CBP Wants New Tech to Search for Hidden Data on Seized Phones

WIRED

03-07-2025

Jul 3, 2025 1:19 PM Customs and Border Protection is asking companies to pitch tools for performing deep analysis on the contents of devices seized at the US border.
United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is asking tech companies to pitch digital forensics tools that are designed to process and analyze text messages, pictures, videos, and contacts from seized phones, laptops, and other devices at the United States border, according to documents reviewed by WIRED.
The agency said in a federal registry listing that the tools it's seeking must have very specific capabilities, such as the ability to find a 'hidden language' in a person's text messages; identify specific objects, 'like a red tricycle,' across different videos; access chats in encrypted messaging apps; and 'find patterns' in large data sets for 'intel generation.' The listing was first posted on June 20 and updated on July 1.
CBP has been using Cellebrite to extract and analyze data from devices since 2008. But the agency said that it wants to 'expand' and modernize its digital forensics program. Last year, CBP claims, it did searches on more than 47,000 electronic devices—which is slightly higher than the approximately 41,500 devices it searched in 2023, but a dramatic rise from 2015, when it searched just more than 8,500 devices.
The so-called request for information (RFI) comes amid a string of reports of CBP detaining people entering the US, sometimes questioning them about their travel plans or political beliefs, and at times collecting and searching their phones. In one high-profile incident in March, a Lebanese professor at Brown University's medical school was sent back to Lebanon after authorities searched her phone and alleged she was 'sympathetic' to the former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated in September 2024.
In the RFI, CBP said that the digital forensics vendor it chooses will sign a contract in the third fiscal quarter of 2026, which runs from April through June. CBP currently has eight active contracts for Cellebrite software, licenses, equipment, and training—worth more than $1.3 million in total—that will end between July 2025 and April 2026. CBP appears to use tools other than Cellebrite. The agency said in the recent listing that it uses 'a wide variety of digital data extraction tools,' but it doesn't name these tools.
CBP did not respond to requests for comment. When reached for comment, Cellebrite spokesperson Victor Cooper tells WIRED that the company is 'unable to comment on active requests for information proposals.'
Three federal contract listings mention that CBP pays for Cellebrite's Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) 4PC, software designed to analyze data on a user's existing PC or laptop. The listing for the 'license renewal' doesn't mention a specific product, but may have referred to the Investigative Digital Intelligence Platform, which is Cellebrite's 'end-to-end' suite of tools of analyzing data from devices.
Across Cellebrite's intelligence platform, users have a wide range of capabilities. It can sort images based on whether they contain certain elements, like jewelry, handwriting, or documents. It can also go through text messages, as well as direct messages on apps like TikTok, and filter out messages that mention certain topics, like evidence obstruction, family, or the police. Users can also unveil photos 'hidden' by a device owner, make social maps of friends and contacts, and plot the locations where a person sent text messages.
A blog on Cellebrite's website about the January 6 insurrection cites a Washington Post report claiming that Cellebrite produced 'more than 12,000 pages of data,' '2,600 pages of Facebook records,' and 800 photos and videos from a single person. (On his first day in office, President Donald Trump gave clemency to every person who was charged in connection to actions on January 6, which amounted to nearly 1,600 people.)
Cellebrite also has a controversial history. The company launched a tool in February that lets customers use AI to summarize chat logs and audio from phones. In December, Amnesty International claimed in a report that Serbian police had confiscated a journalist's phone, used Cellebrite to extract data from it, and then used it to infect the phone with malware. Cellebrite said in February it would limit the use of some of its technology in Serbia.
For its part, Cellebrite says in a 'fact' page on its website that it 'has strict licensing policies and restrictions' for customers, and that before it sells to anyone, it considers 'a potential customer's human rights record and anti-corruption policies.' The company also says that it 'vigorously supports the democratic ideals of freedom of speech and freedom of the press.'
'We do not condone the use of Cellebrite's solutions to access the personal information of journalists, activists or others who are working against the interests of repressive regimes and doing so outside the bounds of a legally sanctioned investigation expressly violates the terms of our licensing agreements,' Cellebrite says on the fact page.
Legally, CBP has the authority to search anyone's phone at the US border without a warrant. If a person refuses to hand over their password, US citizens can remain in custody temporarily, but can't be denied entry. However, non-citizens may be denied entry if they refuse.
If border patrol officers have the password to someone's phone, they can conduct a 'basic search' and manually scroll through the phone on the spot. However, officers may then choose to download the entirety of a phone's data, or keep it to conduct an 'advanced search,' at which point digital forensic tools like Cellebrite may be used. Of the approximately 47,000 device searches CBP conducted in 2024, about 4,200 of them were advanced searches.
CBP has the right to keep a phone for several days to conduct an advanced search, but if the agency cites 'extenuating circumstances,' it could have the phone for weeks or months. CBP says that when it takes data from a device, it may be shared with 'other agencies,' or with 'other federal, state, local, and foreign law enforcement agencies.' CBP also has the right to store the data in its Automated Targeting System, which it uses to determine if someone presents a risk of terrorism or criminal activity, for up to 15 years.