Over 50 human rights and civil liberties groups, nearly 100 law professors and security experts, and lawmakers have launched a campaign against digital searches at the US border.

An open letter condemns recent comments by Homeland Security secretary John Kelly in which he proposed requiring selected non-citizens entering the US to provide the passwords to their social media accounts.

The letter has been signed by, among others, the American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Democracy & Technology, Consumer Technology Association, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Internet Society, as well as a wide range of law professors, internet engineers and security experts, including Bruce Schneier.

"Demanding passwords or other account credentials without cause will fail to increase the security of US citizens and is a direct assault on fundamental rights," the letter argues.

It warns that the approach would not only invade people's privacy – including those of US citizens – but also discourage travel to the United States as well as set a dangerous precedent that would likely see other countries institute similar entry requirements for US citizens.

"The first rule of online security is simple: Do not share your passwords," the letter concludes. "No government agency should undermine security, privacy, and other rights with a blanket policy of demanding passwords from individuals."

At the same time as the letter was published, others have published posts outlining the dangers of providing passwords and what consumers can do to avoid most of them.

New law

The issue has also attracted the attention of Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), who sent a letter to Secretary Kelly saying he was "alarmed" by reports of Americans being detained by border agents and being pressured into handing over their smartphone PINs.

"These reports are deeply troubling," Wyden noted, "particularly in light of your recent comments suggesting that CBP [US Customs and Border Protection] might begin demanding social media passwords from visitors to the United States."

He continues: "Circumventing the normal protections for such private information is simply unacceptable. There are well-established legal rules governing how law enforcement agencies may obtain data from social media companies and email providers" – rules that require warrants or court orders.

He then asks five questions of Kelly, digging into the legal authority that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) feels it possesses to demand passwords, and asks for stats on how often it has happened.

Wyden also writes that he will introduce legislation designed to "guarantee that the Fourth Amendment is respected at the border by requiring law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant before searching devices, and prohibiting the practice of forcing travelers to reveal their online account passwords."

Travel ban 2.0

On the same day as the outcry, the DHS published two memoranda covering immigration that Kelly noted would supersede previous policies.

Those memos are largely focused on deporting illegal immigrants currently living within the United States, although it also looks at detaining individuals attempting to enter the country and promises to hire many more customs and immigration officials in the coming year.

President Trump's controversial travel ban remains in limbo, with the administration giving conflicting information about how it intends to respond to a decision by the Ninth Court of Appeals to temporarily block it. Meanwhile, people, including British Muslims, are being turned away from America seemingly for no real reason.

President Trump is reportedly planning to issue a revised executive order this week that is designed to withstand legal challenge and will continue to cover the seven Muslim-majority countries in the original travel ban order, but only block those arriving without a visa or who have never entered the country previously. ®