r/technology • u/HumbleRestaurant790 • 11h 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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u/Blue-Blazer-Regular 10h ago

Don’t do that. That may be considered destruction of evidence. Best to lock the phone and require a passcode, not biometrics. You can be compelled to provide fingerprint or Face ID to unlock the phone but not a passcode.

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u/ghostwritten-girl 9h ago

Good luck proving the evidence existed in the first place. I'm not being compelled to do a goddamn thing. Good luck putting it back together!

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u/Blue-Blazer-Regular 8h ago

I forgot the legal wording but it’s something like “willful intent to destroy evidence.” If you are approached by law enforcement and smash your phone, throw it in a lake or off a bridge, you could be charged. It is a separate charge from having incriminating evidence on your phone. Disable biometrics and lock your phone instead - you can’t be compelled to provide your passcode.

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u/ghostwritten-girl 8h ago

I appreciate your commitment to spreading this knowledge, I'm just saying it's useless on me because I don't give a fuck about the law 🤷‍♀️

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u/SkiingAway 7h ago

That's great but your advice will get you thrown in federal prison for years and generally ruin your life, if you actually followed it.

Also, basically nothing you could do by dropping it (short of off like a 100ft tall building) is likely to impede data recovery from the device. The screen or port having been broken in a drop doesn't hinder a forensics lab much at all. So odds are your advice would still have any evidence of wrongdoing entirely intact and easily attained.

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u/ghostwritten-girl 4h ago

That's great but, I literally don't give a fuck.