The New Dark Age

24 February 2017 — Open Media

Can you imagine doing this at the airport? You take off your shoes, put your liquids in the x-ray tray… and then hand over your unlocked phone to a border agent for them to look through?

In the U.S., a disturbing proposal is on the table: Key U.S. politicians want to force every single traveller crossing the border to hand over their digital devices, unlock them, and provide their social media passwords.¹

Border agents would then look through your private messages to loved ones, sensitive financial information, photos, browsing history, and contacts – and even download the information to store it in their giant databases.

It’s intrusive and unsafe, and we’d have no way of knowing who it’s shared with or how it’s stored.

But if we speak up now, and hit key government bodies with pressure from all around the world, we can stop this dead in its tracks.

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly has just said he wants the power to unlock your devices and hand over social media passwords to be the new normal. Our greatest chance to kill this proposal is well before it becomes enshrined in law. That’s why we need you to take urgent action today.

The awful truth is that it’s already perfectly legal for customs agents to search any electronic device being brought into the country “without a warrant and without suspicion.”²

Border agents are not only abusing this legal loophole, but now they’re keen to extend these powers even further. They’re not going to stop until every single traveller across a U.S. border is subjected to this gross civil rights violation.

We’re targeting three key U.S. government bodies with a call to stop this violation of personal privacy. They need to hear now from the international community that this will stifle tourism and cross border commerce. Stand up for privacy and send a message now.

This is the powerful beginning of a movement to stop not just this, but all outrageous digital privacy violations at borders. I hope I can count you in!

Thanks for everything you do.

Victoria with OpenMedia

PS This affects you even if you don’t travel to the U.S. Any private messages or photos you sent to anyone who then crosses the border will be in the hands of U.S. authorities. If we don’t speak up now these mandatory phone download powers will become the norm not just in the U.S., but all over the world. Act now!

Footnotes
[1] We Already Screen Cell Phones At The Border, Will Social Media Be Any Different?: Forbes
[2] I’ll never bring my phone on an international flight again. Neither should you. FreeCodeCamp

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