Demand Progress

Tell CBP: Stop searching personal electronics at the border!

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    Tell CBP: Stop searching personal electronics at the border!

    Petition to CBP:
    We demand CBP immediately stop searching personal electronics and forcing passengers to hand over passwords to websites and social media platforms just to enter and/or leave the country.

    At the San Francisco airport, three CBP officers demanded an Apple employee, Andreas Gal, unlock his cell phone and hand over his laptop. Both devices had “Confidential and Proprietary” written on their lock screens. But CBP didn’t care, and when Gal refused their demands, he was detained and interrogated.1

    CBP has gone too far forcing passengers flying into and out of the country to hand over personal electronics and passwords to website and social media platforms. Tell CBP: Stop violating passengers’ privacy by forcing them to hand over personal electronics.

    Ever since Trump took office the CBP has ramped up their invasive searches of personal electronics at border crossings and airport. Last year, these invasive electronic device searches happened over 33,000 times.2 And if a passenger refuses to comply they can be detained and interrogated, even though they haven’t committed a crime.

    No one should have to travel in fear of their privacy being violated. Tell the CBP: Stop searching passengers’ personal electronic devices.

     

    Sources:
    1. Washington Post, “Apple employee detained by U.S. customs agents after declining to unlock phone, laptop,” April 3, 2019.
    2. Ibid.