Linked – I’ll never bring my phone on an international flight again. Neither should you.
Do I think it will reach this point? In some places, I think it will, yes. Will it get this bad in the US? I don’t know, but it will absolutely become much more common than it is. Have I ever been asked to unlock my phone and have my electronics searched when entering country? So far, once. Going into Canada. Since I travel with quite a few devices as part of my job, this search took a rather long time. But, they only searched it in my presence, they did not image the device to search later. As the article points out though, you don’t have any legal protection when going through a border patrol check, you are in no-man’s land. You either agree, or you don’t enter. It’ll be interesting to see how companies like mine deal with this issue. Will we be traveling sans devices soon?
“Since it’s illegal in most countries to profile individual travelers, customs officers will soon require everyone to do this.
The companies who make the software that downloads data from your phones are about to get a huge infusion of money from governments. Their software will get much faster?—?maybe requiring only a few seconds to download all of your most pertinent data from your phone.
If we do nothing to resist, pretty soon everyone will have to unlock their phone and hand it over to a customs agent while they’re getting their passport swiped.
Over time, this unparalleled intrusion into your personal privacy may come to feel as routine as taking off your shoes and putting them on a conveyer belt.”
