Digital Border Checks: U.S. Searches of Traveler Devices Surge

Travelers crossing into the United States now face a higher probability of having their digital belongings inspected by federal officers. Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shows that 52,080 electronic devices were searched between October 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026. This figure represents a 32 percent increase over the 39,251 devices searched during the same period in the previous year. The nine-month total approaches the all-time high of 55,424 devices recorded in the full 2025 fiscal year.

The majority of these inspections were classified as basic searches. CBP reported that 47,517 of the total fell into this category, which agents can conduct without reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing. The remaining 4,563 were advanced searches, a process that allows officers with reasonable suspicion or national security concerns to analyze or copy the contents of a device. The agency did not specify the geographic distribution of these checks, leaving it unclear how many occurred at the Canadian border versus the Mexican border, or at airports versus land crossings.

Jessica Turner, a public affairs officer at CBP, addressed the scale of the operation in an emailed response. She noted that while the numbers are rising, they represent a small fraction of the total traffic. "CBP's border searches of electronic device numbers are consistent with increases since 2021, and year-over-year only 0.01 per cent of travellers have their devices searched," Turner wrote. The agency stated that these inspections aim to identify digital contraband, terrorism-related content, and information relevant to a traveler's admissibility to the country.

Privacy experts argue that the agency lacks transparency regarding who is being searched. Esha Bhandari, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, stated that the rise in searches calls for greater congressional oversight. "It's hard to speculate on the reasons for the increase because the government doesn't explain it," Bhandari said. She observed that when the government holds such power, it often uses it to the detriment of traveler privacy, citing anecdotes of visitors being questioned about political opinions or religious practices.

The scope of what constitutes a searchable device expanded in January. Updated CBP guidelines now explicitly include flash drives, SIM cards, GPS systems, unmanned aircraft, vehicle infotainment systems, and smartwatches. The guidelines also added the smuggling of narcotics and firearms, as well as the theft of proprietary information, to the list of crimes these searches are designed to detect. Bhandari described these changes as marginal procedural updates, suggesting the surge may reflect technological advances and a lack of judicial limits on federal authority.

Laura Dawson, executive director of the Future Borders Coalition, noted that interpreting the data is difficult without knowing the total number of people who crossed the border. She pointed to the 2026 World Cup as a potential factor in a more diverse mix of visitors. Dawson also highlighted increased cooperation between Canadian and U.S. border services, particularly regarding human smuggling and the Ryan Wedding case. "Having more scrutiny at the border is actually a positive in many ways," she said.

Dawson emphasized that despite viral social media stories, device searches remain rare for the average traveler. By her calculations, one in every 9,000 crossings leads to a U.S. inspection. On the Canadian side, the ratio is one in 14,000. Canadian officials have searched a smaller share of devices in recent years, with numbers trending downward, although the Canada Border Services Agency has not yet released its 2026 statistics.