By AFPMore by this AuthorWASHINGTONUS rights groups sued the government Wednesday over the increasing use of warrantless searches of cell phones and computers of travellers, including American citizens, arriving at US borders from abroad. "The government cannot use the border as a dragnet to search through our private data," ACLU attorney Esha Bhandari said in a statement. "The Fourth Amendment (of the US Constitution) requires that the government get a warrant before it can search the contents of smartphones and laptops at the border." OVER 15,000 SEARCHESThe groups said that US Customs and Border Protection conducted more than 15,000 searches of personal electronics in the first half of 2017, compared to 8,503 in 2015 and 19,033 in 2016. "It's high time that the courts require the government to stop treating the border as a place where they can end-run the Constitution."

Source: Daily Nation September 14, 2017 09:56 UTC