Officials at U.S. ports of entry may not search international travelers’ electronic devices in the absence of suspicion that they have committed a crime, a federal judge has ruled.
The legal proceeding addresses the growing tension between the needs of law enforcement and individual privacy rights at a time of increasing personal reliance on technology. It also scrutinizes what officials do at ports of entry, weighing the free speech and privacy rights of travelers against the government’s mission of keeping the country and its inhabitants safe.
