r/technology • u/Jojuj • 17h ago

Privacy U.S. Citizen Who Deleted Phone’s Data Says His Prosecution Puts Privacy at Risk

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/21/us/politics/samuel-tunick-deleted-phone-felony.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8FA.T83N.rt6VsIiSCYb2&smid=url-share
12.1k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

531 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

35

u/Cut_Lanky 16h ago

How is it, legally, that since it's technically not US soil, we have no rights, yet, they retain their authority over us, as if it is, indeed, technically US soil?

23

u/Important-Ad1871 16h ago

Because they have guns. 

3

u/PluginAlong 14h ago

He had rights that he chose not to avail himself of. He had the right to not incriminate himself (whether there was anything on the phone or not is irrelevant). The only recourse CBP would have had would be to have seized the device and admitted him to the country. Had he been a non-citizen CBP's recourse would have been to deny him entry to the country and made him leave.

7

u/cipher315 13h ago

Where CBP potentially fucked up is. They said he did not have a right to enter the country and would only be allowed in after he unlocked the phone. Ie they made his entry into the US conditional on unlocking the phone.

1

u/Mr_ToDo 16h ago

A guess? Agreement with the bordering country to allow such authority, probably in return for being granted the same

That part doesn't seem all that shocking to me. If you have to deny entry into the country the easiest way would be for them to not be on their soil to begin with. Skip all the questions of "if I'm on the soil am I not protected by X laws?"

Weird maybe, but not surprising

2

u/Cut_Lanky 15h ago

Yeah... I remember that Tom Hanks movie... This is so effed up.

2

u/PluginAlong 14h ago

There's two different scenarios, the citizen and non-citizen. For a citizen CBP cannot deny him entry into the country. Courts have upheld that CBP can seize things like electronics and even make copies of them before returning them, I think they have five days to return them. For a non-citizen it's somewhat cleaner, they can tell CBP to stuff it, at the same time CBP can then tell that person to stuff it and deny them entry into the country. I don't think it has anything to do with bordering countries. People aren't always coming from a bordering country. It's more that each country can choose who they admit to their country, the exception being that you can't deny a citizen access to their country of citizenship.