91–100 of 464 posts
The former prime minister of Norway was recently detained at the border for previously having visited Iran. Think about that, prime minister of a NATO allied country. The border rules (even before Trump) are whack.
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I think if you don't have the apps installed they'd probably would assume you were telling the truth. As a white man, you probably don't have much to worry about.
They detained the former Prime Minister of Norway, a very white guy, because he'd been to Iran for a conference.
That isn't to say the entire situation wasn't bullshit, just that it wasn't the case of the Borders agent randomly stopping him for being in Iran.
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Broader anti-racism and anti-racist-media action is needed, because otherwise this kind of arbitrary brutal border policy will win votes. This is an issue much bigger than race and as soon as we stop compartmentalizing it into that it will be better for us all. You turn it into another about race thing and people will tune out. You make people realize they are at risk no matter who they are and they might pay attenti…
The problem is, the reason it does win votes, and the reason a lot of people want "law and order" and "tough on crime", is because they reason it won't apply to them, but to "those people". What is "those people" defined by in their minds, at least to a first a approximation before they consciously reason about it? Race. Now, they might think in terms of it being for thugs and terrorists, instead of black people and…
For example japan or poland are fairly xenophobic and isolationist, but they don't practice a surveillance state or ask for your social media accounts at the border. Foreigners are free to enter as long as they don't overstay their welcome.
I would say that xenophobia is the natural state of homogeneous populations. Everything different is treated with suspicioun, but not necessarily overt opposition or hatred. Xenophobia only gets used as leverage by politicians to amplify and deflect other issues (such as income inequality) onto other groups. Fix those issues and some latent xenophobia isn't going to turn into problems.
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…
Deniability. Have many accounts, some of which have a subsetof your email which is totally safe. They can even be mirrors. Or alternatively, have all your sensitive communication on other channels which leave no trace (in browser history, for instance). Simple! PS: It would be cool if apps let you have steganography... like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp wouldn't show ALL conversations until you entered a specific pa…
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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?
Canada is in general more willing to criticize our politicians on both sides, but the virtue signalling has been out of control since the US elected a president that says mean things, but is otherwise not much different than any US government of the last 35 or so years.
Edit - Should also add, I vote left more than right. I believe in progressive economic policy. However if the left doesn't get their shit together, and just keeps pretending that identity politics actually help, keeps pretending there isn't a problem with globalism and excess immigration, the result will be disastrous. Right wingers are at least seeing the problem, probably because they've been largely excluded from power in many countries for the last decades. I don't like their solutions, but burying your head in the sand doesn't help either. Sorry for the rant.
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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.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/01/obama-administra...
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> So how do you protect yourself? Individually? It's extremely difficult other than "try not to appear suspicious" and bring a dumbphone when crossing borders. The real protection is collective. Stopping the current administration is only the beginning; the Democrats are merely "not as bad" on this kind of issue. Broader anti-racism and anti-racist-media action is needed, because otherwise this kind of arbitary bruta…
Unfortunately, I suspect that failing to have a the ability to grant border agents access to social media or email accounts will soon become grounds for detainment and further scrutiny by itself. If you are carrying a "dumb phone" or don't have email or social media set up on your phone, then what are you trying to hide?
Or sometimes I think about ditching my GUI Linux for something really basic - same reason why some people stick with dumb phones - now what happens if I hand over full control over my neat z-shell to the TSA? Will he grep around or just consider me dangerous?