Digitalising Asylum Procedures: The Legitimisation of Smartphone Data Extraction for Retrospective Border Control

The smartification and digitalisation of border controls in Europe has been widely associated with the expansion and interoperation of databases like EURODAC, SIS, or VIS. This article examines the legitimisation of a new instrument of dataveillance for retrospective border control, namely smartphone data extraction in asylum governance. In particular, it asks how smartphone examinations could become a legitimate policy instrument in asylum procedures in the Central European region of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Applying Critical Discourse Analysis to policy documents, including parliamentary protocols, laws, public commentaries and implementation documents, it argues that the introduction of smartphone data extraction against concerns over privacy and social injustice was based on moralising securitisation strategies as well as techno-solutionist rationalisations. Overall, the (re-)appropriation of personal digital data in the service of border control displays established characteristics of a governmentality of unease but also distinctly Big Data-related legitimisation patterns linked to data/meta-data differentiations and machine-based readouts. The case study raises questions about the implications of using personal digital data for a liberal democratic governance of borders and about its capacity to become an acceptable geopolitical tool for identification and return procedures.