Border agents are randomly seizing phones of US citizens who support Palestine

4 days ago by Sunshine to c/privacy

Miami lawyer Jalal Shehadeh is the latest supporter of Palestinian rights to be hassled after returning from abroad.
panda_abyss 94 points 4 days ago

That sounds by definition not random.

path: 0 26229446, hotness: undefined, score: 94, children: 1
HamsterRage 2 points 2 days ago

Came here to say this.

path: 0 26229446 26262563, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0
aizakku 27 points 4 days ago path: 0 26230031, hotness: undefined, score: 27, children: 17
Eat_Your_Paisley 36 points 4 days ago

You get arrested for wiping your phone at the border as we learned last month.

For now people that need to cross the border should probably carry a travel phone and mail their real one.

path: 0 26230031 26231656, hotness: undefined, score: 36, children: 5
BlueberryWalnut 13 points 4 days ago

What's your pin?

I don't recall at the moment.

What's your pin?

I don't recall at the moment.

What's your pin?

path: 0 26230031 26231656 26239191, hotness: undefined, score: 13, children: 1
JustEnoughDucks 7 points 2 days ago

2 hours in a cell later, you can't enter the country

path: 0 26230031 26231656 26239191 26259422, hotness: undefined, score: 7, children: 0
Batman 6 points 4 days ago

I wonder if I'd get arrested if they run out of tries then it wipes itself, as opposed to providing a duress pin.

path: 0 26230031 26231656 26238148, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 1
Eat_Your_Paisley 13 points 4 days ago

I don't know..

Over the years the courts have decided that LEOs can't force you to give your pin/password. The issue that wasn't really addressed is why US citizens lack certain rights in the grey zone between US and international territory.

This all seems illegal but I'm not a laywer

path: 0 26230031 26231656 26238148 26238226, hotness: undefined, score: 13, children: 0
onlinepersona 3 points 2 days ago

Or don't take your real phone with you. Memorise a tinyURL that takes you to a place you can restore your original phone contents or even just a password vault, which allows you to reconnect to your important services once you have access to a clean phone again.

path: 0 26230031 26231656 26260678, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 0
MoonMelon 18 points 4 days ago

Some guy is currently facing federal charges for exactly that:

Samuel Tunick is facing a federal felony after data on his Google Pixel was erased while Customs and Border Protection officers were trying to search the device at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. His attorneys are challenging the legality of the search, putting the government’s border search powers at the center of the criminal case.

The encounter occurred on January 24, 2025, after Tunick returned to the United States from the Dominican Republic and was sent to secondary inspection. Federal officers sought access to his phone, and court records state that Tunick eventually provided a passcode. When an officer entered it, the screen went blank, flashed several times and appeared to restart. Prosecutors allege the phone’s contents had been deleted.

A federal grand jury indicted Tunick in November 2025 under 18 U.S.C. § 2232(a). The law makes it a crime to knowingly destroy, damage or take other action against property for the purpose of preventing or interfering with the government’s lawful authority to take it into custody. A conviction can carry up to five years in prison.

https://www.lawcommentary.com/...

https://www.courtlistener.com/...

path: 0 26230031 26233463, hotness: undefined, score: 18, children: 7
lka1988 21 points 4 days ago

A federal grand jury indicted Tunick in November 2025 under 18 U.S.C. § 2232(a). The law makes it a crime to knowingly destroy, damage or take other action against property for the purpose of preventing or interfering with the government’s lawful authority to take it into custody. A conviction can carry up to five years in prison.

This just smells like a techbro version of "arrested for resisting arrest".

path: 0 26230031 26233463 26234349, hotness: undefined, score: 21, children: 5
refalo 5 points 4 days ago

How does a duress pin prevent them from taking the device into custody?

And if you forgot you had a duress pin, hence weren't "knowingly" damaging anything, would that be a useful defense?

path: 0 26230031 26233463 26234349 26239791, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 4
lka1988 6 points 3 days ago

I think the govt is just pissy that they couldn't plant any evidence.

I'm all about owning my own devices, and have rooted every single Android device I've had over the years, but all of this is really making me want to go full Graphene. Locked bootloader and everything. Hell, even my wife installed Graphene on her Pixel after researching security options for it. I use Syncthing to back up everything I deem important to my NAS, so outside of a couple apps, I could confidently wipe my phone right now and have mostly everything restored within the hour...

Fuck. I think I know what I'm doing this weekend.

path: 0 26230031 26233463 26234349 26239791 26248145, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 3
j5y7 17 points 4 days ago

He's a hero for testing it.

path: 0 26230031 26233463 26233464, hotness: undefined, score: 17, children: 0
XLE 9 points 4 days ago path: 0 26230031 26231671, hotness: undefined, score: 9, children: 0
danekrae 4 points 4 days ago

It would be so awesome, if more devices were supported.

path: 0 26230031 26230419, hotness: undefined, score: 4, children: 1
onlinepersona 2 points 2 days ago

Once Motorola releases their phone with GrapheneOS, maybe other vendors might be willing to release phones upon which GrapheneOS can run. But there are alternatives like CalyxOS

path: 0 26230031 26230419 26260693, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0
0_o7 23 points 4 days ago

Freedom of Speech^TM^*

*Terms and condition apply and are subject to change at any given moment and is enforced however we (the enforcers) like it. We can and will infringe on it but you may take legal action after our work is complete. You may be entitled to some compensation, which will come from the tax dollars, while we face no consequences, aren't held accountable and free to repeat it. Your case may also be used as a propaganda to show how we are the freeest country in the world.

path: 0 26239374, hotness: undefined, score: 23, children: 0
Quexotic 10 points 4 days ago

Maybe backup your phone, wipe it, and restore it?

path: 0 26235771, hotness: undefined, score: 10, children: 2
stembolts 5 points 3 days ago

The solution to school shootings is not to focus on dodgeball.

This is a comment about phone privacy.

path: 0 26235771 26247945, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 1
Pollo_Jack 2 points 2 days ago

What if we gave the teachers guns though? Surely, those scraping by for supplies to teach with will have the free time to practice shooting.

path: 0 26235771 26247945 26263066, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0
IceFoxX -16 points 3 days ago
path: 0 26242090, hotness: undefined, score: -16, children: 37
flandish 6 points 3 days ago

bot accts gonna bot, huh?

path: 0 26242090 26247933, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 28
IceFoxX -10 points 3 days ago
path: 0 26242090 26247933 26248851, hotness: undefined, score: -10, children: 27
flandish 8 points 3 days ago

how is being against israel a form of antisemitism? go on. tell me.

path: 0 26242090 26247933 26248851 26250058, hotness: undefined, score: 8, children: 23
IceFoxX -9 points 3 days ago
path: 0 26242090 26247933 26248851 26250058 26250594, hotness: undefined, score: -9, children: 22
rumimevlevi 2 points 2 days ago

You are an antisemite who wants to exterminate Palestinian Semites. You support a settler-colonial power whose founders were terrorists who carried out many terrorist attacks that killed Jews in Palestine: the King David Hotel bombing (17 Jews killed), the SS Patria disaster (233 Jews killed), and the ordered murder of a Jewish journalist, Jacob Israël de Haan.

path: 0 26242090 26247933 26248851 26262705, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 2
IceFoxX 0 points 2 days ago
path: 0 26242090 26247933 26248851 26262705 26262827, hotness: undefined, score: 0, children: 1
stembolts 3 points 3 days ago
path: 0 26242090 26247903, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 0
coredev 0 points 3 days ago
path: 0 26242090 26253162, hotness: undefined, score: 0, children: 6
IceFoxX -4 points 2 days ago
path: 0 26242090 26253162 26260059, hotness: undefined, score: -4, children: 5
rumimevlevi 2 points 2 days ago

Israeli leaders themselves brag about their crimes against humanity. Netanyahu said he will never allow a Palestinian state, not because of Hamas or any other group he said he will never allow one because he believes the land belongs to Israel. Why do you support settler colonialism? The more reputable genocide expert say it is a genocide and you think people will believe a random person like you?

path: 0 26242090 26253162 26260059 26262663, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 4
IceFoxX -1 points 2 days ago
path: 0 26242090 26253162 26260059 26262663 26262815, hotness: undefined, score: -1, children: 3
privacy
privacy

@programming.dev

login for more options
5286
2140
2399

Icon base by Lorc under CC BY 3.0 with modifications to add a gradient

go to feed...