https://www.wired.com/2017/02/guide-getting-past-customs-digital-privacy-intact/
As noted in the article, it was originally written back in 2017, but updated as of March 2025. As I noted in prior posts, greencard holders returning recently from places like Japan, Philippines, and South Korea have alluded to more intensive questioning during re-entry (along with news reports of people being detained).
As for our devices, there’s another important reason for locking them down in terms of minimizing the amount of personal data on that device while re-entering the U.S. It’s in the event of CBP wanting to do a more thorough search (where they will connect those devices to a system that will copy the complete contents of those devices). All of that data ends up in a CBP database fully searchable by agents. If you refuse to provide access and they confiscate the device, the same applies in the event they are able to eventually crack into it.
You therefore do not want your personal photos and anything else on it. While you would like to believe these agents are bound to ethical requirements of their jobs, in this climate, you want to presume individuals cannot be trusted out of human nature when they’ve been given a permission structure to not be held accountable (as is the case now in the U.S. where the rule of law is being chipped away). I personally knew of a few customs agents who weren’t what I considered “of good character” based on their prior employment/conduct (but they managed to later become agents at international airports). Some of them do have this “power trip” attitude and are obviously going to take what liberties they have to exert that on people. Females need to be extra careful IMHO.
