UK police can confiscate phones and personal data of travelers at the border without giving a reason

In this case, the indication of the reason for removing the phone and downloading all the information from the device (contacts, photos, etc.) is not required. This is hard to believe, but, according to The Telegraph, thousands of travelers have already undergone this procedure at the UK border. At the same time, it doesn’t matter whether you arrived by plane, ship, or on foot by train. All this is allowed by the police as part of the work of anti-terrorism legislation.

As mentioned above, the most unusual part of all this is that the police have the right to withdraw any phone / smartphone without specifying an obvious reason for the seizure. Call history, contacts, photos (probably, and video too), addresses / phone numbers of those to whom the owner sent e-mail and sms. The messages themselves are not inspected.
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According to the newspaper, about 60 thousand travelers "stop and check" according to the above principle, guided by the Terrorism Act 2000. Unfortunately, the exact number of seized devices remains unknown. Among other things, according to Terrorism Act 2000, the police can detain a passenger by 9 hours to find out if he / she is a threat to the security of the country and its citizens. At the same time, it is possible to detain people without the permission of higher authorities, it is enough only the desire of the policeman.

In general, all this is far from the first day, but only now the question has been raised. Independent anti-terrorism law expert, David Anderson, is going to propose some changes on the Terrorism Act 2000, taking into account all of the above problems.

At the same time, police representatives have already stated that the seizure and inspection of personal devices is not carried out to the right and left, but only under appropriate circumstances.

Nevertheless, it is worth knowing that anyone who enters the country can be stopped and, without giving any reason, withdraw his smartphone by downloading data to a police computer.

Via theverge + telegraph