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A US-born NASA scientist was detained at the border until he unlocked his phone

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Re: A US-born NASA scientist was detained at the border until he unlocked his phone

#51

Post by iak8god »

RealGeek wrote: post #50
Jonnax wrote: post #10

Their point about how other countries will take the US's stance as a cue is somewhat scary. If you try and cross any border it will be relinquishing access to all accounts. I'm assuming email also comes along with 'social media', since communication is by its definition social. So how do you protect yourself? I think just going with "Don't have any social media" isn't a good answer because the relationship that child…

How about if we reset and delete everything from the phone before crossing any international borders?

That would work except that it's super inconvenient.

Re: A US-born NASA scientist was detained at the border until he unlocked his phone

#52

Post by huac »

clamprecht wrote: post #41

> “I asked a question, ‘Why was I chosen?’ And [the CBP agent] wouldn’t tell me,” he says. He should file a Freedom of Information / Privacy Act request to get the reason they chose him.

FOIA can be denied on grounds of national security, pretty sure

Re: A US-born NASA scientist was detained at the border until he unlocked his phone

#53

Post by joshuaheard »

I don't see what this has to do with Trump's travel restrictions, other than it coincidentally happened at the same time. If the author is trying to imply this correlation is causation, there is no evidence in the article. That being said, no American should have to have his phone searched at the border, even with the stated border exceptions to the Fourth Amendment.

Re: A US-born NASA scientist was detained at the border until he unlocked his phone

#54

Post by yardie »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #26
yardie wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you bother to read the article? He was detained coming into the country. Just call a spade a spade. Trump wrote a shitty, racist executive order and people from all walks of life who happen to have one thing in common, a Muslim sounding name, are caught up in it.

Then why does our liberal, free country (Canada) with a Liberal government do the same thing?

Do Canadians honestly believe their shit don't stink?

Re: A US-born NASA scientist was detained at the border until he unlocked his phone

#55

Post by clamprecht »

huac wrote: post #52
clamprecht wrote: post #41

> “I asked a question, ‘Why was I chosen?’ And [the CBP agent] wouldn’t tell me,” he says. He should file a Freedom of Information / Privacy Act request to get the reason they chose him.

FOIA can be denied on grounds of national security, pretty sure

Definitely, but it's worth asking.

Re: A US-born NASA scientist was detained at the border until he unlocked his phone

#56

Post by sah2ed »

EGreg wrote: post #36
FabHK wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming you're going to a place with fast internet. If you're not, it can be a pain.

You can restore using iTunes backups stored on an encrypted hard drive in a secret volume. Plausible deniability even after decryption. TrueCrypt does this.

Be sure that as such powers increase they'll obtain more sophisticated tools to help them catch smart alecks.

There's also the possibility of seizure -- not getting your encrypted hard drive back because you refused to co-operate.

Re: A US-born NASA scientist was detained at the border until he unlocked his phone

#57

Post by ephemeral9235 »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #45
ephemeral9235 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See this -^ ? It's a new pseudonymous account. Unless your social network has some kind of insane policy where they only allow you to have a single identity you can use that kind of feature to compartmentalize your activities. Combine that with a phone that lets you have multiple users where you use one for banal activity which you can then show to Big Brother when he comes knocking. And others for anything important…

That falls apart with the simplest IP tracking. The government has all that data anyway, I see no reason they couldn't run a "background check" and figure out exactly who you are and what you've done. It's a false sense of security, is it not? It's probably best to assume your opponent isn't completely dumb.

That depends on what your threat model is. I assume we're talking about random police or border searches of your phone. Not the NSA or some surveillance apparatus which can make warrantless inquiries to your ISP and social network providers at a moments notice.

If we're facing a surveillance state without any internal obstructions then yes, far stricter opsec will be needed.

Re: A US-born NASA scientist was detained at the border until he unlocked his phone

#58

Post by discardorama »

caminante wrote: post #20

Here's the Customs and Border Patrol policy in question [0] (see page 31). The EFF has a nice write-up on this topic [1]. It sounds like there's a "border search exemption" that bypasses the Fourth Amendment. The rationale was to ensure duties were paid and screen for "bad guys," drugs, weapons, diseased fruit, etc. [0] https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/privacy... [1] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/…

> The rational was to ensure duties were paid and screen for "bad guys," drugs, weapons, diseased fruit, etc.

There's always a perfectly-sounding rationale for such giving them such powers, but in the end these are always abused.

Re: A US-born NASA scientist was detained at the border until he unlocked his phone

#59

Post by iak8god »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #45
ephemeral9235 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See this -^ ? It's a new pseudonymous account. Unless your social network has some kind of insane policy where they only allow you to have a single identity you can use that kind of feature to compartmentalize your activities. Combine that with a phone that lets you have multiple users where you use one for banal activity which you can then show to Big Brother when he comes knocking. And others for anything important…

That falls apart with the simplest IP tracking. The government has all that data anyway, I see no reason they couldn't run a "background check" and figure out exactly who you are and what you've done. It's a false sense of security, is it not? It's probably best to assume your opponent isn't completely dumb.

If a state intelligence agency is targeting you, there's just really not a lot you can do at that point. But ephemeral9235's suggestions should work OK to avoid handing over all your personal data at the border.

Re: A US-born NASA scientist was detained at the border until he unlocked his phone

#60

Post by contras1970 »

vidarh wrote: post #44
masklinn wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So how do you protect yourself? Wipe phone when you pass through border, restore afterwards. If you're really paranoid, if the device leaves your presence it's to be considered physically compromised.

It is bizarre that we're now having to consider the type of preparation you previously would want to consider for places like China. I'm really not sure if I want to visit the US at all while Trump is in power. Not because I expect the chances of any severe problems are all that huge, but because the growing lack of predictability is just creating sufficient friction.

It's only bizarre because we've been brainwashed in our youth years into thinking highly of USA, and our adult selves still mourn the loss of simple ethical compass, but that was always only imaginary.
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