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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

#141

Post by krab »

TomMarius wrote: post #94

When I was a child (in central Europe), USA was seen as a heaven where everyone would like to live - and I did too. Nowadays I'm very happy I live in a "poor", speaking by numbers, but much more free republic in the middle of the old continent.

The same here. The reputation of USA changed really a lot since the end of communism and the nineties. We really appreciated their involvement in dismantling the Iron Curtain. We were also fascinated by some western goods :-).

Nowadays, people see USA as one of the superpowers in the world who influence or intervene in other countries for their own benefit. If I had to choose, I'd still prefer to live in USA over China or Russia. But thankfully, these are not the only options.

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

#142

Post by mindslight »

AJ007 wrote: post #120
mindslight wrote: post #13

Especially with a USG-owned device, this seems like it would have been a ripe time to assert one's citizenship for entry and just let them steal the device. The last time I traveled internationally, I purposely brought only an old laptop. To return, I zeroed the hard drive and physically removed it from the machine so the scum would have pretext to steal less of my property. For my preparation I was rewarded with abs…

Which government agencies can detain agents of other government agencies?

Eh? I would think any agency that can detain people, can detain employees of other agencies. And priority would be resolved contextually ("jurisdiction") and through "professional courtesy" cooperation - your standard town cop and the CBP thug both believe this terrorism delusion.

My point about the ownership of the phone is that I would think NASA would be in less of a position to discipline its employees for property being stolen, especially if it were stolen by USG.

I'd encourage the same tack with private employers' phones or your own burner. But most people don't have burners and a private employer can baselessly discipline an employee for disobeying "authorituh" (although if one's IT department has a clue, they'll fully support maintaining security over saving a few hundred dollars).

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

#143

Post by waqf »

Havoc wrote: post #27

Note to self - bring burner phone for dodgy countries...like the US.

A few years ago, for foreign travel, one used to buy a new SIM card at one's destination. These days, I'm thinking I might just bring my SIM and buy a new phone at my destination.

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

#144

Post by WildUtah »

ephemeral9235 wrote: post #78
aaron-lebo wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right of course. I guess I'm wondering if border guards at any point in the future will have quick access to a database, presumably with information from a company that has either voluntarily or been forced to provide data. Sir, we just ran your social networking accounts and according to our data you have another Facebook account that you did not provide access to...

Such a database would indicate two things a) law enforcement has access to such a database without warrants b) facebook provides such a database without warrants. To me those would be reasons to leave the country and facebook.

A and b are both well established facts. You are, however, still allowed to leave both the country and Facebook without restriction. For now.

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

#146

Post by yardie »

shripadk wrote: post #102
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.

How is "Sidd Bikkannavar" even remotely "Muslim sounding"? It's a Hindu name. He probably shortened it from "Siddarth" Bikkannavar to Sidd Bikkannavar like most Hindus in foreign countries do. Bikkannavar is a place in Karnataka, India. Maybe that is his parent's place of origin.

This is the USA were talking about. Have a turban? You're probably Muslim. Funny sound, non-Latin name? Possibly Muslim.

I'm sure some family of a CBP agent or super patriot will jump in to defend them. The CBP answers to no one except the president so good luck in getting a legitimate reason from them.

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

#147

Post by kzrdude »

tn13 wrote: post #101

This is really sad. As an immigrant I always thought this was coming. I never fly on a muslim airlines like Etihad to Turkish even though they are more convenient, I do not accept friend requests from muslims people on LinkedIN and Facebook.

So you are already a victim of a xenophobic control apparatus.

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

#148

Post by jakobdabo »

blubb-fish wrote: post #100
pyrophane wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Exactly - and some smart people do actually have "dumb" phones. 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?

I suggest installing a shell OS (with a neat GUI, no hacker-ish looks) on the Notebook's first partition, the rest (where the main Linux installation is residing) will be encrypted and can be decrypted and booted into only using a USB bootloader with the missing LUKS header (which can be downloaded later using a VPN, for example).

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

#149

Post by snomad »

pjc50 wrote: post #25
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…

> 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…

The Mayor of Stockton, while returning from China, was forced to give up his password and then subsequently had all electronic devices seized. That was in 2015; this isn't about race, the broader issue here is privacy and where do I rights kick in.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20151002/15583732429/homel...

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