Checking smartphones and laptops at airports is becoming the norm for many countries. Someone considers it a necessity, others - an invasion of privacy. We discuss the situation, the latest developments on the topic and tell you how you can act in the new circumstances.
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The problem of privacy at the border
In 2017 only, US Customs 30 thousand inspections of devices, which is 58% more than a year earlier. In 2018, this figure increased, and legislative regulation is changing in the direction of granting ever broader powers for inspection. Not so long ago, US Customs officers received the right to read private messages and even forward this information to the servers of the border service - all without issuing a warrant.
In this case, it is impossible to guarantee the protection of personal data from access by third parties. Just at the beginning of the month that the customs database was hacked. Photographs and passport numbers of tens of thousands of travelers became the prey of the attackers.
At the end of May it also became about the new requirements for US visa applicants. Applicants will have to data on social media accounts and personal phone numbers for the last five years. All information will be checked by special services. The visa situation in one of the materials on Habré.
Checking electronic devices is not only at the US border. In China, customs officials correspondence, photos, videos and documents of those entering the country to establish the purpose of the visit. Similar situation in Canada, airport employees review social media posts, call history, and browser history.
Pros and cons
Any state considers the border as a source of increased danger. Customs officers and airlines that screenings of gadgets are carried out for security purposes and "ensure compliance with laws in the territory of countries."
At the same time, experts note that the situation is not as bad as it is described. US border yearly 400 million people. However, only a few tens of thousands of inspections of gadgets are carried out per year, which is “not so much.”
There is an opinion that such an approach violates the rights of people to the secrecy of correspondence. Two years ago, ten US citizens (including ) even in court against the Ministry of National Security and the Customs Service. In their statement, they noted that screening electronic devices at the border is contrary to the first and fourth amendments to the constitution.
Large companies whose employees have to fly on business trips are also actively opposed to “gadget searches”. They note that such practices can compromise an organization's sensitive data as people increasingly use personal laptops and smartphones to work. Basecamp even developed , which all employees of the company must follow when traveling abroad. It describes the methods and tools that must be used to protect information.
“I have a negative attitude towards any restriction of freedoms, and the right to privacy of correspondence is a fundamental right of any person. Compromise of business data on employees' personal smartphones is a serious problem that is becoming more urgent as employees increasingly use instant messengers for work correspondence. Therefore, all companies need to pay attention to issues related to the security of corporate data.
In 1cloud, we are working on information security policies for employees when working with personal devices - we will implement them and test them in the near future, ”comments Sergey Belkin, head of the development department .
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Politicians also come up with initiatives to limit the powers of customs officers. Several US Senators a bill that would ban gadget screening at the border without good reason. Similar calls for legislation revision and in Canadian society.
“I think that in the event of a real interest, the special services could get access to the information they need before (in one way or another, including without the knowledge of the user), and these new regulations only simplify the procedure and establish more explicit rules of the game, which should take citizens into account when planning certain activities. If I were doing “something” that might be of interest to law enforcement agencies (of any country), then the phone and laptop would not be included in the top ten devices where I would decide to store such information. The same applies to storing data in any public cloud services (regardless of their jurisdiction),” says Alexey .
Conclusions
Use strong passwords for every service or app, and log out of all accounts before crossing a national border. It is also worth protecting the operating system with a password. This will “play into the hands” even if the device is stolen.
Back up your data and delete all sensitive information from disks using special utilities. You can use an open source tool . It erases documents, cleans the browser and file preview images.
Upload your data to the cloud, where it will be more secure. For example, in the United States, border guards can view the saved files on the device, but to validate data in the cloud.
“In my opinion, the thing [screening gadgets at the border] is completely useless. Whoever has something to hide will store data, for example, on a server where he will log in with his password through a browser. Examine the gadget - there simply will not be anything special in it.
And it is simply impossible to even guess that this server exists at all. Personally, I am calm about such things and somehow I don’t particularly prepare. What really annoys me is the tradition of some airports to demand to get a laptop out of the bag,” comments Timofey Shikolenkov, founder of the Online University “».
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Source: habr.com
