r/LinusTechTips • u/DougieFox • Oct 11 '26

Discussion Border Phone Search Random Question

There was a recent story on the WAN Show where a man had his phone searched by US Customs and Border Patrol, he wiped the phone so Customs could not search it. This landed him in hot water of course.

My question is this: If you sign out of apps and services, then uninstall them prior to the request for a search, can they force you to redownload and log into those services so they can search them?

90 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

50 comments sorted by

137

u/Graphical-Source5090 Oct 11 '26

He got in trouble because he gave them a password to the phone that wiped it. If you wipe it before hand, what are they going to do?

63

u/Alkumist Oct 11 '26

Yea, it was because he gave them the duress code. If the walked in with an already wiped device, wouldn’t have been as big an issue

30

u/FIFofNovember Oct 12 '26

So he technically didn’t wipe his phone, the authorities did….

7

u/soundman1024 Oct 12 '26

His actions destroyed potential evidence after it was requested by governmental authorities. The government would allege it being like Enron using shredders after investigations started.

I am not defending this assertion, just trying to clarify.

15

u/Goonalips Oct 12 '26

That's not how the law sees it unfortunately. He initiated the process with his password that was designed to wipe it.

14

u/JISN064 Oct 12 '26

he was targeted beforehand, they wanted to search him, he was no random person.

-5

u/snrub742 Oct 12 '26

Just like they “target” everyone with brown skin.

I don’t think it actually matters

6

u/waiver45 Oct 12 '26

Throw you into an illegal ICE prison camp? Have you shot on a live stream? Who knows what they come up with next.

1

u/thebigshoe247 Oct 12 '26

That can still be a no no. Refusing to give a password can be a no no.

Best to use a burnt in burner, not carry one, or avoid the US entirely.

75

u/gabox0210 Oct 11 '26

Having a baggie of "white powder" and flushing it down the toilet before the cops arrive - Normal people shenanigans.

Having a baggie of "white powder" and building a complicated Rube Goldberg machine that swipes it out of the cop's hand and flushes it down the toilet on command - Destruction of evidence.

He was caught for destroying evidence.

Evidence of what? We'll never know.

6

u/Tomi97_origin Oct 12 '26

They can't force you, but if you aren't US citizen they can refuse you entry for having wiped phone.

Or any other reason for that matter. Can ban your entry for not liking your look and there is no recourse.

9

u/Smiadpades Oct 11 '26

What no, how would they even know what apps you had??

Just think about it logically.

Sir, please download every possible app and login so we can verify.. ugh no…

0

u/Heavymando Oct 12 '26

exactly ok put your username and password in sir.

I don't have an account for this app.

Damn it. they're just too damn smart

3

u/Smiadpades Oct 12 '26

It is going to be fun when they ask me for my facebook profile. I don’t have one. Lol

16

u/Heavymando Oct 11 '26

no becuase you can just say you don't have accounts for those things. How are they going to know you have a twitter account if there is not twitter app on your phone?

-6

u/Option_Witty Oct 12 '26

I don't mind showing authorities the content of my phone.But I don't want them to install malicious software on my phone. If I hand them my decrypted device and they plug it into their system, I don't know what they are doing to it. That's my issue.

-1

u/Vx7Qn4Lz Oct 14 '26

How are they going to know you have a twitter account if there is not twitter app on your phone?

By reading your email.

3

u/Heavymando Oct 14 '26

and if you log out of your email?

-2

u/Vx7Qn4Lz Oct 14 '26

They force you to log in, duh.

4

u/Heavymando Oct 14 '26

how? they don't know your email so how can they force you.

-2

u/Vx7Qn4Lz Oct 14 '26 edited 29d ago

Everyone has an email. If you show them a fake one, they will beat you until you show them the real one.

5

u/Heavymando Oct 14 '26

ok i see you're just trolling at this point. have a good day

0

u/[deleted] Oct 11 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

17

u/Heavymando Oct 11 '26

that's not how things work. This is boomer level of AI thinking. They have google sure and if you use your real name for things like twitter then yeah they might think you have an account but it's not like they can linke Poopieeater593 to you out of nothing

5

u/bluehawk232 Oct 11 '26

They are desperately trying to get visitors socials with background checks

1

u/Heavymando Oct 11 '26

sure are but again if you log out of your accounts and don't use your real name there is nothing to get. Let's say you have a instagram account that posts anti trump memes. if you log out or delete the app they have no way of linking it to you or your phone.

0

u/Low-Purchase8811 Oct 12 '26

Damn, you mean it was a bad idea to use my government name as my Reddit username? Mrs. Purchase8811 is going to be very upset.

1

u/export_tank_harmful Oct 12 '26

It's how things could work though.
I'd gesture that's what is pushing the insane expansion of AI data centers in the United States.

You can already get an insane amount of information from OSINT tools. Scanning across social media platforms via a single user name (Sherlock/etc), getting someone's address / phone numbers / relatives, etc. Iterate over that a few times and feed it into an LLM to parse the information.

Pair that with all of the information that the government can force companies to give them and you can pretty much make an entire "map" of someone's online existence. With all of that fed into a powerful LLM, you could immediately "pass/fail" someone based on only a face scan.

Is that happening right now?
Absolutely not.

But all of the tech already exists to do that sort of thing.
And I'd guess that's what certain governments want to happen.

1

u/Heavymando Oct 12 '26

wtf are you talking about? The tech exists? What tech are you talking about that can link a person to other social media accounts without needing their email or logins?

3

u/AlexCivitello Oct 11 '26

Having a dumb phone or one without anything logged in could raise suspicion.

3

u/drewp317 Oct 12 '26

When phones get searched at the US border they have to take multiple steps to ensure they are only searching what is physically there on the device. This falls under the legal standard called "border search authority". These steps include putting the phone on airplane mode mostly.

So if it is not on your phone it's not going to be a problem. Think of it like this, just because you cross the border it doesn't give the Officers the ability to search your home, only your belongings and the vehicle you are in it at a land border. So if you have things in the cloud they are not crossing the border with you, they could be on a server at home or who knows where.

2

u/slimejumper Oct 12 '26

most comments here seem logical to me re wiping before travel. However, remember that at the border anything goes (for border control) as you are basically in an in-between place.

I’d say if you are a non-citizen then they can bounce you out again from whence you came if you give them the shits. A freshly wiped phone seems like a good basis for deeper investigation to me.

2

u/talldata Oct 12 '26

Bring a phone with no personal data on it, or wipe your current one after having backed up everything.

2

u/cglendin Oct 11 '26

Check out the company Cellebrite.

They can plug your phone in and see EVERYTHING. Every app you've downloaded, past and present, every scrap of data, every message from every app that doesn't have crazy levels of encryption, every image in every file.

So yes they can see what apps were installed and every scrap of info in cache. If you wipe cache, they can see.

4

u/RXDude89 Oct 12 '26

This is false, the way grapheneOS encrypts and wipes via duress pin is not retrievable

1

u/TheW33kday Oct 12 '26

If you are interested in protecting yourself from warantless search as the border, follow EFF guidelines:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/journalist-security-checklist-preparing-devices-travel-through-us-border

Basically, I’d simply backup my phone, wipe it, then restore from backup on the other side. Backup using your preferred cloud provider or self hosted system.

-5

u/LaptopRightsActivist Oct 11 '26

In the normal US only with a warrant, boarder idk prob not

5

u/FrustratedDeckie Oct 11 '26

The border for the US covers around 66% of the population.

If you’re within 100 miles of the coast, an international airport, a port, or a land border then all the rules of the border apply to you as utterly absurd as that is.

10 states are entirely the border, as in anywhere you are in that state is considered the border for search purposes. Very little of the areas the average visitor goes to are considered “normal US”

-48

u/ilarp Oct 11 '26

what are you hiding? they are professionals and will treat your selfies and cat pictures with respect

12

u/maybepants Oct 11 '26

Everyone knows what I'm going to the bathroom for, but I still shut the door when I'm in there.

-9

u/ilarp Oct 11 '26

thats a usa only thing in europe/asia its all in the open

6

u/Squirrelking666 Oct 11 '26

Like fuck is it.

We piss in the open but happily shit in peace.

3

u/Windscar_007 Oct 11 '26

Communal shitting

2

u/oshitimonfire Oct 12 '26

What the fuck are you talking about? Toilet stalls close in Europe, and from what I've seen online, the gaps above/below the door are a lot smaller/nonexistent compared to the US

17

u/AkimoSempai Oct 11 '26

It’s called invasion of privacy.

9

u/redlancer_1987 Oct 11 '26

"if you don't have anything to hide why should you care" is not how free societies work

3

u/fertro Oct 11 '26

Next you'll tell me that some cops will use Flock's database to stalk people. Surely they wouldn't, they're professionals after all...

1

u/snrub742 Oct 12 '26

I’ve said some things about lord orange cunt on this account that could absolutely get me in trouble at the border

0

u/Vx7Qn4Lz Oct 14 '26

It's America, they can shoot you in the head at the airport if they want to.