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A few months ago I wrote about how you can encrypt your entire life in less than an hour. Well, all the security in the world cant save you if someone has physical possession of your phone or laptop, and can intimidate you into giving up your password.

And a few weeks ago, thats precisely what happened to a US citizen returning home from abroad.

On January 30th, Sidd Bikkannavar, a US-born scientist at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory flew back to Houston, Texas from Santiago, Chile.

On his way through through the airport, Customs and Border Patrol agents pulled him aside. They searched him, then detained him in a room with a bunch of other people sleeping in cots. They eventually returned and said theyd release him if he told them the password to unlock his phone.

Bikkannavar explained that the phone belonged to NASA and had sensitive information on it, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. He eventually yielded and unlocked his phone. The agents left with his phone. Half an hour later, they returned, handed him his phone, and released him.

Were going to discuss the legality of all of this, and what likely happened during that 30 minutes where Bikkannavars phone was unlocked and outside of his possession.

But before we do, take a moment to think about all the apps you have on your phone. Email? Facebook? Dropbox? Your browser? Signal? The history of everything youve ever doneeverything youve ever searched, and everything youve ever said to anyoneis right there in those apps.

We should treat personal electronic data with the same care and respect as weapons-grade plutoniumit is dangerous, long-lasting and once it has leaked theres no getting it back.Cory Doctorow

How many potentially incriminating things do you have lying around your home? If youre like most people, the answer is probably zero. And yet police would need to go before a judge and establish probable cause before they could get a warrant to search your home.

What were seeing now is that anyone can be grabbed on their way through customs and forced to hand over the full contents of their digital life.

Companies like Elcomsoft make forensic software that can suck down all your photos, contactseven passwords for your email and social media accountsin a matter of minutes. Their customers include the police forces of various countries, militaries, and private security forces. They can use these tools to permanently archive everything there is to know about you. All they need is your unlocked phone.

If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged.Cardinal Richelieu in 1641

Whats the worst thing that could happen if the Customs and Border Patrol succeed in getting ahold of your unlocked phone? Well

The fourth amendment protects you against unreasonable search and seizure. The fifth amendment protects you against self-incrimination.

If a police officer were to stop you on the street of America and ask you to unlock your phone and give it to them, these amendments would give you strong legal ground for refusing to do so.

But unfortunately, the US border isnt technically the US, and you dont have either of these rights at the border.

Its totally legal for a US Customs and Border Patrol officer to ask you to unlock your phone and hand it over to them. And they can detain you indefinitely if you dont. Even if youre a American citizen.

The border is technically outside of US jurisdiction, in a sort of legal no-mans-land. You have very few rights there. Barring the use of excessive force, agents can do whatever they want to you.

So my advice is to just do whatever they tell you, to and get through customs and on into the US as quickly as you can.

Its only a matter of time before downloading the contents of peoples phones becomes a standard procedure for entering every country. This already happens in Canada. And you can bet that countries like China and Russia arent far behind.

Never say anything in an electronic message that you wouldnt want appearing, and attributed to you, in tomorrow mornings front-page headline in the New York Times.Colonel David Russell, former head of DARPAs Information Processing Techniques Office

Since its illegal in most countries to profile individual travelers, customs officers will soon require everyone to do this.

The companies who make the software that downloads data from your phones are about to get a huge infusion of money from governments. Their software will get much fastermaybe requiring only a few seconds to download all of your most pertinent data from your phone.

If we do nothing to resist, pretty soon everyone will have to unlock their phone and hand it over to a customs agent while theyre getting their passport swiped.

Over time, this unparalleled intrusion into your personal privacy may come to feel as routine as taking off your shoes and putting them on a conveyer belt.

And with this single new procedure, all the hard work that Apple and Google have invested in encrypting the data on your phoneand fighting for your privacy in courtwill be a completely moot point.

Governments will have succeeded in utterly circumventing decades of innovation in security and privacy protection. All by demanding you hand them the skeleton key to your lifeyour unlocked phone.

When you travel internationally, you should leave your mobile phone and laptop at home. You can rent phones at most international airports that include data plans.

If you have family overseas, you can buy a second phone and laptop and leave them there at their home.

If youre an employer, you can create a policy that your employees are not to bring devices with them during international travel. You can then issue them loaner laptops and phones once they enter the country.

Since most of our private data is stored in the cloudand not on individual devicesyou could also reset your phone to its factory settings before boarding an international flight. This process will also delete the keys necessary to unencrypt any residual data on your phone (iOS and Android fully encrypt your data).

This way, you could bring your physical phone with you, then reinstall apps and re-authenticate with them once youve arrived. If youre asked to hand over your unlocked phone at the border, there wont be any personal data on it. All your data will be safe behind the world-class security that Facebook, Google, Apple, Signal, and all these other companies use.

Is all this inconvenient? Absolutely. But its the only sane course of action when you consider the gravity of your data falling into the wrong hands.

If you bother locking your doors at night, you should bother securing your phones data during international travel.

This may upset Customs and Border Patrol agents, who are probably smart enough to realize that 85% of Americans now have smart phones, and probably 100% of the Americans who travel internationally have smart phones. They may choose to detain you anyway, and force you to give them passwords to various accounts manually. But theres no easy way for them to know which services you use and which services you dont use, or whether you have multiple accounts.

We live in an era of mass surveillance, where governments around the world are passing terrifying new anti-privacy laws every year.

Those who are willing to surrender their freedom for security have always demanded that if they give up their full freedom it should also be taken from those not prepared to do so.Friedrich Hayek

With a lot of hard work on our part, enlightenment will triumph. Privacy will be restored. And we will beat back the current climate of fear thats confusing people into unnecessarily giving up their rights.

In the meantime, follow the Boy Scouts of America Motto: always be prepared. The next time you plan to cross a border, leave your phone at home.

This post originally appeared on Medium. Follow Quincy on Twitter @ossia. Learn how to write for Quartz Ideas. We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.

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I'll never bring my phone on an international flight againneither should you - Quartz

Black History encapsulates more than a month. This new daily series will take a look at some lesser known events and people in the world.

The story of Shirley Chisholm.

As the Civil Rights movement dispersed around the nation, Georgia had its fair share of history. Take the Heart of Atlanta Motel Incorporateds case against the United States. The Supreme Court had recently passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which says racial discrimination in public places was unconstitutional.

But the motel refused to rent rooms to black customers.

Moreton Rolleston, the owner, took the case to court citing the Fifth Amendment (he said it went against his right to choose patrons for his business), the Thirteenth Amendment (involuntary servitude), and he added that Congress was going over their control over the interstate commerce (now known as the Commerce Clause).

Congress immediately came back with their own case. They referenced his Fifth Amendment right saying that it does not hinder regulation of interstate commerce. It countered the Thirteenth Amendment with the explanation that it was specifically for slavery and the negative effects of it. And, finally, Congress said its power under the Commerce Clause related to proper sleeping circumstances for blacks traveling on the interstate.

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia took Congresss side in December 1964. The court won; Congress could use power granted to it by the Constitutions Commerce Clause to force privately owned businesses to follow the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The nation successfully fought against discrimination.

WXIA

Bessie Coleman takes to the skies | Black History Moment of the Day

WXIA

Ace pilots fly for freedom and become top shooters | Black History Moment of the Day

WXIA

Dancing through the Harlem Renaissance | Black History Moment of the Day

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Betty Boop: Historical Black Icon? | Black History Moment of the Day

WXIA

Cicely Tyson breaks down the television barrier | Black History Moment of the Day

The rest is here:
The Supreme Court fights for the weary black interstate traveler ... - 11alive.com

TAMPA With a criminal investigation hanging over him, former Public Transportation Commission chief Kyle Cockream repeatedly pleaded the Fifth Amendment during a deposition Monday into whether public records were deleted from agency cell phones.

A judge ordered Cockream to appear at the deposition as part of a public records lawsuit filed against the agency that regulates for-hire transportation in Hillsborough County. He turned up, but on advice from his attorney Michael Carey, refused to answer questions from Andrea Mogensen, a Sarasota lawyer who sued the PTC to obtain copies of text messages that Cockream sent to owners of taxicab and limousine-rental firms.

"He pled the Fifth to basically every question that I asked," Mogensen said. "Obviously that's very disappointing. Our objective is to recover the public records."

The Fifth Amendment privilege allows a witness to decline to answer questions if the answers might incriminate him. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has opened a criminal investigation into whether PTC officials deliberately deleted public records, a misdemeanor under state law.

A forensic investigator hired to extract text messages for the public records lawsuit found that seven agency phones and Cockream's personal cell phone were reset on Oct. 8, a process that wipes them clean. A PTC invoice shows that the agency on Oct. 12 paid $2,994 to Valrico tech firm Data Specialist Group for work they did on the phones that was detailed as "Mobile device data recovery."

Cockream, who stepped down as executive director in December, could not be reached for comment. In a recent hearing, his attorney said Cockream was not trying to hide records but hired the tech firm to back up the data on the phones.

The mising data may shed light on a controversial period during which the PTC was accused of colluding with the cab industry against the rideshare companies Uber and Lyft.

Contact Christopher O'Donnell at codonnell@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3446. Follow @codonnell_Times.

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Former PTC chief Cockream pleads the Fifth Amendment over missing public records - TBO.com

KATHMANDU, Feb 15:The Conscious Citizen Group has demanded the scrapping of 'Fifth Amendment' of National Parks and Wildlife Protection Bill endorsed by the Legislature-Parliament arguing it was not in favour of preservation of wildlife.

At a press conference organized here on Tuesday, group campaigner Amod Dahal claimed that the fifth amendment to the wildlife protection bill endorsed by the parliament has curtailed the right of wildlife to survive in a free and natural environment.

Environment activists including Niraj Gautam, Shristi Singh Shrestha and Sangeeta Sapkota stressed the need to prohibit the establishment of factories, hotel, restaurant and transport in and around national parks acknowledging the right of animals to have a free life.

The Clause 9(2) of the amended bill has the provision that wildlife species can be provided to any individual, agency, users committee, local body and organization for study or research. Likewise, Clause 15 (E) has specified that the wildlife can be offered as gift to foreign nations.

Since the amended bills have these provisions against the concept of wildlife protection, it would affect the campaign of wildlife protection.

Myagdi's musk deer in search of suitable habitat

Musk deer living in the mountain forests of Myagdi have started migrating to other areas due to increasing temperature and human activities.

Forest areas in Mudi, Lulang, Gurja, Kuinemangale, Dana and Muna VDCs are known as major habitats of musk deer. But with the rising temperature in the highland caused by climate change, human encroachment on forest areas and lack of sufficient diet, these herbivores animals have started leaving home grounds in search of suitable habitats, according to Babiyachaur-based Area Forest Office Chief and environmentalist Chandramani Sapkota.

This wildlife species prefers to live in a cold and peaceful atmosphere.

Musk deer is considered as one of the rare wildlife species in the world and Myagdi's musk deer have started migrating to the Dhorpatan Wildlife Reserve and forests in Dolpa, Rukum and Mustang in search of proper home and food, locals said. RSS

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My Republica - Call to scrap fifth amendment to Wildlife Protection Bill - Republica

Heather Mack has acknowledged she is under threat of prosecution in the United States, citing an ongoing federal criminal proceeding in a fresh round of court filings this week.

The 21-year-old Chicagoan, imprisoned in Indonesia, made the claim as she asserted her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in a legal battle scheduled to return to a Cook County courtroom on Friday. She said she would continue to do so until she is no longer under the threat of criminal prosecution in America or Indonesia.

The body of Macks mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, was found in August 2014 in a suitcase in the trunk of a taxi outside the St. Regis Bali Resort. Mack had been vacationing there with her mother before Tommy Schaefer, the father of her yet-to-be-born child, joined them.

Mack and Schaefer were later convicted in Indonesia for their roles in von Wiese-Macks slaying. Schaefer, now 23, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for beating the socialite to death with a fruit stand, and Mack was sentenced to 10 years for helping.

However, court records in Chicago show federal prosecutors launched an investigation into von Wiese-Macks murder shortly after she turned up dead. Schaefers cousin, Robert Ryan Justin Bibbs, has since pleaded guilty in federal court here for helping plot the murder. He is set to be sentenced in May.

RELATED: No way Heather Macks mom murdered her dad, aunt says Heather Macks confession may not hold up In videos, Heather Mack confesses to mothers murder in Indonesia

Two weeks ago, Mack appeared to give a stunning confession to her mothers murder in a series of videos on YouTube, absolving Schaefer of wrongdoing. She claimed she plotted her mothers murder because she had discovered von Wiese-Mack had killed Macks father during a family vacation to Greece. Macks aunt has called that claim a lie.

I made it up in my heart, in my mind, my soul, in my blood, in the oxygen running through my body that I wanted to kill my mother, Mack said.

But evidence outlined by federal prosecutors in Chicago appear to undermine Macks claims, and her lawyer later said the videos were recorded under pressure. Macks attorney claims she had been reading words written by Schaefer.

Read more from the original source:
Fearing US prosecution, Heather Mack takes the Fifth - Chicago Sun-Times