If a traveler searches anything from their phone, tablet, or computer at an airport then the American border authorities could add data from their device to a massive database that can be accessed by thousands of government officials. The Washington Post reports that US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) leaders have admitted to lawmakers that now it can add adding information to a database from as many as 10,000 devices every year.
2,700 CBP officers now can access the database without a warrant and without having to record the purpose of their search. These details were revealed in a letter Senator Ron Wyden wrote to CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus, The information it takes from people’s devices for 15 years.
Ron Wyden says that “indiscriminate rifling through Americans’ private records without suspicion of a crime.” CBP now takes sensitive information from people’s devices, including text messages, call logs, contact lists, and even photos and other private information in some cases.
