Claim:
As of late 2025, the TSA was checking cellphones — including senior citizens’ devices — at airports for five specific apps.
Rating:
A rumor that circulated online in December 2025 claimed the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was checking cellphones — including senior citizens’ devices — at airports for five specific apps. TSA officers screen around 2 million passengers per day at airports nationwide, including looking for prohibited devices of people preparing to board flights.
As one example of the claim, on Nov. 24, a user managing the YouTube channel Sophia the Flight Attendant’s Official Channel posted a video (archived) with the title, “TSA Is Checking Seniors’ Phones For These 5 Apps (Delete Before Flying).”
The video’s narrator, an alleged flight attendant named Sophia, claims, “I have seen a massive uptick in what we call electronic device examinations, particularly at international border crossings, CBP and during secondary screenings by airport security. They aren’t just looking for weapons anymore. They are looking for intent. They are looking for digital red flags.”
In the clip, Sophia mentions five different types of apps recommended for deletion before flying. The clip’s text description also lists the app types as follows: “‘App #1: The ‘Legal’ app that is Federal contraband,’ ‘App #2: Why ‘Hidden Photo’ Vaults are a red flag,’ ‘App #3: VPNs & Tor Browsers (What they signal to agents),’ ‘App #4: The Scam App: Remote Desktops (AnyDesk/TeamViewer)’ and ‘App #5: Third-Party Booking Apps causing delays.'”
Users shared this claim, including reposting numerous different YouTube videos, on Facebook, Instagram (archived), TikTok, Threads (archived) and X (archived).
In short, this rumor, one claiming the TSA was checking passengers’ cellphones for five apps, was false and featured some visuals, audio narration and text generated with artificial intelligence (AI).
A footnote visible on the TSA.gov website page explicitly says officers are not to attempt to read or copy content from passengers’ cellphones. That page reads, “Officers may ask you to power up your electronic device, including cell phones. Powerless devices will not be permitted onboard the aircraft. TSA does not read or copy information from your device.”
Snopes emailed the TSA to ask about this matter and will update this article if we receive further information.
We also reached out by email to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to ask about searches of cellphones, after the aforementioned YouTube channel’s video mentioned the agency. In a statement, a CBP spokeswoman told us, “Claims that CBP is targeting senior citizens are false.” She also noted the rarity of such devices searches, which we have detailed later in this story.
Finding the truth behind the false rumor
YouTube users — and some TikTok users — posted videos about the TSA rumor, out of at least hundreds of different videos offering alleged airline travel tips — most or all featuring at least some usage of AI.
The Sophia the Flight Attendant YouTube channel’s video showed “Sophia” — a completely fake, AI-generated woman, including with AI-created vocals. The user who uploaded the video answered “yes” to a question of whether the clip contained inauthentic content. That “yes” enabled the displaying of a YouTube-created label reading, “Altered or synthetic content.”
“Sophia” also displayed several signs of AI, including illegible letters on the subject’s name tag and unnatural mouth movements not consistently matching audible speech. The video’s text description featured emojis and a comma-separated keywords list — both resembling the same way AI tools generate YouTube descriptions. The “Sophia” YouTube channel did not display any external contact methods.
The name tag for “Sophia” displayed no legible letters, which can be one of many signs of AI-generated content. (Sophia the Flight Attendant’s Official Channel/YouTube)
In another example, the Passport Pro YouTube channel hosted a popular video (archived), titled, “TSA Is Checking Seniors’ Phones For These 5 Apps (Delete Before Flying).” Weeks earlier, in October, users managing the same channel published a different clip (archived), titled, “TSA Is Checking Your Phone For These 5 Apps (Delete Before Flying)” — without the mention of senior citizens. Also, the video about senior citizens featured five different types of apps than the earlier clip.
The user or users managing the Passport Pro channel practiced the strategy of creating multiple AI-generated video variations of the same basic idea. That strategy indicated the channel owner or owners’ intentions to publish a large amount of content — authentic or not — with the primary goal of earning YouTube advertising revenue.
We emailed Passport Pro to ask for evidence regarding the channel’s claims and will update this article if the people managing the channel provide additional details.
CBP and cellphone searches
According to CBP.gov, CBP — a different agency than TSA — bears responsibility for securing U.S. borders and ports of entry. The agency’s website claims CBP officials conduct device searches for travelers only on “rare occasions”:
All travelers crossing the United States border are subject to CBP inspection. On rare occasions, CBP officers may search a traveler’s mobile phone, computer, camera, or other electronic devices during the inspection process. These searches have been used to identify and combat terrorist activity, child pornography, drug smuggling, human smuggling, bulk cash smuggling, human trafficking, export control violations, intellectual property rights violations and visa fraud, among other violations. Furthermore, border searches of electronic devices are often integral to determining an individual’s intentions upon entry to the United States and thus provide additional information relevant to admissibility of foreign nationals under U.S. immigration laws.
CBP has established strict guidelines, above and beyond prevailing legal requirements, to ensure that these searches are exercised judiciously and responsibly and are consistent with the public trust.
The CBP website hosts a fact sheet (archived) claiming that, in fiscal year 2025 — running Oct. 1, 2024, through Sept. 30, 2025 — out of more than 419 million passengers, over 55,000 received searches of electronic devices. The fiscal year 2025 numbers reflected only a slight uptick from previous years.
The CBP spokesperson noted this same data, including mentioning 2021 and saying that “the likelihood of a search has not increased and remains exceedingly rare.”
The fact sheet identified nearly 51,000 passengers as undergoing “basic media searches,” with the remaining over 4,000 as “advanced media searches.”
A CBP directive displaying a 2018 publication date defined a basic search as an officer examining an electronic device at a border. The same directive defined an advanced search as one involving an officer connecting to external equipment “not merely to gain access to the device, but to review, copy and/or analyze its contents.” The guidance on advanced searches mentioned “national security concerns” and individuals “on a government-operated and government-vetted terrorist watch list.”
CBP’s website does not say that the agency requires passengers to provide passcodes or other information necessary to unlock cellphones and other devices. Instead, the website provides guidance for U.S. citizens and foreign nationals. For example, the documentation mentions the following: “If the electronic device cannot be inspected because it is protected by a passcode or encryption or other security mechanism, that device may be subject to exclusion, detention, or other appropriate action or disposition. Additionally, the traveler may face longer processing times to allow for CBP to access the contents of the device.”
In April 2025, the AARP organization, formerly the American Associated of Retired Persons, reported six tips to secure cellphones upon reentering into the U.S., prior to encountering CBP. Those tips included enabling a password, turning off the device before approaching inspection and removing content officials might misinterpret, as well as other guidance.
For further reading, we previously reported about whether airplanes dump human waste while in flight.
