US border agents now have powers to search travellers’ phones without a warrant or even reasonable suspicion.
A US court ruled Customs and Border Protection can conduct manual searches of electronic devices under the “border search exception,” which has traditionally allowed warrantless searches of people entering the country.
The ruling was the result of a case in which a traveller to the US challenged two warrantless searches of his phone, which produced evidence later used to convict him of fraud.
Privacy advocates warned the decision would open people’s digital lives to government scrutiny simply for crossing the US border.
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