Is the workaround just to take the dumb phone on holiday. No laptop, just rent one on arrival. Everything in the cloud, encrypted.
US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile
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Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile
#22For travel:
- Travel with wiped devices with a cloud backup.
- Restore from backup when you reach your destination.
- You could be compelled to give up your cloud login, (since you'll have to know the password in your head) so have a fake one available for plausible deniability.
- Your (real) backup needs: browser, password safe, system patches, system hardening. Anything else should likely be delegated to installing from a script, Ansible, etc, after the fact. This helps minimize history and other private information you could carry around (just in case they DO get your real login).
- Not sure if necessary, as I haven't heard stories by border agents to give up email passwords, but an extra email address for plausible deniability can't hurt.
- All (other) passwords should be stored in a password safe, so you can't be compelled to give them those passwords, since you have no idea what they are anyway.
- Passwords should always be generated and be as long as possible for a particular service.
- Usernames should always be generated and unique.
- Don't use services that restrict password lengths to 20 or less characters.
- Don't use services with a known history of hacks or leaks (i'm looking at you Yahoo/Target).
All that said, it's pretty terrible that joe user will need to know this information just to travel. I doubt many are technically capable of executing on the above strategies. Even software engineers are unlikely to have such due diligence.
Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile
#23That's sad. I really want visit the US and see some national parks but the more I see stories like that the less I want to go. I hope it will be better in 5-6 years because I don't want to invent a plausible second life just to go through the border...
This occurred in October, under Obama, so even if the dems were to win next cycle, there is little hope for the change you seem to be going for.
Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
It happened in December. What is the relevance of who was President at the time?
At least in New York, there are many Democrats campaigning on an anti-Trump platform. They use stories like this to justify their candidacy. Recognising that they did nothing about these issues is informative for primary coördination and voting.
What's your take on the story?
Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile
#25There needs to be some reasonable way to get your digital life into an E2E encrypted cloud, wipe your devices, fly into the police state you call home, and get setup again when you land. You can promise at the border that your head doesn't contain anything either. I get very worried about traveling with an object as alien and shiny as a Yubikey. I don't know how I'd explain it to an aneurism in a Kevlar vest without…
Encrypt the disk passwords to your lawyer's PGP key. Give them your lawyer's business card if they ask about it.
Or don't bring your devices with you.
Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile
#26That's sad. I really want visit the US and see some national parks but the more I see stories like that the less I want to go. I hope it will be better in 5-6 years because I don't want to invent a plausible second life just to go through the border...
You are not alone.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/travel/after-travel-ban-d...
Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile
#27In the US right now visiting, am Canadian. Was a pain, was held up over an hour at the border (via land). Apparently they don't believe there's any reason for a Canadian to visit the US as a tourist, we only want to work illegally (they're partially right, only came to visit family, our national parks are nicer).
Also, based on my family members' experiences of working in the US, it's easier to work illegally than to immigrate legally. And hard to be a tourist apparently. You guys have your priorities all backwards - should be easy to visit, hard to work illegally, and somewhere in the middle to immigrate legally.
Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
> wipe your devices But then you risk: > They said, ‘Next time you come through, don’t have a cleared phone,’
Quite. Once you have such an E2E encrypted cloud, the next step is to simply not bring your device over the border, but rather buy/rent one in the country you arrived in and load your stuff on that one. The only problem is finding hardware you can sort of trust.
My phone almost always costs around a thousand dollars, roughly the amount the guy persecuted by the CBP was complaining about losing on flights.
It's also instrumental for getting me from the airport I land at to my hotel, as well as remembering the name and address of the hotel I need to travel to from the airport.
I would do what you suggest but a) the Apple store isn't always open when I land, and b) I have no way of summoning a non-taxi to get there (or to where I am sleeping).
Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile
#29No phone. No password. No electronic device. No problem.
Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile
#30I'd love to visit the United States, but this is just creepy. I don't even give my family passwords. Not worth visiting on my own dime if I'll just be turned back for refusing to comply.
I've recently relocated to Washington state and am close to the Canadian border. I thought about driving a few hours to check out the sights in BC and satisfy a many years long Tim Horton's drought this weekend (I'm originally from New England where we had Tim's for a brief shining moment in time), but decided against it after reading a plethora of instances online where Canadian authorities have done the same to people at the border.
I figure if I don't get the runaround on the way in, I'll get it on the way back. Sad, but not worth the trouble.