While proposals announced by the United States government
earlier this year requiring those travelling to the US to provide
details of all social media accounts caught the media's
attention here, a different, and altogether more significant, US
policy seems to have slipped totally under the radar.
A US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Directive first
introduced in August 2009, and reviewed and updated in January
2018, allows US CBP agents to search, without warrant, the
electronic devices of anyone entering or exiting the US. Given that
all information stored on a traveller's smart phone, laptop or
other electronic device may be examined or even copied, this is
much more troubling and a far greater invasion of one's privacy
than a requirement to provide details of social media accounts.
