Client confidentiality at the border: suit filed to block warrantless searches of e-devices (Lexology)
Lexology, September 14, 2017
Client confidentiality at the border: suit filed to block warrantless searches of e-devices
“The ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have sued the Department of Homeland Security to block U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel from searching travelers’ electronic devices without warrants. This has implications for lawyers who cross in and out of the U.S. with phones and laptops containing confidential client information. The CBP’s policy, which the ABA also has questioned, currently authorizes such searches even without a suspicion of wrongdoing. We first wrote about the issue last month, when the New York City Bar Association publish an ethics opinion raising the client confidentiality issues and advising that in some circumstances lawyers should consider using ‘burner’ phones, and avoid taking client confidential information across borders…. See here for the New York Times story on the lawsuit, and here and here for commentary on the N.Y. City bar ethics opinion.”
