“The Government Doesn’t Own Our Data”  PPSA has been following the case of Samuel Tunick, who was pulled aside during a customs search at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in January. As we’ve often reported, Customs and Border Protection agents have been detaining travelers arriving from abroad until they agree to hand over their phones and other digital devices to search for potentially illegal content. It is a well-established principle that customs agents can search international travelers’ suitcases for illegal narcotics, weapons, and other contraband. The relatively new practice of scanning digital devices is different, since these devices contain, as a landmark U.S. Supreme Court opinion put it, “the privacies of life.” Such privacies include our stored photos, text messages, and emails, along with any political, religious, or cultural items we download, from books to movies. It is unknown why Tunick was pulled aside for close inspection. He is a 30-year-old left-wing activist who protested against a large police and fire training center being built in Atlanta. When detained while returning from a vacation in the Dominican Republic, Tunick was asked to give agents the passcode to his phone. He gave them a number that activated his operating system, GrapheneOS, prompting it to delete all the data on his phone. Tunick was arrested and charged with obstructing federal law enforcement. The question now is whether he will also be charged with “terrorism.” Under National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7), federal authorities are directed to investigate obstruction of law enforcement at the border as possible terrorism. On Friday, a New York Times interview with Tunick crystallized much of what we have been saying about these digital border searches. What Tunick said could have come from the mouth of any constitutional conservative or libertarian. Sam Tunick said: “If someone you don’t know, who’s actively hostile to you, is trying to access your private data, your pictures, your messages, or notes to self, that may not be something that you’d like … “. . . it’s interesting to me that my charges and the other federal charges come on the heels of NSPM-7, which is the Trump Administration’s mandate to attack left-wing movements under the bogus pretense of domestic terrorism. I think we should just call that what it is, which is a direct attack on our First Amendment rights to free speech and free assembly.” To be fair, there have been high-profile instances of people interfering with border enforcement by throwing objects at agents and assaulting them. Whatever you think of the possible expansion of charges to define such people as “terrorists,” does it follow that the erasure of one’s private information should put an American in the same category as Osama bin Laden? Tunick said that under the charge of obstructing a federal law enforcement agent alone, he could face five years in prison. A traveling musician, Tunick must get the approval of a judge every time he leaves the Northern District of Georgia. Yet he remains defiant: “Just the knowledge that the government is peering into your private life in this way, trying to dig up dirt on you, even though it’s unsuccessful, it’s creepy … “I just hope to send the message that the government doesn’t own our data. The government doesn’t own our communications, our relationships, as hard as they might try to.” Comments are closed.
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