New guidelines: Border agents need ‘reasonable suspicion’ for 'advanced' device searches

Under updated guidelines, border agents must have “reasonable suspicion” of violations of law to conduct exhaustive forensic searches of smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices belonging to individuals entering and exiting the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Friday issued the updated guidelines for searches of electronic devices at the U.S. border, which contain new restrictions on the circumstances under which officials can conduct what are called “advanced” searches. These searches are those in which agents connect external equipment to a device in order to analyze or copy its contents. According to the new directive, agents need to demonstrate reasonable suspicion of criminal wrongdoing or otherwise show that there is a “national security concern” in order to conduct advanced searches. “Many factors may create reasonable suspicion or constitute a national security concern; examples include the existence of a relevant national-security related lookout in combination with other articulable factors as appropriate, or the presence of an individual on a government-operated and government-vetted terrorist watchlist,” the directive states. Border agents are still allowed to manually search through devices — which could involve sifting through photos, browsing histories or messages — “with or without suspicion,” in what are called basic searches...more