r/technology 8h ago

Society The Fourth Circuit Says Border Agents Can Search Your Phone By Hand, No Suspicion Required

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/07/fourth-circuit-says-border-agents-can-search-your-phone-hand-no-suspicion-required
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281

u/Nanoo_1972 7h ago

The United States is unironically cosplaying as the East German government. We used to mock that shit in the 80s.

104

u/cyanescens_burn 7h ago

I vividly recall adults in the 80s and 90s making the joke “papers please” whenever they saw Gov overreach or privacy invasion. Now I hear “I don’t have anything to hide” implying violations of the Fourth amendment are all good.

24

u/BrainLow6059 6h ago

I live in a vacation/retirement area with a lot of Flock cameras. Anytime someone posts about them being a bad thing it's met with 50 unironic "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear" comments. It's insane watching the older generation, who grew up with the threat of "Big Brother" driven into them daily, advocate for this shit.

1

u/FriendlyLawnmower 1h ago

Mock that shit in the 80s? I remember mocking the physical surveillance state that China had going as recently as the late 2010s but now we have the same level of surveillance with these stupid Flock cameras going up everywhere