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Comment by Fzzr | Hacker News Reader

Yes. Recent (this administration) policies allow for demanding passwords etc. at the border. There was an incident where a NASA engineer lost control of sensitive data as a result https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/02/a-nas...

It's not paranoia. Welcome to 2017.

Edit: It's not like they're scanning every cell phone that enters the country... but they reserve the right to.

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Please stop spreading lies. This happened long before this administration. E.g. articles from 2016:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/28/us-custom...

https://www.theverge.com/2016/12/22/14066082/us-customs-bord...

So it's even worse, because excessive border checks are an established trend rather than a new measure from the rather voluble Trump administration: returning USA airport to civilization is going to be a long and difficult process.

I stand deceived and now corrected. I'll do better next time.

I don't know why he didn't pull the security clearance card in regards to the phone.

If it's what it sounds like, the CBP agent unlocking and inspecting the phone may have been breaking the law themselves.

what does customs need with a spaceship?

Nothing, he was just selected (based on who knows what criteria, they don't need warrants) to be scanned. Whether or not they actually cared about the sensitive data on the device, he still lost control of it long enough for it to be copied or compromised.

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