Suspicionless Searches of Travelers' Devices Ruled Unconstitutional

A federal court ruled that suspicionless searches of travelers’ phones and laptops is unconstitutional, a win for privacy rights.

The ruling came in a lawsuit, Alasaad v. McAleenan, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and ACLU of Massachusetts, on behalf of 11 travelers whose smartphones and laptops were searched without individualized suspicion at U.S. ports of entry.

504th Military App Could Expose Soldiers’ Data

The 504th military app gives soldiers weather updates, training changes, and other logistics. But its terms of service say it collects a lot of personal data, and if the app was hacked it could potentially expose top-secret information.

The app’s permissions — which suggested it could pull GPS location data, photos, contacts and even rewrite memory cards — frustrated soldiers who have taken extreme precautions they felt were glossed over by Trotter and other senior leaders…The worst-case scenario, he said, was “our cover might be blown.” While the app said permissions could be disabled, the soldiers said there was a failure of confidence it was secure. Senior leaders checked the phones of subordinates to ensure they had the app installed, soldiers in the unit said.

Why it’s especially concerning: “The app developer, Straxis LLC, is based in Tulsa but has a subsidiary in southern India.”

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