If we can raise at least $15,000 in the next 24 hours, we can expand our efforts to more of the airports with the biggest ICE presence.


With Donald Trump deploying Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to airports across the country, and phone searches becoming increasingly common, we all must take action to protect our personal data while traveling.

The risks are real. Customs and Border Protection has the authority to search your devices while you’re traveling, and we’ve already seen people detained or denied entry after dissenting content was discovered on their phones.

That’s why The Intercept just published a step-by-step breakdown of what travelers should do to keep federal agents from rummaging through their phones at the airport. The article quickly became one of our most-read stories this year.

But the reality is that of the nearly 3 million people who go through U.S. airports each day, only a small percentage of them have any idea that their data is at risk.

So we’re doing something completely outside the box for us: billboards.

To alert travelers as they enter the airport, we began driving a mobile billboard through departure terminals at John F. Kennedy International Airport providing guidance on how to keep ICE and other federal agents from spying on their phones.

We started in New York City, and if we can raise at least $15,000 in the next 24 hours, we can expand our efforts to more of the airports with the biggest ICE presence. In addition, if we can raise enough money, we’ll begin running online ads geotargeted to people in or near airports to reach people directly on their smartphones.

Will you make a donation to help put up mobile billboards at airports around the country to alert travelers about how to keep ICE out of their phones?

Thank you,
The Intercept team

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