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Europe is Using Smartphone Data as a Weapon To Deport Refugees (wired.co.uk) 352

Governments are using migrants' smartphones to deport them. From a report: Across the continent, migrants are being confronted by a booming mobile forensics industry that specialises in extracting a smartphone's messages, location history, and even WhatsApp data. That information can potentially be turned against the phone owners themselves. In 2017 both Germany and Denmark expanded laws that enabled immigration officials to extract data from asylum seekers' phones. Similar legislation has been proposed in Belgium and Austria, while the UK and Norway have been searching asylum seekers' devices for years.

Following right-wing gains across the EU, beleaguered governments are scrambling to bring immigration numbers down. Tackling fraudulent asylum applications seems like an easy way to do that. As European leaders met in Brussels last week to thrash out a new, tougher framework to manage migration -- which nevertheless seems insufficient to placate Angela Merkel's critics in Germany -- immigration agencies across Europe are showing new enthusiasm for laws and software that enable phone data to be used in deportation cases. Admittedly, some refugees do lie on their asylum applications.

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Europe is Using Smartphone Data as a Weapon To Deport Refugees

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  • Counterpoint. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03, 2018 @12:38PM (#56887390)

    Europe is using smartphone data as a tool to help repatriate lost runaways.

  • by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2018 @12:39PM (#56887394) Homepage Journal
    " Admittedly, some refugees do lie on their asylum applications."

    Who writes this stuff? There is a difference between an asylum seeker and an immigrant and a migrant and an illegal immigrant. To conflate it all is disingenuous.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • What does that have to do with anything I said? Apparently reading comprehension isn't strong here.
      • by Sique ( 173459 )
        Sovereign nations aren't even obliged to allow their own citizens in. And if some other country is claiming that indeed, they are obliged to, sovereign nations can just cancel the citizenship of whoever they want. Some nations actually have some wording in their constitution that they won't do so if the citizenship they are cancelling is the last one the person has, but alas -- even constitutions can be amended if national security requires ist.
      • by Maelwryth ( 982896 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2018 @02:16PM (#56888048) Homepage Journal
        "No sovereign nation is obligated to allow anybody but its own citizens in."

        Actually, there are over 140 countries who are obligated by law to allow entry for certain reasons. For example; The states that signed the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol.
        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Train0987 ( 1059246 )

          There are strict criteria for claiming refugee status. Otherwise why would anyone wait through the long legal immigration process if all they had to do was just show up and say the magic word "asylum!"

    • by guruevi ( 827432 )

      Depends, you can be all or some of them at the same time. In Europe illegal immigrants can apply for asylum and often do lie in order to get migrant benefits.

    • To conflate it all is disingenuous.

      I don't see anything being conflated at all.

      The article says Europe will be using smartphone searches to vet and possibly deport refugees. The claim that some refugees lie on their asylum applications is a pretty good justification for the searches.

      It shouldn't matter if someone is a refugee, migrant, permanent immigrant, or the holder of some obscure visa---if you lie to the host state, you should be kicked out.

      I see some potential for confusion because European media uses "migrants" where US media would n

    • "To conflate it all is disingenuous."

      That is by design.

    • "Some people lying about their refugee status" would be correct. Because this is what happens.

      It is interesting, though, that it's apparently mostly young men that manage to escape war areas. Women and kids seem to like it there.

  • The proper word is "migrants", not refugees.

  • by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2018 @12:46PM (#56887450) Journal
    Refugees aren't being deported (unless they have been extraordinarily naughty). You get deported (maybe, sometimes, if officials can be bothered or if you drag out your appeal for so long that they give up, and if you do not make too much of a scene) when your asylum claim is rejected. And plenty of rejected applicants are not deported, they just hang around. Hoping for another mass pardon of illegal immigrants, perhaps.

    Separating actual refugees from immigrants with other motivations is vitally important, to make sure we can financially, politically and socially afford to take in as many actual refugees as needed. It's not unreasonable to ask applicants to provide proof to support their claim, and that includes submitting mobile phone data. As long as it is treated as the highly sensitive data that it is, with only relevant portions being retained and only for as long as necessary.
  • Did no-one read "1984" ? Why would anyone willingly carry around, and *pay for*, a constant self-surveillance, self-tracking device?
    • and if you're not prepared to take a call for a job interview 24/7 it goes to the next guy. We live in the world we're born in, not the one we want. And for a variety of reasons we're limited in our ability to change it.
    • by fazig ( 2909523 )
      Didn't you read "A Brave New World"? Maybe we don't design humans outright, but there's enough evolutionary programming in us already that can be exploited.
      Ask yourself why would anyone willingly consume and pay for poisons like cigarettes or alcohol? Consume and pay for unhealthy food, sit in front of that that TV, spent hours a day on the internet on social media looking at pictures and videos of cute animals, funny pictures and videos, and so forth.
  • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • This is the same thing that needs to happen in the U.S. And it all starts with being able to control the border, which means a wall.

      I'm a big believer in allowing everybody who isn't a criminal or a terrorist to enter the U.S.. Quotas were an abomination imposed on us by Progressive to keep Eastern Europeans, Jews and anyone not white out of the U.S. It's time to get rid of them.

      At the same time reasonable requirements, such as those listed by that's-so-kash need to enacted as part of the package. We want i

      • The main issue I have with those requirements is the requirement to learn the "native language". The US doesn't have one. Some states have official languages, but even then, you've got more than one - New Mexico declared both English and Spanish official languages. Hawaiian is an official language in Hawaii, French in Louisiana, and Alaska has 21 official languages (most of which are actual native languages).

        I also think that the language issue takes care of itself after the first generation. You're
  • Using a "weapon" against invaders??
  • This collides head on with the freshly implemented EU GDPR and will have Amnesty International legal Teams all over it in 5 minutes or so.

    Unless there's been a crime and police is allowed to investigate. Lying about your status or collection welfare at multiple points is fraud and a crime. Then they can search your ass.

  • They are using it to deport migrants lying about being refugees.
    And I am sure that if you life is on the line, looking at your smart phone can't be a problem.

  • So we have illegal migrants complaining that they have their phones searched for evidence of breaking immigration laws. This is not how people take a case to court, even in the court of public opinion.

    Here's an example for you, admittedly about a different law. I recall a few years ago reading about people being shot in Chicago a week apart with similar circumstances. The person shot was a known criminal that had broken into a home, the homeowner that shot the criminal had done so with an unregistered fi

  • Just another reminder that the EU's supposedly robust privacy protections target (successful American) corporations while allowing government snooping to proceed apace.

  • by VAXcat ( 674775 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2018 @02:27PM (#56888120)
    He related that manyl of the refugees he'd come across seemed to have managed to lose all of their identity papers and documents, but all of them seemed to have been able to hold on to their smartphones and selfie sticks.
  • All sorts of technology is used to select the fake refugees from the real ones.

    So if you claim you come from Neverwereistan, your phone data should not indicate that you really come from Somewherelsistan.

    Also, they really compare the photo on the passport with your face, so be sure they match as well.

  • by VeryFluffyBunny ( 5037285 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2018 @04:48PM (#56888966)
    The population of the EU is around 511 million. So far this year, 42,000 undocumented migrants have entered Europe. Compared to the population of the EU, that's a rounding error. The EU can easily accommodate the numbers of refugees coming in. The EU is not overwhelmed or being flooded by migrants and anyone publishing headlines or broadcasting news to that effect shouldn't be considered journalists (journalists are supposed to report facts, their implications, and keep things in perspective). Additionally, every EU country has ratified the UNHCR Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. In other words, EU member countries have a legal obligation to accommodate refugees.

Keep up the good work! But please don't ask me to help.

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