It means you aren't entitled to visit a foreign country. You aren't entitled to them letting you in.
Of course in a perfect world we all trust each other and have open borders, but that's a privilege we have to work for. I'm European and enjoy the open borders, but also am well aware that such a situation is not a given.
Cannot mean loss of personal rights, sure. Showing up at a border and being required to give up personal rights isn't ok.
But many people in this thread are writing as if they actually believe they have a right to go anywhere, and that simply isn't the case. It's the kind of thing you need live in a strong passport country to believe.
I'm sure this has already been pointed out to you, but this was an American citizen returning to America. This guy had rights under the 4th Amendment.
No matter what the government claims, they do not have carte blanche to inspect digital files that are physically being carried across the border. I guess technically deleting them may have been a crime, but the government better have a great explanation for why they wanted to see those files if it's gonna charge him.
And why would pointing to what may seem to be indicated as times of violence attack the idea of these current being times of ignorance (and after all that was done to provide remedies against ignorance).