US border officials can't search your cloud data

According to the United States Department of Homeland Security, border officials are permitted to search the devices of anyone entering the country with or without probable cause, though there is a limit to type of content they can view.

Senator Ron Wyden sent a letter to Homeland Security in February seeking clarification regarding why US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been conducting more searches than ever before.

Kevin McALeenan, the acting commissioner of CBP, responded to the letter on June 20, revealing that while devices such as smartphones and laptops can be searched, files stored in the cloud are inaccessible to customs and border officials.

McAleenan shed further light on the reasoning behind the increased searches of travelers, saying:

"CBP's authority to conduct border searches extends to all merchandise entering or departing the United States, including information that is physically resident on an electronic device transported by an international traveler. Therefore, border searches conducted by CBP do no extend to information that is located solely on remote servers."

In 2015, the CBP searched 5,000 devices throughout the course of the whole year while the same number of devices was searched by border and customs officials in this February alone.

Although McAleenan's response has clarified a few things, its wording is rather vague and officials could still be searching the social media and email accounts of travelers if they are already accessible via their devices.

Travelers can refuse to provide the passwords to their devices and while US citizens will be able to enter the country, those traveling internationally may be denied for doing so.

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