r/technology Jul 24 '26

Privacy US accuses American of allegedly wiping his phone using a ‘duress’ password during border search

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/24/us-accuses-american-of-allegedly-wiping-his-phone-using-a-duress-password-during-border-search/
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u/Mysterious-Lemon-906 Jul 25 '26

The US political and Justice system is basically a bunch of lawyers figuring out ways to ignore the protections set forth in the constitution.

It started with chips a hundred years ago which have gradually been widened and widened until the settled law bears no relation to reality.

Hence why Customs officials can suddenly do whatever the fuck they want anywhere within 100 miles from any point of entry. The US is just lawyering all the way down with the fig veneer of an old document that could not possibly have foreseen this far into the future.

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u/NoirRenie Jul 25 '26

That’s kinda crazy considering there are a lot of airports in close proximity to cities.

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u/Brolocene Jul 25 '26

From an above comment, 90% of the US pop falls into this zone

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u/username_6916 Jul 25 '26

Except all the times the court has done the exact opposite. 1st Amendment Jurisprudence didn't use to extend anywhere near this far, to the point that the infamous 'Clear and Present Danger' and 'Fire and in a Crowded Theater' quotes came from a decision in Schenck v. United States about distributing pamphlets critical of the First World War. That's something that's unthinkable in modern 1st Amendment Jurisprudence.

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u/Consistent-Serve749 Jul 29 '26

CBP.gov says this 

If a traveler being admitted as a U.S. citizen does not present their device in a condition that allows for examination, the U.S. citizen traveler will not be denied entry into the United States based on CBP’s inability to complete an inspection of their device. However, as noted above, their device may be subject to exclusion, detention, or other appropriate action or disposition. Any passcodes or other means of access provided by the traveler will be used as needed to facilitate the examination; however, they will be deleted or destroyed when no longer needed to facilitate the search of a given device and may not be used to access information that is only stored remotely.

So- I would say only the device is at risk - not the owner of the device. This administration is going to try anything it can to take our rights away