US Customs will sing you a song called "Punch you in the face." It's a classic.
What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?
171–180 of 494 posts
Re: What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?
#172Are visitors being turned away because they can't provide passwords for social media accounts? Using a local password safe (KeePass2, etc.) should be a great excuse, but I'm not sure what happens next.
It bothers me that the US is providing a terrible example of how to treat visitors.
Re: What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Or, to simply stop traveling to countries that refuse to play nice with the rights of foreigners. s/foreigners/citizens/ i.e. everyone . I'm a Canadian Citizen. When I enter Canada from abroad, they claim the same rights as the US CBP. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/alain-philippon-cb...
I was detained and aggressively searched at the Canadian border (Montana/Alberta, for about 2 hours) in 1997; not because they thought I was a terrorist, but because they wanted to confirm that I wasn't coming to Canada to work. Friends of mine were turned back at the Canadian border later that same year. Canada has always claimed these rights.
What's changed between then and now? Because it seems they now welcome all the workers they can get, refugees or otherwise.
Re: What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your method also only works if you have a small social circle or don't go out much. Good luck planning a big party or trip without a Whatsapp/Telegram/Facebook group chat..
You understand that society did just fine for thousands of years without these things right? Maybe if you are 20 the social norms have changed so drastically that calling someone is unthinkable but I rather doubt that. Certainly for my generation and above ('84) it's not required.
I am pushing 40 and everything is planned on Facebook now. That's the main reason I have an FB account, to keep up with events. The secondary reason is to keep up with conversations people are having on there, at the events they're planning on there.
My social circle is decidedly non-techy, too.
I don't think there is a generalizable rule.
Re: What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, I pretty much decided to never travel to the US again the first time I heard you may be compelled to unlock your Facebook profile for the customs. Not because I have something particular to hide, but as a gay person in a hostile world I have learned to care about my privacy. Not a huge loss for me, not a huge loss for the US, but it accumulates.
I agree with you. Asia and Eastern Europe are off the list for me too. China is willing to kidnap people out of Thailand [1]; people being arrested over political tweets [2]; Russia can poison people [3], shoot them [4], or have them accused of fake crimes[5]. I really hope the U.S. never comes close to this and hope I see this trend reversed in my lifetime. But people should be aware that it can happen in a modern s…
I wouldn't judge the whole of Eastern Europe or Asia based on one country, there's plenty of safe and welcoming places in both, E. Europe and Asia.
Re: What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?
#176How is this not in violation of international law, especially the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [1] article 17, which would apply to US citizens as well as non-US citizens? No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation. Maybe even article 9 if the law does not clearly establi…
No offense, but I don't put much weight on international law. In order for a law to have impact, someone has to enforce it. Who will enforce international laws? The UN?
In this case it would be every country that ratified the treaty itself. This kind of international treaty just becomes more or less national law. But I just read that the US did not really ratify this one, it ratified it and added five reservations, five understandings, and four declarations. So this one has probably not much effect in the US. But usually you can just go to national courts if you see a violation of international law like this.
Re: What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?
#177Was wondering what happens if they find posts on social media criticizing the current administration? Trump often used to highlight the fact that the thousands of CBP agents has supported/endorsed him.
Re: What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only if the software or procedures do a reasonable job at selecting people. It is hard to tell from the outside whether this is the case but the cases that became publicly known at least suggest that the system is not flawless and also seems to pick people with opinions or doing things the US disapproves but which are not illegal. How much information must be provided is certainly debatable. Article 9 continues as fo…
I am astonished by your entitlement. The state has no obligation to tell you about the inner workings of their selection / profiling process. All that counts is safety of its citizens. If I'm not a citizen and representatives of the country I want to enter tell me that they think I am a risk, the systems actually works. Of all these one-sided stories we are hearing one wonders about what kind of darknet "activism" so…
If all that counts is the safety of your citizens, why would anyone ever be allowed to enter a country, unless they were there to perform a life-saving operation or a similar good?
Re: What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?
#179The simple way to avoid this for me, is to skip avoidable US trips for now. I would have loved to attend strangeloop, but I will wait for better opportunities.
If my work requires me to travel there, I will simply ask to have electronic material provided in the US, and download whatever tools I need once inside the US.
I would advise anyone traveling to have versioned working tools stored online anyhow.
Re: What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?
#180Haha. Terrorism bla bla.
Anyone noticed that the first two example cases are actually political activists being targeted.
- the first is some Chelsea Manning advocate - the second is some pot legalization activist
There you have it for what actually are these rarely used rules used for.