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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

#291
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All those things are. The question is, how much do these things affect the above? This has been going on since W Bush on; the Obama and to the present, and as of yet, the impact would seem surmountable, i.e. negated by the majority of people who travel anyway and conduct business anyway.

Your life was not online as much that is changing. Facebook didn't even exist under Bush

I had a Facebook account before Bush won his second election, in 2004.

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

#292
post #30

I'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 peo…

If you're interested, I'd be glad to ship you tins of Tim Hortons' coffee. I don't think I could ship donuts, but I could fill your coffee pots...my email is in my profile!!

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

#293
post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are the countries on the continent of South America not generally considered a part of Latin America? Technically, every country in South America is considered a part of Latin America except British Guyana, Suriname, and France. Not including islands like the Malvinas or the ABC islands, of course. --- I should have specified one single flight. Of course you can fly to Dubai from São Paulo and then to Seoul or to Syd…

> France French Guiana?

French Guiana is the departement (and region) of France that is on the South American continent. It is as much a part of France as e.g. Alaska is of the USA.

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

#294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OTOH, not changing all your passwords after having to divulge them under duress is pretty careless, too.

The problem isn't the changing part. The problem is that if there are any shared passwords or patterns you have, they are now stored forever in their database. One can't only act after going through, one has to change all their passwords to throwaway passwords before going through the border.

Wait what? Why are you sharing passwords?

That is poor password security right there, even before giving your master key to some rando.

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

#295
post #162
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's how most countries are. For the most part the US is the exception for industrialized countries in that it's easy to work illegally because the gov does not enforce verification very hard and does not penalize employers often. I know countries I've been to, even if you could avoid interacting with authorities, there's no way to get other gov services while not having proper visas --ie, education, housing assist…

US has very strong political opposition to denying services to illegal immigrants in many states. Given how many there are, in is understandable - if you have 10 million population, you can not just deny them all healthcare or access to housing. That'd create tons of problems. It could be done if tightening the rules is combined with finding solution for having so many illegal immigrants, one way or another (in vario…

I think you and parent are talking about separate things. They say, "housing assistance," and you say, "access to housing."

Housing assistance is a government service. Access to housing would mean controlling the private housing market, I guess.

Those are very different ideas in terms of feasibility, morality, economics, etc.

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

#296
post #265
post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. When you travel from EU to Canada or US there is no significant difference. Measery on both borders.

I think the main difference (speaking from the biased perspective of a Canadian) is that US border guards seem to want to get angry. Whilst Canadian guards have a "what we're doing is necessary, but we want to be nice" attitude. Unfortunately Canada's awful security policy comes because we need to be "up to US standards", or else we risk huge barriers being put in the middle of our trade relationship due to US parano…

As an American who has made three land crossings in to Canada, I can say that Canadian Border Agents treat Americans in the same way that American Border Agents treat Canadians.

My first crossing in to Canada was riding with my girlfriend and her parents, all Canadian citizens. It was maybe 10 PM, crossing from Maine to New Brunswick. The Canadian agent was very friendly to my three companions with Canadian passports, but immediately become agitated when she saw my US passport. It struck me as quite odd how rude she was to me given how she had no suspicion of the other three people in the car with me. I wasn't driving the car, I was in the back seat listening to music on an MP3 player.

I've decided it isn't so much that Canadians feel the need to be "up to US standards," as much as it is they feel the need to treat US citizens with the same contempt that the US treats Canadian citizens.

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

#297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> one flight from Latin America to east Asia Are the countries on the continent of South America not generally considered a part of Latin America? Because there are other options from Santiago, Sao Paolo, Rio, etc. to Tokyo. Some of the options are on Air Canada, with a stop in Toronto which avoids U.S. airports but presumably not U.S. airspace so there may still be some additional scrutiny at departure. You don't ac…

Are the countries on the continent of South America not generally considered a part of Latin America? Technically, every country in South America is considered a part of Latin America except British Guyana, Suriname, and France. Not including islands like the Malvinas or the ABC islands, of course. --- I should have specified one single flight. Of course you can fly to Dubai from São Paulo and then to Seoul or to Syd…

[deleted]

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

#298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

There is one flight from Latin America to east Asia. Aeromexico flies from Mexico City to Tokyo and Shanghai alternately with their 787s. (ANA is adding a NRT-MEX flight this winter also.) But there are many, many connecting flights through DFW, Houston, LAX, and SFO. The direct flight costs upwards of $500 more, often a 60% or higher premium. That's the value of avoiding transit through the USA and the visa and CIS…

As others mentioned, this is plain wrong. I live in Uruguay and the best routes to Asia are from Santiago de Chile with LATAM, no need to go to the U.S.

If you mean direct flights to Tokyo, yes there are no Santiago to Tokyo flights.

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

#299
technical solution: "clean personal data images as a service" wherein you start an app which creates a new partition, encrypts your old partition, then hides it until you explicitly decide to unhide it. the new partition is populated with apps from the cloud and contains already-logged in fake/clean social media profiles, which are set up automatically for you when you sign up for the service. the clean profiles are connected to other profiles from the same service, allowing for a randomized network of people to stand in for your friends. because you may be questioned about your friends, you're given a secret code (a picture, color, or symbol in the fake friend's picture) and a secret narrative based off of that code (how you know them, what they are like, etc). the software arranges your networks ahead of time so that someone else's profile will corroborate your narrative about them.

you act compliant and give your passwords to the new partition and the fake social media accounts to the pigs, who are easily fooled by the appearance of reality and your ability to explain the people in your network. the pigs feel good, and you're out the door. once you're out, reactivate the old partition and wipe the fake one. the premium edition makes fake social media posts for you every once in a while so it's even less suspicious.

social solution: don't visit the US, and tell other people not to visit.

political solution: destroy the surveillance state / police state by enshrining new rights for the digital age. this won't happen.

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