EFF Files Court Brief Calling For Warrants For Border Searches Of Digital Devices

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has recently filed a court brief in order to push for warrants to be required for any search of digital device conducted by federal agents at borders as well as at international airports. The digital devices referred to by the EFF includes mobile devices (smartphones and tablets), laptops, and other electronic gadgets. 

In its court filing, the non-profit digital rights organization describe such border searches as highly intrusive to the privacy of travelers. The group further pointed out that searches of digital devices should only be done in cases where a border agent has acquired a signed warrant from a judge. 

Under an exception to the Fourth Amendment, border searches are currently permitted to be conducted by immigration and customs enforcement. But the EFF is arguing that searches of digital devices at the United States border have increased more than two fold in frequency since Donald Trump became the President of America. In its argument, the EFF contends that most people nowadays carry with them digital devices anyway wherever they go, and they are within their rights to keep such devices as personal and as private as ever, even when they are crossing the US border. 

Some may remember that a little more than a month ago, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has fully acknowledged that it currently does not have the authority to inspect any information saved in the cloud when conducting border searches of digital devices owned by travelers coming to America. The agency further clarified that its searches can only legally examine data locally stored in an electronic device, with information stored on cloud services considered as untouchable. But considering the generous storage configurations of most of today’s digital devices, a lot of information is still saved in them, and it is likely that a significant part of all that data is private or potentially sensitive.

As stressed by Sophia Cope, the attorney representing the EFF, it is due time that the court and the US government accept the fact that inspecting the data saved inside a digital device is quite intrusive in nature, and Fourth Amendment protections should be rigid in order to ensure that the privacy of every traveler at the border is not violated.

Furthermore, the EFF also argues that it would be challenging for border agents to tell the difference between information locally saved on a digital device, and data stored in the cloud. Some electronic devices today have the capability to seamlessly display locally stored data and information saved in the cloud together, and this will prove to be a tricky matter for border agents.