US Customs is sad that it missed a chance to start it's own version of facebook and now wants to recoup their opportunity by strongly encouraging everyone to sign up when they travel.
US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile
61–70 of 398 posts
Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
They usually have to construct a narrative of suspicion. I don't know how not having electronic devices or a phone is suspicious.
It makes you look like you're hiding your digital profile. Which, to be fair, would be true.
My public digital profile is available on LinkedIn and various other sites for anyone to see. I have nothing to hide. I do have some private information that I would keep to my self, according to my constitutional rights.
Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile
#63Here's what I want:
A way to hit a button and have the contents of my laptop or phone encrypted locally, shipped off to some secure cloud storage, and then purged from my laptop. I'll take the empty device through. I can just tell them that it's a gift for a friend, or something work asked me to bring over to a co-worker. Then when I'm on the other side, I hit the button... download, decrypt, and restore my stuff -- then wipe it from the cloud.
Anyone who makes this service, I'll gladly pay you $100 per use.
(Dear BackBlaze... I know you're close, just build out the UX and automation a bit better.)
It sucks, but I guess I'll just take an old phone and tell them I'm planning on getting a SIM card when I land... I only really need it for finding my way around anyway. I can FedEx my laptop and have it waiting for me. But what a pain in the ass all of this is.
Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile
#64Argh, you couldn't invent this kafkaesque stuff: "When he went through secondary inspection at Vancouver airport, US Customs officers didn’t even need to ask for his passwords — they were saved in their own system." "They said, ‘Next time you come through, don’t have a cleared phone,’ and that was it. I wasn’t let through. " -- I know that US/Canada privacy laws might not give people protection in this situations, bu…
Since when does the US give a damn thing about the UN declaration?
They signed it.
Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile
#65[deleted]
Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile
#66Everyone proposing clever technical solutions. Burner phones and encrypted cloud data etc... you are solving the wrong problem. Instead of engineering a way for the few people who care deeply to avoid this at great effort, engineer a way for this to not be legal. Write your congressperson, donate time and money to political parties, make privacy at the border for ALL (not just citizens) a priority in every election.
I can see members of congress agreeing to privacy right at the border for citizens --only a very few would support the same for non-citizens, even Dems. There is no political upside to that position and it serves a very small percentage of Americans, indirectly, so, that's not going to fly.
Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile
#67Beyond the obvious privacy issue, there is a more general worrying pattern here. The fact we give mediocre, frustrated, under-waged people, some power, with minimum control. This is not a condescending remark, and I truly think the root of all these incidents (and this also include other abuse of power) lies here. Think of sadistic guards in prison, think of police officers coldly killing black teens. These all are patterns where mediocre and frustrated people have finally a chance to get a revenge on their meaningless life by using the only relevant element they have: their power.
Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's your take on the story?
It shows a hole in our rule of law. There's a case in front of SCOTUS, Hernández vs. Mesa , exploring the Constitutional protection of foreign nationals at the U.S. border [1]. In 2010, an unarmed fifteen-year-old Mexican boy was shot in the head by a U.S. Border Patrol agent. The boy was in a culvert jointly patrolled by the U.S. and Mexico, but officially, the agent was in the United States and the boy in Mexico. T…
What I don't understand in the Hernández case is why Mesa apparently hasn't been investigated/charged by the Mexican authorities?
Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile
#69I guess this does it for me. America might be interesting to me as a tourist, but the idea that some schmuck on the border would turn me back for some ridiculous reason, humiliating me in the process, all that while erasing a significant portion of my life savings... (because they charge the airlines some ridiculous fine which would in turn try to force it down on me) blah. Not worth the risk at all.
Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile
#70After many unpleasant dealings with US Customs, I avoid flying to or through the US completely even if it costs me more.
The last time I flew from Canada to Singapore through the US, the US Customs officer - on Canadian soil - was hostile, asked me numerous questions about my travel, itinerary, who I was intending to meet, and my personal finances.
When I questioned if all this was necessary as I'm not even traveling to the US, he became agitated and threatened "You know I could stop your trip right here? I might not be convinced you'll actually transfer on your next flight or leave the US."
After scowling at his screen for a while, he finally scoffed, slammed my passport on the counter and said "Go." I guess he felt he had shown his power enough.
It was extremely stressful and humiliating, and I vowed never to subject myself to it again. FWIW, I'm a caucasian, middle-class Canadian IT nerd. I can only imagine what others who meet their "profile" go through.