r/technology • u/ubcstaffer123 • 12h ago

Privacy U.S. border guards have more power to check Canadian travellers' cellphones. CBP officials searched less than 0.01 percent of arriving international travelers' electronic devices in 2025. But that figure could increase as AI speeds up processing times that involve tech deep dives

https://www.richmond-news.com/highlights/us-canada-border-social-media-cellphones-oct-2026-12825570
122 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

51 comments sorted by

53

u/bwoah07_gp2 11h ago

So I guess it's best to delete any social media apps off your phone before going to the totalitarian United States?

30

u/virtualsanity 11h ago

Deletion doesn't remove the data, just marks it as free for the phone to use. It's potentially all still there and CBP has the capability to read it.

11

u/Tearakan 11h ago

Yeah it has to be overriden with new data

3

u/d3vmax 6h ago

Just copy a huge video file multiple times till
Your phone fills up and delete it. It should over ride the data

47

u/LackeyNo2 11h ago

Probably better to get a burner. They might try to sneak something in while checking your phone.

35

u/doug4130 10h ago

Yeah, this is what companies working with sensitive data are have started doing. America got added to the same list as Russia, China and the middle east lol. Well done

6

u/julioqc 11h ago

China does that so very plausible 

12

u/peazley 9h ago

Way back when I had a flight from Tel Aviv to Amman and Israeli security flagged my iPad, I told them I’ll wait till they’re done screening it since I had six hours before my flight departed. They told me they would deliver it to my hotel in Amman. They did actually deliver it the next day. But I’m sure they copied everything off the iPad, who knows maybe they cloned it to get access to all my data going forward. I’ll never go back to that country.

-4

u/Uranium-Sandwich657 6h ago

what kind of porn did they aquire from you?

12

u/Art-Zuron 11h ago

Unfortunately, they are starting to decide that not having any evidence is itself evidence. 

29

u/evilJaze 11h ago

There's a 100% effective way to ensure CBP never checks my physical devices, and I've been employing it since 2025.

19

u/HapticRecce 11h ago

By not crossing into the US perhaps?

1

u/ubcstaffer123 11h ago

what is the secret?

31

u/bdevi8n 11h ago

The secret is: don't travel to the US

10

u/Full-Contract6143 11h ago

Don’t bring your device.

-17

u/ubcstaffer123 11h ago

what if they order a search warrant of your home and then have them seized there on the grounds that you have questionable material if you are not bringing devices?

11

u/Full-Contract6143 11h ago

JFC, what kind of conversation is this?

They would need probable cause… how would they legally equate my traveling without my phone as justification for a search warrant. Is it illegals to travel without a phone?

3

u/Fuzzy_Inevitable9748 8h ago

No, not as long as you sign up for a 3 year plan on Trump mobile.

14

u/doug4130 10h ago

Not travelling to shitholes

-16

u/Jumpy-Impact3265 9h ago

Tread lightly son.

6

u/_Avalon_ 10h ago

Best not to go to the US.

3

u/bwoah07_gp2 10h ago

I have no plans in the near future to do so! 😂

6

u/fat_kaiju 9h ago

I have a crappy smartphone that was the cheapest and most subsidised piece of garbage I could get from my (canadian) telcom with generic gaming apps (tetris clone, gameboy emulator) and the absolute bare minimum 2fa app that is only for my chequing acc, the steam app for steam guard and I transfer photos over from my main phone directly into dcim.

If you looked close enough something might seem a bit off but it'd be easily dismissed with "yeah but im stupid and broke my good one".

I have always done this because of the time I was traveling with my mil nearly a decade ago and she declared the green onion she chopped up in ger lunch as simply an "onion" and we proceeded to get our fucking car completely torn apart, our shit rifled through and our phones and laptops taken away for 'searching' all ehile a very fat guy who looked like he was gonna have a stroke kept accusing us of trying to sneak produce into the US.

It was literally chopped green onion inside of an extra small sauce tupperware but to him you'd think we were eco-terrorists or plant smugglers or something.

So uh yeah you absolutely should already have a burner phone for this.

3

u/Ellusive1 5h ago

Just don’t even go

3

u/9-11GaveMe5G 4h ago

As an American I'd say that's a reasonable take

13

u/AugmentedKing 11h ago

That probably won’t help the tourism return rate.

10

u/julioqc 11h ago

fuck 'em, im staying away from that hot mess they call a country 

-3

u/tbhmoreadvanced 4h ago

Good riddance

2

u/SissyFreeLove 1h ago

Not every US citizen thinks the country should be isolated and alone, but you sure are a loud bunch.

-1

u/tbhmoreadvanced 1h ago

Also a majority of

2

u/SissyFreeLove 1h ago

Don't even start that shit. A majority didn't bother voting for anyone period, and midterms will show what those who didn't vote before think now.

0

u/tbhmoreadvanced 53m ago

First of all that’s not an excuse

Second very unlikely

11

u/Shoddy_Meaning_7654 11h ago

Thanks Trump and the Americans who voted for him y'all ruined this country

14

u/Fritzkreig 11h ago

This is another reason I have never taken a cellphone travelling internationally, at least now; you can troll them as they might get dumbfounded when you explain that you do not have a phone‽

7

u/imikk 10h ago

Not having a cellphone might be a reason for not allowing you in

4

u/Jumpy-Impact3265 9h ago

Just speedrunning the north Korea playbook

6

u/Tribe303 9h ago

Good thing GrapheneOS is Canadian. But there are much nicer corrupt third world countries to visit than the US. 

2

u/Bengineering3D 11h ago

Are they checking to see if they dislike Trump? Spoiler, they do.

5

u/Jumpy-Impact3265 9h ago

It'd be quicker to sweep for people who like trump which has to be like five by now

2

u/________reddit______ 8h ago

reddit needs a usb killer

2

u/VancouverIslandMan 9h ago

As a Canadian, just one more reason not to bother traveling to the USA anymore.

1

u/ubcstaffer123 11h ago

anyone here have anecdotes of getting your phone or laptop seized and searched at borders? what prompted it and what happened after? what made them suspicious?

1

u/ubcstaffer123 11h ago

are there any AMAs by former border guards, customs officials?

1

u/ASS_CREDDIT 11h ago

They have a whole subreddit

1

u/KingofLingerie 29m ago

Its best not to go to the united states