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Urgent warning issued for people to turn off their phone's Face ID for terrifying reason

Home> News> Travel

Published 15:33 14 Jun 2025 GMT+1

Urgent warning issued for people to turn off their phone's Face ID for terrifying reason

The advice comes at a time when the Trump administration is clamping down on US border violations

Niamh Shackleton

Niamh Shackleton

People traveling to America in the future are being warned about the security systems on their cellphones.

Since the Trump administration came back into office at the beginning of the year, there has been a huge clampdown on immigration.

Of late, President Trump has banned people from 12 countries from coming into the US.

In an order signed earlier this month, Trump ruled that citizens from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen cannot come into the US.

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He said his decision was to 'protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people'.

There's since been protests in Los Angeles, California, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made a swath of arrests, taking alleged illegal immigrants into custody.

The National Guard has been deployed to LA amid the ongoing ICE protests (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
The National Guard has been deployed to LA amid the ongoing ICE protests (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The chaos that has ensued in recent days sparked the president to send the National Guard to the city in a bid to try to defuse the situation, but it seemingly only made matters worse.

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New Yorkers are expected to follow suit and hold their own protests today (June 14) in what's being called the 'No Kings' protest, CBS News reports.

But away from the streets of America, border control is clamping down on people entering the US.

According to reports, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has increased searches and detainments of travelers entering America.

The CBP has the authority to search through people's electronic devices such as iPhones, iPads, and laptops, says USA Today, which officers do to get a person's identity and/or check if they're a national threat.

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While the CBP describe this kind of search as 'rare', others have expressed concerns that they are becoming increasingly more common, sparking experts to urge travelers to read up on their rights and take precautions to protect their devices.

Reportedly CBP are carrying out more searches of people's electronics than usual (Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Reportedly CBP are carrying out more searches of people's electronics than usual (Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

One person on Twitter recently penned: "PSA from your tired public defender: Please turn Face ID off on your phone and leave it off."

In a follow-up tweet, they said: "Police can compel you to use your face to unlock your phone without violating the Constitution. The same goes for fingerprints. Your likeness is not considered testimonial. They can’t compel you to verbally give them a passcode without getting a warrant first though."

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With this concern in mind, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has long urged people to turn off their devices before getting to the border.

"You should turn off your device before arriving at the border or any other risky situation," it says on its website. "For a laptop, that means shut down, not just suspend or hibernate by closing the lid!"

The foundation goes on to explain: "This protects against several sophisticated attacks that could potentially extract the secret key or bypass the screen lock on a powered-on device."

Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Image

Topics: Travel, Immigration, US News, News, Phones, Technology

Niamh Shackleton
Niamh Shackleton

Niamh Shackleton is an experienced journalist for UNILAD, specialising in topics including mental health and showbiz, as well as anything Henry Cavill and cat related. She has previously worked for OK! Magazine, Caters and Kennedy.

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@niamhshackleton

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