Turn off your phone before going through customs or tsa. They can’t compel you to give your password out, but biometrics don’t fall under that category.
For now anyway.
Doesnt work. They wont let you in if you dont unlock your phone. Same thing if you wipe it. They can refuse you for any reason.
Well ain’t that some bull shit.
And they can refuse you entry if you don’t comply.
For those of us with GrapheneOS, you could maybe set up a different user profile solely for travel? Hopefully they wouldn’t look closely enough to see that it’s not the real one
That feels like a pretty big gamble when the consequence for losing is being detained by ICE.
Sorry man battery died!
No problem. The cellebrite imaging tool will provide power while it dumps your entire phone.
Full Disk Encryption works. Use a strong passphrase. >20 characters.
Yup, that’s true.
Sleeping on an airport bench for your 2 week business trip knowing you’re getting fired when you get home
Why would you get fired? Like they would have to justify it and I dont think “I was oppressed when visiting a fascist police state” is a legally permissible reason to fire someone in most countries
Travel to the US and it’s your own fault. We have been warned.
My partner is a scientist and has to travel to the US for work later this year. We’re both dreading it, given all these stories of people being detained at the border.
Don’t.
Be safe.
Are they in private or public sector? Because I can’t imagine a university or other government institution continuing to send people to America if hostilities keep increasing over the course of the year.
I’m not saying there won’t be financial consequences, but they are well within their right to refuse. I would.
Why travel to that shithole.
People also travel to Pyongyang just to see just how shitty it is.
I’d rather go there. Probably safer.
Honestly, just follow their rules and you’d probably be fine in NK. But maybe not so in the us
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No need to go to the us. Fuck that hellhole.
Some of us that left still want to visit family when they’re dying
What the actual fuck is going on with my country?!? For fuck sake, not all of us are fascist bellends.
Things are still gonna get worse, we’re not gonna get through this until their actions hurt so many people that enough of them get fed up and it leads to one of those belgrade or hungary sized protests
You’re talking about a country that largely lives with its head in the sand. America is notorious for avoiding the news, especially world news. The fact that any is ingested as all is likely thanks to social media. (Im talking large strokes, middle of the bell curve behaviors). As long as the family unit is ok, people generally think they’re ok, and live with blinders for anything outside of that. This life approach has existed long before Trump was even a blip in politics.
Remember, inertia is a seismic, global driving force of action for much of humanity.
I think it would likely take everyone’s personal house burning down in tandem to inspire mass action and those who still had houses would still function via the force of inertia propelling them through their daily habits, ignoring everyone else.
I say that as an American. I don’t like it, but it’s true. That and liberals a very un unified and tend not to like each other. A lot of gatekeeping takes place there rather than uniting and doing, always has. It’s a scattered, messy, un unified party.
In addition, there was another post made in response to a “do something” rant that I think sums up the other piece in play.
“I don’t know how to start a riot.”
Which is a fair point. How? Seriously. And where do you find people when your full personal circle is 2-7 individuals (if you have friends at all, it’s a major problem people seek therapy for these days). and half of the people who are friends with are either MAGA or a dissociated young man who spends all their free time behind a screen engaged in escapism.
We’re kinda screwed on the psychology side over here.
Generally I agree, but also I feel like we get held to a higher standard for some reason? I don’t believe the average person in China or India or wherever is significantly more informed about the news and world than we are in America. It’s just that when you have no time and energy outside of work it’s difficult to remain informed (and cross checked) about everything going on. Our orange Hitler has done like 4 things a day since being elected that could probably warrant a documentary each just to explain all the bullshit, and that’s just what’s going on here.
I feel like we get held to a higher standard for some reason?
Not really. My expectations about Americand are pretty low, and even then I’m regularly being disappointed by what I see them doing.
At minimum you guys should be held to the standards that you claim for yourselves, but that’s so much higher than I have ever seen your country achieve.
.
If Americans want the respect from the rest of the world that your country claims it deserves, you guys need to fix a helluva lot of things.
In your world where every group is a monolith, I guess that might make sense. 🙄 What country are you from?
but also I feel like we get held to a higher standard for some reason?
I realize I discuss inertia as a driving human force a lot, but inertial force doesn’t just rule over behaviors but thinking and expectation as well.
This one is derived from that American ethos born of not just 1776 but WW2 and the post WW2 remapping of world politics, centered in the West. That’s it. We’ve been riding and reinforcing that inertial force ever since. That is simply how long and powerful inertial force can be within the context of psychology.
We The People hit a brick wall in November, but so did the rest of the world.
How that brick wall happens for individual Americans, wakes them up and energizes them instead of just making them feel tired and broken, I don’t know.
Aside regarding headlines. Germany is the classic comparison in studies. Brutal headlines and imagery are typical, even pre social media.
A third of you are fascist bellends, a third are fighting against the fascist bellends … and a third are just standing there doing nothing.
Yeah, the non-voters are fucking worse than the Trumpers in some ways.
this is beyond voting now
If you didn’t bother to vote then you voted for this.
oh I voted. And drug all my kids to vote. And my reluctant wife. I did everything I could…
You might want to say “dragged” instead…
Well…. (I see your point).
I did everything I could…
Did you? Are you?
How often are you holding your elected officials to account?
how often are you hitting the streets protesting?
How much local and community organizing are you doing?
How much “voting with you wallet” are you doing?
I thought that was basic opsec. Burner phone with a week of use, paid in cash on you. Real phone (if you need it) in a bag, battery removed and separate by any means. That’s not just crossing borders, that’s anything longer than a city bus.
What phones have removable batteries?
Phones from 2004.
That’s funny. I’ll just jump in my time machine and go back 11 years.
21 years
The most brutal correction I believe I have ever witnessed.
Oh boy I feel old.
I just hit my fifties. This life is too short. Or too long. I keep going back and forth on that.
All of the Blu phones from TracFone. Which is what I use.
The more important thing to remove is the internal storage. And the answer is: use a laptop
Fairphone and shiftphone
There’s a bunch, I was looking last night. Samsung xcover, fairphone.
Just wild that you have to practice opsec crossing a border that used to not even ask for your passport lol
Dude, I practice opsec crossing county lines sometimes, what’s your excuse? This is how it’s always been, you all are just realizing how a dude from Queens and Jersey sees the world. That’s all that dumbass is. He’s no better than his roots.
Is there really someone that considers’ cell communication secure?
Everything you do on a phone is recorded. It’s literally device stamped by towers.
Country doesn’t matter for phones.
Burners matter cause there is nothing associated with them, every country monitors cell phones. It’s not a burner if you pay with a bank account or credit card.
The closest you can get is buy the Phone and cards when you need them with cash. AND that still locates you in store once every three months.
It’s not the traceability of the phone. It’s the contents of the phone.
The contents of our phones is deeply personal and some courts have ruled that makes them part of the fourth amendment protections, but it’s not made it to the Supreme Court (afaik, ianal) and border patrol doesn’t care as this case makes evident.
The benefit of a burner phone is that you don’t knock out your primary phone in order to remove “incriminating” evidence like that time your friend texted you that Donald Trump is an orange bellend.
It’s not that the border patrol doesn’t care, they have an exception
Its possible to own a phone and never use a SIM. This is the recommend option. Never connect to a cell tower. Just use WiFi.
You seem to have missed the point.
Not really, too many people buy burners with credit cards and bank account, then tie them to known emails. Knowing that everything you do on your phone is recorded should be common knowledge, and keeping the payment and accounts anonymous as a necessity should also be common knowledge.
Unfortunately people pay for them with company or personal cards or bank accounts all the time. And even when they pay for them with cash they don’t use throwaway emails.
PS this is from someone who has used burners for 15+ years.
I think the point was not having a phone with you when you go through security and not about privacy when you are on the other side
100% agreement. Taking a phone through customs is a surefire method of burning a burner because it gets tied to a passport.
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Burner phone is the way to go, wherever you travel.
Don’t carry digital data across any border, even if encrypted. Many countries have totally different standards over search and seizure at their borders to when you have gained entry and sometimes far worse for non citizens.
america has freedom of speech but i guess not in this case.
America HAD freedom of speech. Now they’re disappearing people for it.
Freedom of speech means whatever they want it to in that moment it seems
“Freedom of Speech” is a euphemism for hate speech and racism in the US.
A good option is backing up your data, encrypting it, then uploading to a server you can retrieve it from once you’ve crossed
Setting up some stuff might look less sus than a freshly wiped device though
Australia has full rights to search hardware on entry. Careful coming here too.
Exactly. Don’t make assumptions just because you are travelling to a “friendly” country.
If you really need to go to the US - Don’t bring any electronic devices with you through security or while transitioning through borders.
Leave your devices at home. Bring a single function camera with you if you want.
Once you get across the border … buy a new or used phone. If you have friends or family waiting for you, ask them to get you a phone, maybe even an old phone or get them to buy a used phone that you can use during your stay (pay them to get it of course).
Set up your new phone - load your data through cloud based systems … if you are organized enough, you can set up a cloud based password manager to handle all your other data services.
Then when you leave, reformat and reset your phone and either try to sell off the phone you just bought, give it away or just toss it.
Go through security again without a device.
If you bring a burner phone and they search it and see nothing on it, they’ll think that suspicious too and might deny entry.
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source
No explicit source, but it’s common sense and within their abilities, keep in mind recently changed rules around searching in general have changed recently…
Border agent: I’m going to search your phone give me the password.
(eventually you agree because it’s a burner)
You: Here you go
Border agent: There’s nothing on this phone, no email, no pictures, nothing? What are you trying to hide?
You: Well it’s a new phone I just got
Border agent: And you haven’t logged into anything yet?
You: Ya.
Border agent: looks like you’re trying to hide something, this isn’t normal behaviour
You: start looking nervous as the border agent’s tone changes
Border agent: You’re looking a little nervous now, are you hiding something?
You: no, just trying to travel
Border agent: Goes away and talks to someone, then comes back and says, sorry were going to deny you.
They can deny anyone for any reason. It would ultimately come down to how you handle the situation, but DO expect to be grilled about it if you haven’t set it up to look real.
My company isn’t organizing any off-sites to the US for my remote first company anymore because of this shit lol. I think partially because nobody outside of the US would even go
Yup. That’s a possibility. I work in security and would tell them it’s just how we do things. If they send me home I will spend the week with my family instead of sitting in stupid training all week.
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The issue isn’t your SIM, it’s the contents of your phone. If you just swap SIMs, your phone still has all your data from when you were using your regular SIM.
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Just turn it off before going through Customs.
That’s not some sort of magic spell to protect your data. If boarder agents are asking to see the contents of your phone, they won’t be amused with, “it’s turned off.” The only thing turning your phone off achieves it leaving it encrypted which (among other things) means bio-metrics won’t work. Boarder agents can physically compel a bio-metric unlock. While they can’t force you to type your password, if you don’t comply you’ll almost certainly be banned from the country.
The only time I’ve been forced to turn on my phone/laptop was a layover in the UK.
And I’ve never been forced to show the contents of my devices on dozens and dozens of trips to the States. It doesn’t mean they won’t ask next time.
I wonder if making sure your phone is dead would work? Like assuming they’re choosing you randomly to search, they might not want to go through the effort of getting you to charge your phone to search your phone. I’ve never dealt with this situation at all though so I don’t really know.
They image (parts of, I assume) the phone. Cellebrite is a popular tool. “It’s dead” “no problem, here’s a charge cable”.
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What phone unlocks with biometric on startup? I have to input my password any time I restart.
Not sure if I wasn’t clear, but I said:
The only thing turning your phone off achieves it leaving it encrypted which (among other things) means bio-metrics won’t work.
By that I meant on boot your phone is encrypted, and bio-metrics can’t decrypt it, you need the password.
Brilliant. Sometimes the obvious items we set and forget needs a reminder.
In addition, just generally, stop using biometrics and only use encrypted messaging.
If you’re not using Signal or WIRE for personal texts and FaceTime, you’re doing it wrong. It’s a new era.
LOL they changed the headlines to “hateful towards U.S. Policy” now? I thought it was “critical of Trump”.
