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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

#271

Post by tajen »

Beltiras wrote: post #200
ojii wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And for people who are not US citizens, the solution is pretty simple too: Don't travel to the US.

I might be forced to in the fall. There's a conference within my industry held in San Fransisco in the fall. There really is no substitute elsewhere within a reasonable timeframe. I plan to have no devices with me on the flight. I'll buy a cheap Android and a burner SIM. Before flying home I'll toss the phone. "Give me liberty or give me death" has been subverted into "Give me security and I'll give you my freedom".

It's all up to you. But I personally chose not to go to US conferences because of the TSA.

The risk of being jailed is real: If you chuckle while they ask questions then lose your temper because he's not happy and you lack sleep; If you have a false name on Facebook (Are you lying about your identity to any US company?); If you know the wrong person; If you've watched underage porn (knowing that even with above-age porn, you don't have any of the actors' ID card to prove it); If a person claims you've harassed her at the conference... Many reasons for your life to become miserable.

The idea of risking jail and sponsoring these rules against aliens far outweighs the advantage of going to a conference, at least for me.

Surprise: This year, the main conference in my domain, is organized in Vienna (CH) instead of SF!

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#272

Post by jessriedel »

mattm wrote: post #45
jessriedel wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The President has significant influence on how border security is conducted, as evidenced by the recent effect of Trump's executive order which has been covered extensively in the news. Many/most readers will associate this event with Trump. Incidentally, how do we know when this event happened? The photo is labeled December, but its essentially a stock photo.

It says in the article: "he was going through Customs preclearance at Vancouver airport last October"

Thanks! I ctrl-f'ed for Dec through Feb :)

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#273

Post by ajeet_dhaliwal »

This is the power of momentum and the snowball effect of capitalism and economic success. If the US was a poor country this would hardly be newsworthy, everyone would just laugh in the face of such a policy and never visit. Now they may be shooting themselves in the foot getting heavy handed like this but even if it is the beginning of the end it would take decades for them to bleed out and in the meantime for most people doing business and interacting with the US is hard to avoid.

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#274

Post by BinaryWaves »

kennywinker wrote: post #49

Everyone 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.

Since when has going through proper govt channels ever worked?

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#276

Post by Beltiras »

tajen wrote: post #271
Beltiras wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might be forced to in the fall. There's a conference within my industry held in San Fransisco in the fall. There really is no substitute elsewhere within a reasonable timeframe. I plan to have no devices with me on the flight. I'll buy a cheap Android and a burner SIM. Before flying home I'll toss the phone. "Give me liberty or give me death" has been subverted into "Give me security and I'll give you my freedom".

It's all up to you. But I personally chose not to go to US conferences because of the TSA. The risk of being jailed is real: If you chuckle while they ask questions then lose your temper because he's not happy and you lack sleep; If you have a false name on Facebook (Are you lying about your identity to any US company?); If you know the wrong person; If you've watched underage porn (knowing that even with above-age p…

Lucky you. My favourite conferences are held in Amsterdam and London. I much prefer those to US ones of course.

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#277

Post by jellicle »

Uehreka wrote: post #109
SomeStupidPoint wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any basis for your last point? I legitimately don't know many of my passwords, there's no legal obligation to know them, and the law generally cant compel you to do impossible things (eg, tell them something you don't know). They can subpoena my password safe, just like any other file on my computer, and possibly require I unlock it (this is disputed), but I don't see any reason they can demand I reproduc…

The law only exists to the extent that it is enforced. If customs says "give us your passwords or you're not coming through" and you don't have a lawyer handy, then "give us your passwords or you're not coming through" is now the law (until a judge overturns it and possibly charges the officer for breaking another law). If you can call a lawyer and don't mind waiting several hours, you can challenge it. However most…

If you call a lawyer in such a situation, they'll tell you that Customs has 100% discretion to admit or deny non-citizens and there is no such thing as "challenging" it.

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#278

Post by [deleted] »

tajen wrote: post #271
Beltiras wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might be forced to in the fall. There's a conference within my industry held in San Fransisco in the fall. There really is no substitute elsewhere within a reasonable timeframe. I plan to have no devices with me on the flight. I'll buy a cheap Android and a burner SIM. Before flying home I'll toss the phone. "Give me liberty or give me death" has been subverted into "Give me security and I'll give you my freedom".

It's all up to you. But I personally chose not to go to US conferences because of the TSA. The risk of being jailed is real: If you chuckle while they ask questions then lose your temper because he's not happy and you lack sleep; If you have a false name on Facebook (Are you lying about your identity to any US company?); If you know the wrong person; If you've watched underage porn (knowing that even with above-age p…

[deleted]

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#279

Post by kayfox »

smsm42 wrote: post #170
danm07 wrote: post #137

I'm Canadian running a company in California, and every time I cross the border, I get pulled into the office for an hour. There was one time last year where I got detained for 8 because they didn't believe that a college dropout could run a company, even calling me "full of shit" at one point. They had my computer and went through my email one by one asking me to cite specific dates of employment at 3am in the morni…

Can't you use NEXUS to avoid all contact with them?

If you have been rejected recently you will be pulled in for secondary screening even if your on NEXUS.

Also, its difficult to get a NEXUS card if you have been rejected recently, but they wont take yours away for being turned back unless you did something against the rules of the program like fraudulently applied for a visa.

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#280

Post by jessriedel »

kalleboo wrote: post #131
everythingspun wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The DHS under the direction of the President. Are you suggesting that the US needs looser border controls and screening?

The US has very inconsistent border controls and screening. On one hand, people arriving from wealthy countries at airports get hassled, on the other hand, there isn't any exit border control (I hear that's changing). So they don't even know who left or not. Sanctuary cities for illegal immigrants exist. Employers don't need to verify identity. None of it is really coherent.

> there isn't any exit border control

There is, but it's done electronically by monitoring passenger records. It's very difficult to exit the US without creating a paper trail, which is vacuum up, so the DHS definitely has info (albeit noisy) when aliens don't leave.

https://www.quora.com/Why-does-the-US-not-have-immigration-c...

One reason not to interview people when they are leaving is philosophical, or slippery slope, depending on your political persuasion. Exit restrictions are obviously very disturbing, being classic precursors to fascism/dictatorships, and generally immoral. (Yes, there are cases where people commit crimes or otherwise shirk duties and the state has a justification for preventing their departure, but these are relatively rare.)

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