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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

#251

Post by psybin »

biafra wrote: post #212
psybin wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To me having several pseudonyms and also using throwaways is part of standard information hygiene. I also have multiple email addresses, some are set to forward to others (one-way of course), others aren't. I don't know why people aren't teaching that to their children. For aliens (people entering under ESTA, visas, etc), you are compelled to reveal any aliases or pseudonyms you operate under. There's a two page do…

That must be new. It wasn't part of esta two years ago. I would be totally unable to produce all my aliases in all the services I have accounts. I wouldn't even be able to remember all the services.

I believe it's supposed to be only names you've gone under, calling yourself horsemaster88 on youtube wouldn't be included, but calling yourself Jerry Fink, lord of horses would be included. With the new laws going into place for giving up social media names I wouldn't be surprised if online pseudonyms will be included in the future though.

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

#253

Post by DamnInteresting »

bitwizzle wrote: post #114

Now is the time for vendors to consider implementing a duress password. Upon entering your duress password the user is presented with a fake profile, or perhaps everything could just be wiped. I'm not sure how well this would play out in the real world, but it's one of the best things protections I could imagine if you want to carry sensitive data across borders.

I really wish mobile device vendors would add support for multiple unlock modes. E.g.:

* "Me mode" that unlocks everything.

* "Kid mode" that only allows one's kid access to pre-approved apps and features.

* A "lend to a stranger to make a call" mode that is a lot like the kid mode, but it also causes the phone to start broadcasting its GPS location frequently (and refuse to turn off [though it might fake it]) in case the stranger steals it.

* An "under duress" alternate PIN that unlocks an alternate profile full of nothing but benign activity, with no indication of (or access to) the encrypted real profile. Once in this mode, the phone cannot unlock normally without a non-phone 2-factor authentication (e.g., email).

All but the last could use the normal PIN, perhaps with different "submit" buttons. I would also love to see the same thing on ATMs, where an alternate "I'm being robbed" PIN will show a fake, low balance in the account and limit withdrawal to that value.

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

#254

Post by a3_nm »

skriticos2 wrote: post #207
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…

Within Europe (ps: as a European citizen) you can go anywhere with a personal identification card (no passport) and there are no border controls (when walking or driving). There isn't even a border, just a sign: welcome to $country (ps: and maybe local driving instructions). Say what you will about the EU, but this has been a great achievement. I can go through airport security between two EU countries and security w…

> there are no border controls (when walking or driving).

In practice they may not always exist, but I think Schengen member states have the authority to perform border controls in all cases (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area#Border_checks does not talk about distinctions depending on the mode of entry). In the current political climate, even as a citizen of a Schengen country, I would not cross borders within Schengen space without ID: I would not be surprised if states decided to perform border checks, and they would probably have the right to deny me passage if I do not have suitable ID.

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

#255

Post by glitcher »

smsm42 wrote: post #221
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…

Social networks are useless with pseudonimous accounts - unless there is some link between pseudonyms. The social aspect is in building the network, having reputation, maintaining a circle of friends and acquaintances, etc. but you can't build network out of throwaway accounts. Of course, HN is not a social network - it's a news/discussion site. So if you don't care about the reputation - which is not prominent anywa…

And ascribing too much importance to social network reputation leads to a great episode of Black Mirror, hardly a desirable world to live in though.

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

#256

Post by ptaipale »

popey456963 wrote: post #227
smsm42 wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Within the states of US you can do the same ;) EU essentially wants to be United States of Europe. Though I'm not sure all EU states yet ready to surrender as much national sovereignty as US states did. And what anything of this has to do with homophobia?

Donald Trump is undoubtedly homophobic, I think he's just pointing out that for the country to be voting for him, to an extent a proportion of them must agree. And I disagree about you saying the EU just wishes to become the United States of Europe. In almost no sense does anyone give up their "sovereignty" by joining the EU. Every country still creates it's own laws, governs how it wishes to and has full control ove…

Another post already pointed out that you are probably wrong about Trump's homophobia.

But about European countries creating their own laws, the federalist movement so prevalent in Brussels these days certainly doesn't see it that way. What you describe was the EEC or the EEA. What the EU is about is different: it is not just free trade; it's about accepting laws, devised in Brussels, regulating many aspects of life - from how taxation must be organised, how economic activity may be encouraged, whether a nation may allow its subjects to chew tobacco, how wind power must or must not be subsidized, whether and what kind of hunting is permitted and whether people may own firearms... everything. Not just trade.

Also, creating a EU army is a recurring topic.

See how the Brussels is so wound up now that Britain dared to say "no thank you" to ever closer political and monetary union. There's a huge disconnect between Brussels (and European Parliament members) and the nations they are supposed to represent.

I'd be in favour of the kind of EU you imagine it is. Unfortunately that's not what we're getting, and that's why EU is disintegrating.

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

#257

Post by aaron-lebo »

tobltobs wrote: post #118
aaron-lebo wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can provide any evidence that Trump is looking to commit genocide, most people would be happy to know.

"Somebody hits us within ISIS — you wouldn`t fight back with a nuke?"

That's obviously really stupid, but John McCain jokingly sang "bomb bomb bomb Iran" about a decade ago while campaigning.

I don't want to make light of that statement or be pedantic but that's not genocide. I have no idea what Trump thinks he would nuke to target ISIS, but coming from a guy who said he'd make Mexico pay for a wall and at times is incoherent, that strikes me less as a plan and more of the kind of dumb thing he says pretty regularly.

I do believe he has enough of a traditional base around him like Pence to prevent that from happening, but that may be too optimistic.

Still haven't seen anything which suggests he wants to target a race or group of people for eradication, though.

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

#258

Post by lazaroclapp »

voidptr654 wrote: post #224
lazaroclapp wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not saying xenophobia inevitably leads to searching phones. But in the US, right now, the justification for the surveillance state is in a big part due to xenophobia and race relations. It is a major factor in the current pathology and we ignore it at our peril.

The law and order type will always find something to increase their powers. You're just trying to fix their current attack vector, which means they'll just use a different scare tomorrow. To have lasting improvements the security apparatus needs to be scaled down.

I think you are talking about two different groups. As in: will three letter agency type people have the incentive and the desire to expand their capabilities, independent of xenophobia and racism? Yes, absolutely. Do xenophobia and racism play a significant part on why large swats of the population are going along with this? Also, yes. A U.S. where most Americans don't fear foreigners from any part of the world is one where justifying scanners, pat downs at the airport and massive data collection becomes a lot harder for the kind of people whose core objective is to justify scanners, pat downs and massive data collection.

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

#259

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#260

Post by drawnwren »

skriticos2 wrote: post #207
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…

Within Europe (ps: as a European citizen) you can go anywhere with a personal identification card (no passport) and there are no border controls (when walking or driving). There isn't even a border, just a sign: welcome to $country (ps: and maybe local driving instructions). Say what you will about the EU, but this has been a great achievement. I can go through airport security between two EU countries and security w…

This wasn't true during the height of the refugee influx through Greece. I took a flight from Greece to Frankfurt and the German police inspected each passenger individually before we were allowed to the gate.
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