"If you have nothing to hide..."

[Esper]

Recently I've read about people traveling to America being asked by customs to give up their phones and passwords, being asked to give their social media account information, too. I've also read about a proposed new law that would make getting a visa to come to America (even a travel visa) require that you give access to all your public social media so they can review it. My feeling is that this might become more commonplace in the future in a lot of places.

Anyway, what are your feelings about privacy? Would you give up your phone and password to a customs worker so that they could clone it and review it whenever? Would you want to let the same people have access to any of your social media, or even just view it? Should you be required to tell anyone what your social media accounts are to travel?

 

[Nah]

Sounds like a bit much really. It's one thing if they want to know the name of my account and have a link to it, but my password? Uh, no. Highly unnecessary.

would probably just change my password right after I get in anyway

 

[User19sq]

Violates the 4th amendment, but only with regards to citizens. Not sure if it applies to immigrants. Yet the conservatives don't mind raping the poor amendment for all it's worth, which isn't that much.

Meanwhile, when it comes to two amendments before...

 

[Radiating]

It's an invasion of privacy.

I would show them the account if they wanted, but never the account details.

 

[gimmepie]

Violates the 4th amendment, but only with regards to citizens. Not sure if it applies to immigrants. Yet the conservatives don't mind raping the poor amendment for all it's worth, which isn't that much.

Meanwhile, when it comes to two amendments before...

I think it does apply to immigrants/visitors since it doesn't specify "citizen" in the amendment. Anyway, I see nothing wrong with you looking at any public social media information, but taking passwords and going through accounts is a violation of both constitutional law and privacy. Just another step towards becoming a police state.

 

[Star-Lord]

I absolutely do have stuff to hide-- Certainly not illegal things, mind you, but I'm a personal person and I don't need details of my personal life being made a requirement to enter a country etc.

So I'll just echo everybody else in this thread :)

 

[pastelspectre]

that's a huge invasion of my privacy. i'd give them the account name but not the password or email, that's messed up.

 

[TN Coden]

Really doesn't matter how much of an invasion of privacy I think their actions are. As long as they have authority and power, they'll do it no matter what. Honestly, these days I'm not even if anything short of a revolution will reverse the damage to human rights America is now committing under the new administration.

Passwords and encryption don't help much either:
https://xkcd.com/538/

 

[gimmepie]

Really doesn't matter how much of an invasion of privacy I think their actions are. As long as they have authority and power, they'll do it no matter what. Honestly, these days I'm not even if anything short of a revolution will reverse the damage to human rights America is now committing under the new administration.

Passwords and encryption don't help much either:
https://xkcd.com/538/

The problem is they don't have the authority at all. They can't be going through your personal, private conversations etc without a warrant because of the fourth amendment.

 

[Aeroblast]

With regards to privacy, this sort of surveillance in the US is nothing new, as revealed by the Snowden leaks in the past.

 

[Mawa]

that's a huge invasion of my privacy. i'd give them the account name but not the password or email, that's messed up.

Exactly what I think too.

Stuff that are already visible like facebook, okay why not if I really have to, but why password and stuff? Maybe I am parano, but no I don't want them to access all my stuff, where I have accounts and even worst if I have to buy stuff. I just don't trust what they could do to my accounts.

 

[Hands]

They can taste my ears if they think I'm giving those jabronis access to my personal stuff

 

[Sir Codin]

The problem is they don't have the authority at all. They can't be going through your personal, private conversations etc without a warrant because of the fourth amendment.

On the surface, no they don't, but the fact remains that the current administration led by Trump seems to show no regard for the amendment.

Instead, like what happened with Biddkannavar, the administration is looking for any reason to detain someone, including "random search" which was the only thing that applied to Sidd when we was presented a list of reasons why US Customs felt the need to detain him. From what I can understand, US Customs had no warrant to detain him. Now this argument would falter if Sidd was a foreign national without citizenship status, but he wasn't. He's a US-born national citizen and therefore protected by the fourth amendment, but that didn't stop customs from using intimidation and seizing him until he gave the password to his phone.

This type of unreasonable search and seizure is against constitutional law, yet customs went ahead of it anyway. These actions would be grounds to impeach Trump, among many other things he has done, but so far it seems few in the GOP establishment seem willing to go through with it, though I have not checked for some time whether or not this is the case. The GOP and Trump's core voters don't seem willing to question him, however. Which tells me that under this administration and the GOP members who support it, the rule of Trump's law is considered superior to constitutional law. Any press criticism of him is met with accusations of falsehood. These are all telltale signs of a dictator or at least one in the making.

I'm saddened that the stay on the travel ban issued by the 9th Circuit was not pursued in the Supreme Court, as it would've been a good way to finally determine to what extent presidential executive orders have precedence over constitutional and judicial law.

Thus, if the people give up their resistance to him, these unlawful actions will continue unpunished. While things may seem hopeful now with the large amount of people protesting him, do not underestimate humanity's tendency for weariness, apathy, and complacency. Exhibit A: The Third Wave Experiment

And the state itself has proven time and again to suspend or cherry-pick constitutional law in times of crisis and war in the name of "public safety." Exhibit B: WW2 Japanese Internment Camps.

 

[killer-curry]

well, for me to get into a country just for a travel, but then gets an order to give your own privacy to the custom might be not really that good idea. Ok, here's my thought about what's good and what's not.

Good when they know your life background, and determine maybe your are a good guy or not, bad when you actually have a right to keep your own privacy. Sometimes, giving phone and password is still not a really secure and might put a risk when even custom can use your information and do bad things. Besides, even me as a traveler I just want my social account being untouched or not being observed by someone for the period in the foreign country.

So, the idea of giving privacy is really not a good idea at all, because first it invades people's privacy and it is a risky step for your private information being stolen.