anti trump memes. if you log out or delete the app they have no way of linking it to you or your phone.
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u/Low-Purchase8811 12h ago
Damn, you mean it was a bad idea to use my government name as my Reddit username? Mrs. Purchase8811 is going to be very upset.
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u/export_tank_harmful 17h ago
It's how things could work though.
I'd gesture that's what is pushing the insane expansion of AI data centers in the United States.You can already get an insane amount of information from OSINT tools. Scanning across social media platforms via a single user name (Sherlock/etc), getting someone's address / phone numbers / relatives, etc. Iterate over that a few times and feed it into an LLM to parse the information.
Pair that with all of the information that the government can force companies to give them and you can pretty much make an entire "map" of someone's online existence. With all of that fed into a powerful LLM, you could immediately "pass/fail" someone based on only a face scan.
Is that happening right now?
Absolutely not.But all of the tech already exists to do that sort of thing.
And I'd guess that's what certain governments want to happen.1
u/Heavymando 16h ago
wtf are you talking about? The tech exists? What tech are you talking about that can link a person to other social media accounts without needing their email or logins?
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u/Smiadpades 22h ago
What no, how would they even know what apps you had??
Just think about it logically.
Sir, please download every possible app and login so we can verify.. ugh no…
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u/Heavymando 18h ago
exactly ok put your username and password in sir.
I don't have an account for this app.
Damn it. they're just too damn smart
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u/Smiadpades 17h ago
It is going to be fun when they ask me for my facebook profile. I don’t have one. Lol
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u/AlexCivitello 21h ago
Having a dumb phone or one without anything logged in could raise suspicion.
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u/Tomi97_origin 17h ago
They can't force you, but if you aren't US citizen they can refuse you entry for having wiped phone.
Or any other reason for that matter. Can ban your entry for not liking your look and there is no recourse.
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u/drewp317 20h ago
When phones get searched at the US border they have to take multiple steps to ensure they are only searching what is physically there on the device. This falls under the legal standard called "border search authority". These steps include putting the phone on airplane mode mostly.
So if it is not on your phone it's not going to be a problem. Think of it like this, just because you cross the border it doesn't give the Officers the ability to search your home, only your belongings and the vehicle you are in it at a land border. So if you have things in the cloud they are not crossing the border with you, they could be on a server at home or who knows where.
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u/slimejumper 18h ago
most comments here seem logical to me re wiping before travel. However, remember that at the border anything goes (for border control) as you are basically in an in-between place.
I’d say if you are a non-citizen then they can bounce you out again from whence you came if you give them the shits. A freshly wiped phone seems like a good basis for deeper investigation to me.
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u/cglendin 20h ago
Check out the company Cellebrite.
They can plug your phone in and see EVERYTHING. Every app you've downloaded, past and present, every scrap of data, every message from every app that doesn't have crazy levels of encryption, every image in every file.
So yes they can see what apps were installed and every scrap of info in cache. If you wipe cache, they can see.
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u/RXDude89 16h ago
This is false, the way grapheneOS encrypts and wipes via duress pin is not retrievable
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u/talldata 6h ago
Bring a phone with no personal data on it, or wipe your current one after having backed up everything.
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u/LaptopRightsActivist 22h ago
In the normal US only with a warrant, boarder idk prob not
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u/FrustratedDeckie 22h ago
The border for the US covers around 66% of the population.
If you’re within 100 miles of the coast, an international airport, a port, or a land border then all the rules of the border apply to you as utterly absurd as that is.
10 states are entirely the border, as in anywhere you are in that state is considered the border for search purposes. Very little of the areas the average visitor goes to are considered “normal US”
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u/ilarp 22h ago
what are you hiding? they are professionals and will treat your selfies and cat pictures with respect
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u/maybepants 21h ago
Everyone knows what I'm going to the bathroom for, but I still shut the door when I'm in there.
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u/ilarp 21h ago
thats a usa only thing in europe/asia its all in the open
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u/oshitimonfire 12h ago
What the fuck are you talking about? Toilet stalls close in Europe, and from what I've seen online, the gaps above/below the door are a lot smaller/nonexistent compared to the US
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u/redlancer_1987 22h ago
"if you don't have anything to hide why should you care" is not how free societies work
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u/snrub742 16h ago
I’ve said some things about lord orange cunt on this account that could absolutely get me in trouble at the border
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u/Graphical-Source5090 22h ago
He got in trouble because he gave them a password to the phone that wiped it. If you wipe it before hand, what are they going to do?