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I’ll never bring my phone on an international flight again

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Re: I’ll never bring my phone on an international flight again

#111
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: How is that a felony? I have multiple profiles on my home machine. Does that make me a felon?

I'm guessing it is under some blanket "intent to deceive border protection official" bullcrap. Immigration has very broad powers, but even then this sort of case would be difficult to make IMHO.

>Immigration has very broad powers, but even then this sort of case would be difficult to make IMHO.

I agree. But who has the time and money to defend themselves in court against the unlimited resources of the government?

Re: I’ll never bring my phone on an international flight again

#112
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other commenters have already explained it to you. Reviewing existing knowledge on popular topics will often save you time and increase the enjoyment of participating.

So clearly you're here just to call me out, so it's funny you should bring up time saving. Other commenters on my comment have not provided a good reason. Like I said, I walk through customs and passport control with my phone in my hand all the time (20 or so trips per year) and could easily click this button the instant something unusual happens.

Knock yourself out.

Re: I’ll never bring my phone on an international flight again

#113
post #77

My current plan is to wipe my phone before travel and restore it on destination. Nothing to unlock because there's no phone there. Forcing you to restore your entire account is a whole 'nother level beyond simple forcing you to unlock your phone.

How do you do that with an Android phone? With iOS this seems pretty easy

I have used the Android development tools to make backups over USB and it is fast. You can install just the command-line tools from https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html#downloads and use:

    adb backup -apk -shared -all -f backupname.ab
    adb restore backupname.ab

Re: I’ll never bring my phone on an international flight again

#114
Seems to me Apple and Google should be working on "roaming profiles." You can reset your phone to factory settings, or even get a rental phone at your destination, and then quickly restore it from your profile. After all it's the data you're interested in, not the device per se.

Re: I’ll never bring my phone on an international flight again

#115
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Please hand over your personal phone, not any replacements you carry as decoys"

"I don't bring my personal phone when traveling, because last time my 700$ iPhone was broken by stupid CBP agents" - that, or any reasonable excuse should work. EDIT: "I bring dumbphones when traveling because battery lasts two weeks, unlike iPhone" "I heard that there are lot of thieves in the country I visited, so I was afraid to bring my real phone" "I heard that airport X-ray machine can brick iPhone" "I really l…

Almost all of those are lies. Lying to a federal agent is a felony.

Re: I’ll never bring my phone on an international flight again

#117
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing it is under some blanket "intent to deceive border protection official" bullcrap. Immigration has very broad powers, but even then this sort of case would be difficult to make IMHO.

>Immigration has very broad powers, but even then this sort of case would be difficult to make IMHO. I agree. But who has the time and money to defend themselves in court against the unlimited resources of the government?

That's the purpose fulfilled by advocacy groups such as the ACLU.

Re: I’ll never bring my phone on an international flight again

#118
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intelligence agencies aren't stupid. Evidence of attempts to thwart or subvert intelligence gathering is itself suspicious. If the feds seize what looks to them like a burner phone, that may be grounds for them to detain you without trial indefinitely; and may itself become a crime.

That's highly unlikely. How are you ever going to prove that the person just doesn't want to lose their main phone or risk having their information stolen by thieves? It's virtually impossible to get a conviction on circumstantial evidence. Now if you already have a reputation as a suspicious character in your own right, then being found with a burner phone might exacerbate that, but your argument basically depends o…

They don't need to prove anything. That's the scary part.

Re: I’ll never bring my phone on an international flight again

#119

Fun fact - the "border zone" in which your 4th amendment rights are suspended and you are subject to search, is 100 miles wide and overlaps where the majority of Americans live and work https://www.aclu.org/other/constitution-100-mile-border-zone

Every time I see this map (which, AFAIK, is a visualization by the ACLU and not based on an official government publication) I wonder why Chicago and the coastline of Lake Michigan is included. The border with Canada runs diagonally down the length of Lake Superior, clears the Straits of Mackinac by at least 40 miles, and then continues southeast along Lake Huron to Sarnia and Detroit. The entirety of Lake Michigan i…

If you are sailing you apparently you only cross the border when you dock your boat.

http://www.great-lakes-sailing.com/canada_us_border.html

I guess sailing from the Canadian shores of Huron to somewhere in Michigan wouldn't be all that weird.

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