221–230 of 398 posts
Well, the obvious solution is to hire more people from gay community to CBP.
> US Customs officers didn’t even need to ask for his passwords — they were saved in their own system This is also horrifying. So there's a government database of plaintext passwords and a massive body of people have legitimate access?
OTOH, not changing all your passwords after having to divulge them under duress is pretty careless, too.
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This. If travel is avoidable or exchangeable for another destination, just don't go to the states. As a EU citizen that visited Iran last year I'm no longer eligible for ESTA (visaless entry) and that - combined with these horrific border control policies - honestly made the threshold for me to visit so high, I'll probably never visit again.
> As a EU citizen that visited Iran last year I'm no longer eligible for ESTA (visaless entry) and that - combined with these horrific border control policies - honestly made the threshold for me to visit so high, I'll probably never visit again. -My work takes me to most places where there are - or suspected to be - hydrocarbons to be found. When visiting Iran a couple of years ago, the immigration officer leafed th…
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And for people who are not US citizens, the solution is pretty simple too: Don't travel to the US.
The US isn't the only country that does this. Canada does it too, in fact recently a guy was facing 1 year in jail for not giving up his password. At least you don't face jail time in the US. New Zealand does it as well.
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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.
I assume things like that get easily resolved with international treaties as other countries get retaliatory measures. Eg if Canada set up mandatory cloning of US citizen phones at the border when they try to enter, the tables would turn, so people would start complaining. This is how visa waiver programs came to be, how tax agreements get created etc.
Is a new thing? Is everyone trying to enter the country now suddenly getting all their electronic profiles and devices searched? I don't remember this being a problem a couple years ago.
The US immigration police have behaved like this for decades now. My dad was a US Foreign Service officer. I remember, vaguely, waiting for over an hour in 1962 at Idlewild Airport (now called JFK) in New York while the passport control people questioned him about our passports. They were slightly different from ordinary passports because they said "US diplomatic passport" in the usual gold leaf on the cover, and they were a different color.
The staff there, I suppose, didn't recognize them and thought they were fake. They held us until some supervisor told them to let us go.
Is the ignorance and arrogance of US passport control staff worse now? Probably.
Are other countries getting worse? Yes. That's a standard diplomatic technique, dating from the cold war, called "tit-for-tat." If country A gives country B's nationals a hard time, country B does the same to country A.
I don't have twitter, FB, or linkedIn accounts. But I suppose they'll find me here on HN.
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> Everyone proposing clever technical solutions. Burner phones and encrypted cloud data etc... you are solving the wrong problem. Yes, and this is why I will happily pay airlines more to transfer in another country that is not America (e.g. Canada, Mexico). It sucks because it makes travel more expensive, but US airports are not traveler friendly (they could start by having international transfer zones so you don't h…
Canada also requires your password at the border. Recently one guy even faced 1 year in prison for refusing. At least in the US you don't face prison time. New Zealand asks as well.
And the Kiwi's might ask, but only to find out if you are violating quarantine regulations.
Well, the obvious solution is to hire more people from gay community to CBP.
Suppose the next time you're a painter bringing in a painting of yours into the country. Next thing you know they are accusing you of smuggling. Is the solution to hire people with background in arts?
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Not as distant as you think. Travel organisations avoid even layovers in the US (in Europe at least) just like they would war zones and North Korea. And some (but definately not all) companies have a wiped devices policy for US bussiness trips. When it comes to stuff like this the US is graded on a curve. The same incidents under Obama feel like friendly diplomacy might make it better. Now, maybe Europe and places li…
> Now, maybe Europe and places like Canada should just return the favor. A bit like how travel visa's are often a reverse FU. Ever notice how many destinations dont charge tourists visum costs except when you are from the US or another country that would charge them as well? I understand your point, but it's rather impractical and more importantly not very politically amenable for countries that benefit from US touri…
Well, the obvious solution is to hire more people from gay community to CBP.
Suppose the next time you're a painter bringing in a painting of yours into the country. Next thing you know they are accusing you of smuggling. Is the solution to hire people with background in arts?