What constitutional and/or ethical rights does a US or Canada border patrol agent have to snoop through your cell phone?

Question

I'll just say it: Those a'holes at the Canada border really pissed me off.

I had to go to Canada from Michigan. At the border booth the guy started asking me questions like a robotic interrogation machine right from the start. Who am I seeing, what's his name, where does he live, how do you know him, how long have you known him, where are you meeting him, for what purpose, how long is your stay and on and on. Maybe it was the venti iced coffee with espresso I drank from Starbucks, but with the caffeine in my system and the fact that I totally felt like I was being grilled and had a 3 second timer to answer every question he was spraying at me, naturally I felt nervous and perhaps didn't answer my questions cleanly enough to the officer's liking. So after 10 minutes of grilling, he writes me up a yellow slip and makes me go to the inspection station.

This is where things get worse. Two agents approach me and start asking me the same questions. Who, what, where, why, how, when, with subcategories of a,b,c,d,e,f,g,to infinity. Again, I'm still hopped up from caffeine but here comes the interrogation again, which obviously is making me uncomfortable. Add to the fact that these two agents are now searching my car snooping through everything, even ask me to unlock my phone so one of the s'theads starts snooping through my phone and everything in it. That's the part that totally pissed me off. What right does this f'cker have to search my cellphone and into my private life?

? · Accepted Answer

NATIONAL SECURITY! If they suspect something, they can inspect everything. You can travel abroad because you live in a country that allows you the freedom to come and go. Only, after 9/1/2001, the rules have changed.

Chief BaggageSmasher · Answer

Something about you was suspicious in their opinion. That is why you were stopped. And well, the venti iced coffee with espresso that you drank perhaps made you a bit jittery, and raised even more suspicions.

For the record, any border agent from ANY country has the legal right to inspect anything and everything coming into the country, including a cavity search. I've actually found that the American agents are considerably ruder than Canadian ones.

@Duck-Duck:
TRACERT YAHOO.COM shows the number of steps from your computer to the website in question.. It has nothing to do with where you have been.

Pete · Answer

When you cross an international border into another country you leave your constitutional rights behind.
So yes, they have the right to search your cell phone, they have the right to search you, they have the right to search your car and they have the right to ask you as many questions as they wish. They even have the 
right to deny you entry into the country.
They also have the right to contact people on your cell phone.

You are not giving up your rights, you have the right not to cross the border.
You have the right to bear arms in the USA, as soon as you cross into Canada that right ceases to exist. You have the right to drink a beer at 21 in the USA. Cross the border to Canada and you can drink at 19.
I don't think you seem to understand, you are only given the rights that the Canadian government wish to give you.
The same can be said for a Canadian crossing into the USA.

bw022 · Answer

Canadian Border Services Agency has the absolute right to search any item or person entering in Canada. This is set forth in the Canadian Customs Act. Under the act, you may request a hearing in front of a judge in the case of a cavity or other invasive search (including MRIs). You are not entitled to a lawyer. The judge literally arrives at the border point and signs the order within minutes.

Under the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, CBSA has the right to question, detain, and deny entry of any person entering Canada. They can deny entry to any non-citizen for any reason and issue a one year-exclusion order. You may require a hearing in front of a judge to contest a one year-exclusion order. You'll be held in detention until the hearing (normally within 24 hours). The only typical defense to an exclusion order is that you are in fear of your life upon return to your home country. For Canadian citizens returning to Canada, CBSA can detain you until they have confirmed your citizenship.

Yes... CBSA can look through your cell phones, computers, laptops, etc. CBSA routinely finds text messages, phone calls logs, pictures, resumes, work schedules, etc. providing evidence that the person it attempting to enter Canada in order to work illegally, that they have been told to lie to CBSA, that they aren't going where they say they are going, that they are wanted for crimes, etc.

USCIS has similar laws are powers. Customs and immigration laws permit them to do the exact same thing on their side of the border.

If you don't want to go through this... don't cross the border.

Anonymous · Answer

Your cell phone history is NOT private OR "protected" information, so any expectation on YOUR part of privacy is borne of your apparent ignorance of technology!

If you imagine you have ANY "privacy" in relation to your activity over any IP network (including your cell phone) then you are poorly-informed indeed!

Try this, it might "wake you up", LOL!

Click on the Windows "Start" button, click "All Programs", "Accessories", and "Command Prompt". Now type "TRACERT YAHOO.COM" in the box that popped up...

The list now populating the screen is all the switches that have a record of everywhere you have been (and everything you have done) on-line today so far...

If you can't handle "authority" then maybe it's high time you stopped crossing National borders!

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What constitutional and/or ethical rights does a US or Canada border patrol agent have to snoop through your cell phone?

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