U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers denied a Vancouver man entrance to the States after investigating his phone and scrutinizing his Scruff account.
The reason? According to Canada’s Daily XTRA, they suspected he was soliciting sex for money.
Related: Scruff Founders Defend App’s Ethnicity Filters — “Personal Preference” Or Casual Racism?
André, a 30-year-old set decorator, called the entire experience “humiliating,” which… understatement.
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(He declined to give his last name for “fear of retaliation” from US Customs.)
Officers also allegedly perused his profile on BBRT (a hookup site specializing in bareback sex) and personal emails attached to a Craigslist account.
Reportedly, André then requested that the initial interrogation cease and gave up on entering the states.
He tried again a month later, this time bringing evidence of employment and deleting every app from his phone.
He was denied again, because officers said they found the deletions “suspicious.”
Related: So Model Charles-Laurent Marchand’s Scruff Pics Are No Longer Private
According to Daily XTRA:
There are several websites that offer advice to protect the privacy of your data at the border, but ultimately, if US Customs officers want your data, they will either get it or keep you out of the country. You can limit the risk to your privacy by not traveling with your devices or deleting apps, messages and photos from your devices, and logging out of social media sites before you travel.
Scruff CEO Eric Silverberg has plenty to say on the subject:
“For Scruff members traveling to a country that may demand access to profiles and social media apps before entry, simply deleting the app and reinstalling upon re-entry is always an option.
Scruff synchronizes your profile to the cloud, so after reinstalling you may login to regain access to your messages, favorites, albums, etc.
That said, the best defense against unwarranted searches and seizures by the government is to work to elect leaders who share these ideals and values.”
h/t: Towleroad
ChrisK
That’s interesting. I didn’t know my phone was customs business. Seems very over zealous.
Charles The Great
You are at a port of entry, this falls under health reasons
Heywood Jablowme
@Charles The Short: Read it again. They didn’t bar him for that reason; they barred him because they incorrectly thought he was a prostitute.
davidkohl
Is it something in the water in your countries? I travel to several European countries from London on a weekly basis – never once has my telephone been even looked at never mind searched.
All the reasons given so far for this outrageous behaviour are ridiculous and hypocritical – the USA is the epicentre of a huge porn industry. As usual for the USA this comes down to pure prudery and judgemental nonsense. We should not forget that the ‘pilgrim fathers’ did not leave Britain because they wanted to improve freedoms for individuals – it was the opposite. They wanted to impose their extreme views on everyone else – Nothing changed very much then! These are exactly the kind of reasons why I have never and would never go to the USA – you are not that far behind Iran and Saudi in the moral judgements table. And that’s the real reason this man was kept out. That type of hypocritical attitude is ingrained in the American psyche – just look at the comments on here to see that. You make the most violent movies in the world yet crack down on sex or bad language in the movies. The USA is like the Catholic Church – obsessed with other people’s sex lives.
girldownunder
USA Customs doesn’t even have to follow USA law! They, are NOT ON USA SOIL, supposedly– so even your right to a lawyer is scrapped. Research that- it’s f*cked-up!
Creamsicle
I wonder if there will be outrage once a straight white woman is denied entry or flagged for suspicious activity when CBP examines her dating profiles. What would be really great is if some GOP officials are caught having hookup apps of any kind on their phones because of these procedures.
Godabed
Who knew the US borders are trying to keep out cumdumps, hahaha. tax money well spent.
davidkohl
Another ill – considered, moronic response.
NateOcean
Where was the customs service when Melania entered the country?
Godabed
Not moronic little davidkohl, factual. i.e “taking loads” and posting on BBRT (bareback real time) don’t be mad at me for pointing out the facts, little sad davidkohl. Maybe you should take this story as a lesson of what not to do, when you are looking to take loads.
Heywood Jablowme
@Godabed: Read it again, brainiac – that’s not even what happened, they were too dumb to understand what it meant.
davidkohl
The only saddo round here is you – you feel the need to make assumptions and judgements based on your skewed view of the world. It is not your place to decide what people do or not – it is theirs. The dinosaurs died out a long time ago – or maybe you are one of those – like the moronic Palin – who will deny that too. I dont know why the guy even wanted to enter your sad judgemental irrational country in the first place when there are people like you around to make people’s lives miserable. I would not be surprised if you turned out to be another Trump lackey. That’s if you know what a lackey is of course. It would be surprising if you even know where Canada is!
Sluggo2007
You sure like reading about them, asshole!
Godabed
http://www.dailyxtra.com/canada/news-and-ideas/news/us-customs-block-canadian-man-reading-scruff-profile-215531
actual article, I know what “looking for loads” means, it’s cumdumping, and i know what the police thought that meant. So i don’t need you to spell it out, telling me to read it again doesn’t change the facts.
And Davidkohl pointing out facts doesn’t make me judgemental, the fact that you are offended and passing assumptions off a joke, says more about you and less about me. As far as supporting Trump i’m an independent, and a American i can vote for who the hell i want and don’t have to justify that to you. But i will let you in on something I voted, and it wasn’t for Trump. you’re not even American, so you can eat a whole bag of d*cks for holding your nose at my country while trying to say i am judging someone else for being stupid and putting themselves in that situation. Since you may not know this. The border patrol, ask you very specific questions when crossing, they ask if you are going to meet or hookup with someone when entering Canada or Leaving Canada. It’s standard question. The Only time you are searched is if you answer the questions in a way that is suspicious or if you are randomly flagged. This guy most likely said he was going to meet someone. The story doesn’t really report on that, but that would make a less interesting story wouldn’t it.
Do yourself a favor davidkohl stop taking this story so personal, stop replying to my post with your nonsense.
surreal33
I don’t which is more incredible the fact that a sleazy, vile, parasite actually believes he was slighted or this article trying to make him sympathetic? No one gay, straight, bisexual, has the right to come to the United States and contribute to spreading disease. And no is not a fundamental right to engage in random unprotected sex and spread disease. If bareback sex only killed the people engaged then as adults you would have the right to do as you wish. Unfortunately, that is note the case. The US Customs agents were 100% percent correct to deny entry into the United States!
Gian85
It isn’t up to the US customs or US government to be sex police. What are we? Saudi Arabia? Trump loves the Saudis. He may bring the white guard here. They essentially are police of vice.
I don’t condone bareback sex, but your argument is phony.
Gian85
Correction: They often wear white, but the Saudi vice police are often called the Police of Vice and Virtue.
calpoidog
You’re also making the assumption that just because his profiles read as such that his intent was to come into the US for “loads.” Since Vancouver is very near the US border there are a zillion other reasons he could be coming into the US even for a very short shopping trip. You’re also assuming that just because he “barebacks” that he is “diseased” which is also a huge assumption since many guys are on PreP.
Perhaps you need to stop being so judgemental and worry more about the fact that ICE is looking thru peoples phones and apps for reasons to deny or delay entry. You may be next. Regardless of what you think of his behavior it’s rather frightening to me that they deny entry based on assumptions that are entirely incorrect and/or feel they have the right to pass judgment on people based on their apps. If Scruff were the number one app for terrorist hook ups that would be another thing.
Charles The Great
Yes, he should had removed these apps when you cross a border. Porn and Personal apps like these are the worse things that you can bring across the any border. Also, you can be denied entry even to Canada for having HIV or Aids. This isn’t anything new, these searches usually happen when people fail to declare the item. All he needed to do was stop at Canada Customs and the paper work can be done and 99% prevents a computer or a phone getting searched.
Canada Customs has the same reasons:
Security.
Human or international rights violations.
Criminality (even DUIs and DWIs)
Organized criminality.
Health grounds.
Financial reasons.
Misrepresentation (of any kind)
Non-compliance with IRPA.
these are the same reasons why US Customs denied him entry. Health reasons.
Wayne_in_NYC
You judgmental old hypocrite… Who are you to judge what anyone does? No one died and put you in charge of sexual promiscuity! What anyone wants to do with their body is none of your or anyone else’s business, especially not that of the border nazis!! Actually, it IS a fundamental right to have unprotected sex between two consenting adults! Just because you don’t like it doesn’t make it right or wrong! Go back under your rock you vile judgmental old fogey! Whether you’re 20 or 90, your ancient attitude makes you one.
Charles The Great
@Wayne_in_NYC
Health reasons are very common and yes that is grounds for denial of entry. Canada Customs will do the same thing. You do not have the ‘right’ to enter another nation.
Charles The Great
@Gian85
Health grounds is a reason and is allowed, try doing this going through Canada Customs. You get the same reason .
Heywood Jablowme
@Charles The Great: “Also, you can be denied entry even to Canada for having HIV or Aids.”
Not true for short-term tourists. Immigrants, possibly, although “HIV-positive refugees, as well as sponsored HIV-positive relatives of Canadian citizens and permanent residents are allowed to immigrate to Canada.” What you say is very misleading.
You’re right though that Canadian border officials can be very prudish. Once I was entering Canada from the U.S. and finishing some required reading from school, Edith Hamilton’s famous little book “Mythology.” The common paperback of it at the time had a cover with a statue of a naked Greek male god (I forget which one… a really HOT one!) – damn, I thought the Canadians were going to confiscate the obscene thing.
Charles The Great
@Heywood Jablowme
Yes you can, in that case, they have paper work done. You can be denied entry, I am a Customs Officer.
Heywood Jablowme
@surreal33: They didn’t deny him entry for THAT reason anyway. They totally misunderstood his profile and incorrectly thought he was a prostitute.
Heywood Jablowme
@Charles The Great: Are you referring to tourists, immigrants or what? I already granted the point that some immigrants (not all) can be barred for that reason. But how could they possibly even know if a tourist has HIV?
Gian85
Charles, you are a liar and not a very good one. Custom officers are not sex police, period.
Gian85
By the way, they didn’t stop him for health reasons. Considering customs is about on the same level as the TSA when it comes to mentality and skill level, this fiasco doesn’t surprise me. And you apparently don’t know what PRep is either.
Gian85
I almost wish I hadn’t voted for Trump now.
davidkohl
I congratulate you on the appropriateness of your screen name. Your comments are very surreal and worthy of the current regime in your country. Sleazy and vile are descriptions that might very well be used for some very high up in your government. Your comments only confirm the right-wing,uneducated small mindedness of people like you. Oh and remember the 1980’s? Which country was at the epicentre of certain illnesses then? Don’t be so quick to judge others.
davidkohl
Is it a fundamental right to be an idiot? You know nothing about this man or his intentions. What is ‘vile’ here is your horrid right-wing fundamentalist approach to anything to do with other people’s sex lives. It’s none of your business. What people like you spread – hatred and discrimination – is far more dangerous.
Gian85
I see a fraud is using my name again. I rarely post on here because a Trumpette is using my name. I never voted for Trump. Hillary all the way. I voted for the person who won the popular vote.
tanglewood
Old laws new laws no matter what we
All know what is not law abiding u
Can’t give a guy a pass because he
Is gay and setting up agencies to
Instruct anyone how to avoid being
Caught makes that just as guilty let’s
All play by the rules
Charles The Great
This is why you remove these apps when you cross the border.
ChrisK
It’s the united states. Not Iran.
Charles The Great
and they can search it based on security reasons. Simply do have these apps crossing any border. It might be legal in Canada, but not in the United States. The reason was health reasons and it is the same reason Canada Customs deny people entry. There are certain candies are legal in Canada that are illegal in the United States. Porn is even the worse.
Gian85
You don’t know how to read, Charles. Must be common in your agency (if you are indeed a customs officer). Apparently some in your agency (if you are being honest), don’t know how to read basic court rulings either.
The man was picked up because they thought he was involved in prostitution. Not for health reasons as you falsely claim. Please take the time to read the article, and also tell your superiors that the Courts are the law of the land and not Emperor Orange.
TimberWolf
Canada will also deny you access across the border is you have a current active DUI on record.
Other countries have even stronger rules that you will denied entry such as porn, sexual toys, hookah pipes, active DUI, active arrest record, even a cold /allergies. Many countries have restrictions just recently the news are bringing it to light. Very common in other countries over seas
lauraspencer
“He tried again a month later, this time bringing evidence of employment and deleting every app from his phone.”
This line suggests that this incident didn’t happen under the Trump regime. Did this happen under the Obama administration? Seeing that Trump has only been in office 1 month it seems odd or is there an error in reporting the story?
More clarity is needed. If it is under Trump it is shocking and wrong, but if it was under Obama it is even more shocking.
Poloboy50
Queerty has removed the line from the original story where it states that it happened last October.
lauraspencer
Thanks Polo. Last October? So this policy was already in place under Obama? The story should make that clear.
mhoffman953
@Poloboy50 & @lauraspencer It’s amazing that so many blogs are only picking this story up now and acting as if it just happened recently. Why wasn’t this story shared on here when it happened? This sounds like this story from October was purposefully released at this time to diminish the current President’s actions regarding a travel pause. Why else would this story only be gaining traction now and not right after it occurred?
Gian85
Oh look it is the Trump goosestepper little Lauraspencer. What a joke.
Hussain-TheCanadian
Even if the man is a prostitute, so what? I really don’t understand Americans at all, on the one hand, prostitution is “dirty”, on the other, your population produces the most amount of pornography on the planet – So Andre should of said: “oh don’t worry officer, its going to be filmed”?
Land of the free? Yeah sure America, sure.
davidjohng
Actually I recall Canadian customs being equally if not more prudish. In the 80s and early 90s Canadian gay bookstores like Glad Day in Toronto and Little Sisters in Vancouver routinely complained about soft and hardcore porno being confiscated at the border. I also recall being in Glad Day and seeing some black markings customs would paint over the naked images and even the script itself if there was a story. To the point that it was almost driving them out of business. Whether this was prudishness or just plain homophobia I don’t know but I suspect the latter because I don’t recall hearing them doing it to str8 porno. Yes, this was Canada not all that long ago.
devon_brittdarby
This article recommends leaving your phone at home and renting one with a data plan at an international airport: https://medium.freecodecamp.com/ill-never-bring-my-phone-on-an-international-flight-again-neither-should-you-e9289cde0e5f#.zf2mhfjcf
Gian85
Or buy an unlocked phone just for international travel.
I have a Blu phone specifically for travel.
Ellie533
The high and mighty among us never seem to miss any opportunity to illustate everything that is antithetical to The Constitution. The courts long ago banished lawmakers and so called morality enforcers from the bedroom. To use the threat to public health argument is to suggest that Mr. “Cumdump”s partners are ignorant of the risks they are taking and need the protection of the courts. The harshest critics seem to imply that this behavior is more dangerous when practiced by homosexuals than by heterosexuals. That fallacy was put to rest a long time ago. It is not more dangerous for gay men especially with the widespread use of PReP therapy. It’s time for the moral majority whether gay or straight to accept that adults, even Canadian adults are capable of managing their own sex lives and that attempts to legislate sexual conduct are unconstitutional.
CarlIsle
I can’t believe the number of people defending the actions of the customs officials. There is no justification for going through the phones of people who are not on any terrorist watch list.
Kathy Green
Wow! The USA is almost as extreme as Israel when it comes to border controls…
Kathy Green
In Germany, it is not even legal to search the phones of “refugees” in order to figure out who they are and where they come from.
mhoffman953
And how’s that working out for Germany?
davidjohng
Exactly, how’s that working out! Germany is unbelievable. The guy who blew himself up in Nuremberg(I believe) outside a restaurant/bar was on a list to be deported. But instead of immediately deporting him or jailing him till they did, they gave him an apartment and money and he had been living that way for some 9 months. I was in Vienna at the train station as these Syrian “refugees” were coming through in Oct of 2015. They were 95% twenty-something males who I suspect were going to Germany to get “benefits”. And I observed many harassing the female Red Cross workers who were there to help. Please get a backbone and get over your WW2 guilt before you destroy a wonderful and beautiful country.
Gian85
Oh that’s nice. trump is going to destroy America but all you right wingnuts can discuss is some story you saw on Brietbart.
mhoffman953
@Gian85 What story from Breitbart? No one in this chain of comments mentioned Breitbart. Are you saying that Germany hasn’t experienced any terror attacks perpetrated by migrants?
Gian85
mhoffman953 I’m saying if more people had done the right thing and voted for Trump, then Clinton wouldn’t have won the popular vote.
surreal33
Wow, I can’t believe people are bending over backward to defend what is indefensible. Speak volumes about a (hopefully) small segment of the gay community.
seaguy
The overzealous nosy customs guy is probably some bitter old queen who can’t get laid because he is such a bitch so he takes it out on people he encounters at his job. It’s outrageous that they would ask for passwords and then use them to read people’s profiles and stuff and then turn someone away because they were using gay hookup apps that is not a crime. So that guy is a barebacker, he would not be the first and certainly not the last and last I checked it was not a crime to like bareback sex.
hansniemeijer
What´s this? Police state? Puritanical Renaissance?
Scrufff
SIMPLE. Just lock your phone with the fingerprint sensor. NO law agency can make you unlock it.