Crossing to Detroit? Why experts say you should check your phone first

New data shows a sharp increase in electronic device searches at U.S. border crossings and experts say travellers should take notice. Travis Fortnum reports.

Crossing the Windsor-Detroit border has long been a routine convenience for Canadians.

But new data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows a sharp increase in electronic device searches — and experts say travellers should take notice.

According to CBP, officers searched 14,899 electronic devices between April and July 2025.

That’s the busiest quarter in the data available since late 2018 and nearly doubles the roughly 8,000 searches conducted during the same period that year.

CBP says such searches are still rare, affecting just 0.01 per cent of the more than 400 million passengers who arrived at U.S. ports of entry last fiscal year.

The agency stresses all travellers are subject to inspection but adds that device searches are carried out “judiciously and responsibly.”

Discretion at the border

Windsor immigration lawyer Eddie Kadri says border officers have a tremendous amount of discretion, backed by law.

“So if their suspicions are aroused, they’re going to feel empowered to ask any question that they want,” he said.

Kadri warns the port of entry is not the place to argue over what you find intrusive.

“Certainly you can, but you can’t expect it to go well for you at that point,” he said.

He adds the consequences of refusing to comply can linger well beyond one trip.

“Whether you decide to answer or not will impact not only what your objective is that day — if you’re hoping to enter the U.S. — but certainly your future in terms of now documenting any incident that takes place at that port of entry and how that affects future opportunities to enter the United States,” Kadri said.

Still, Kadri cautions against crossing in fear.

“By and large, the men and women who work at the ports of entry between Canada and the United States, on the American side, they’re good people just trying to do their job.

“They’re supposed to be looking for threats to the United States or people that are seeking to enter for nefarious purposes,” he said.

Managing your digital footprint

For Canadians worried about their digital privacy, CTV tech analyst Carmi Levy says preparation is essential.

“You can’t afford to ignore your phone before you cross. You have to have a strategy, and you have to take critical steps to reduce your data exposure,” Levy said.

He says the simplest way to minimize risk is to delete apps that store large amounts of personal data.

“Think social media, messaging, photos, video, multimedia, anything that can have or store large amounts of private information and all of these app categories qualify,” Levy said.

“If you remove it from the app, then it simply isn’t there to be searched as you’re crossing the border.

“Then, once you’ve crossed the border afterward, it’s very easy to just re-download them. Install them, sign in and everything comes back.”

But he cautions there can be drawbacks to that strategy.

“There also is the very real risk that if none of these apps are on your phone and your phone is essentially blank or bare, that might arouse suspicion when you cross the border and that might prompt additional questions,” Levy said.

And even if an app is gone from your device, its data may not be - and your posts may still be found online.

“These days, most of our data is stored in the cloud,” he said.

“Maybe you’ve deleted your social media apps from your phone. But if you’ve said or done contentious things on social media and they are publicly viewable, there’s nothing stopping them from searching you online and finding your social media presence not on your device, but in the cloud.”

Levy adds border officers have tools to dig deeper if they choose.

For those who want maximum caution, Levy suggests leaving your main device at home.

“You might want to consider getting a burner phone, or use an old smartphone that you’ve wiped back to factory and then just install the few apps that you’re going to need for your travels,” he said.

Advice for all times

Levy emphasizes that best practices for digital hygiene aren’t just for politically charged moments.

“It has been a best practice for years that a smaller digital footprint is preferable to a larger one,” he said.

“Don’t put anything out there that you wouldn’t want to come back to bite you in future. If you don’t want your employer seeing it. If you don’t want a prospective partner seeing it, if you don’t want your friends or your social or professional network seeing it, then don’t share it online.”

He says this guidance will remain useful long after political tensions subside.

“Presumably, at some future point in time, our relationship with the U.S. will go back to normal. Tensions will ease, but we should still remember this time,” Levy said.

“We should still be much more careful about what we’re sharing online and what kind of data we want to carry across international borders, because this kind of guidance will benefit us regardless of what’s happening politically at the time.”