Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Social Media Needs a Travel Mode

idlewords.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 228 posts

Re: Social Media Needs a Travel Mode

#171

Post by MBlume »

Oxitendwe wrote: post #158
tptacek wrote: post #4

To be effective, this would need to become a kind of norm for overseas travelers, the same way traveler's checks used to be. The idea would be that just as you don't carry a bag with your birth certificate, stock certificates, property titles, and jewelry with you, you also don't carry a 10 year archive of every email you've ever sent or a detailed list of every person you've ever spoken to. In particular, it needs t…

>even in the happiest timeline we could have ended up on after 2016 I'm not really sure why you mentioned this, did something bad happen?

Yes, an incompetent autoocrat got elected to the highest government office of the most powerful nation on earth. You almost certainly already knew this.

Re: Social Media Needs a Travel Mode

#172

Post by TillE »

idlewords wrote: post #100
dingaling wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you keep stating but there is no codified limit short of 'indefinite'. Imagine I am a CBP agent. State your argument that I must release you after, say, 23 hours

US Marshal arriving with a court order compelling my release.

That worked so well when this exact situation happened weeks ago.

Re: Social Media Needs a Travel Mode

#173

Post by skewart »

I'm curious about a couple of things:

1. I far as I understand there is legal precedent establishing that electronic devices are basically the same as suitcases, and both can be searched at the border (i.e. in the same way that border agents can rummage through a backpack looking for drugs, they can rummage through a laptop's hard drive looking for evidence of drug dealing). The key idea is that objects brought across the border are fair game for search. However, wouldn't accessing social media accounts require fetching data over the internet from a data center somewhere? Maybe there is some info cached locally on the phone, but for them to, say, look through a traveler's post history they'd have to access data that is _not_ being brought across the border. How is this different from border agents finding a house key in a traveler's bag and then using that key to go to the traveler's house, open it, and search everything they find there?

2. Searching the data on the device is one thing. Asking a traveler to provide passwords seems completely different. It seems like a pretty clear 5th amendment violation. There's a lot of precedent protecting people from being compelled to speak.

Just to be clear, I'm wondering about this for US citizens returning home. Obviously all bets are off for non-citizens.

Re: Social Media Needs a Travel Mode

#174

Post by peteretep »

tedunangst wrote: post #145
kasey_junk wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think it's crazy that people walk around with phones that have access to years of email communications You think its crazy in you wish you (and everyone else) had a viable alternative? Or, you think its crazy in that you do something else that others don't do? If the latter, what do you do?

I have tar files of old maildirs, but they're encrypted and backed up and not readily accessible. My regular mail client has access to a smaller set of mails. Of course this requires an email setup that allows such easy bulk operations, which gmail isn't really.

I have the same setup with gmail. It really wasn't that hard to export a chunk by date, upload it to tarsnap, and delete the originals

Re: Social Media Needs a Travel Mode

#175

Post by bigiain »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #61
ksenzee wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that CBP does not have access to all the data NSA has gathered. If they did, we wouldn't be talking about this at all; they'd already have everything they wanted.

Relying on dysfunctional communication between portions of government doesn't seem like a sustainable strategy.

I've already accepted that if the NSA is interested in me, they'll acquire _any_ cloud hosted data about me (and if they're a little more curious, most likely every bit of non-cloud data stored on my personal hardware too).

I _still_ want to be able to defend myself and the people in my social graph against a bored/curious/vindictive/power-tripping CBP agent looking for excuses to meet their "must reject at least $N bearded border crossers per shift" quotas...

Re: Social Media Needs a Travel Mode

#176

Post by Kluny »

Instead of that, I'd like a way to clone everything on my phone and save it on a USB. Every app, logins, contacts, photos, settings, factory updates, wallpaper, lock screen password, everything, in an encrypted archive that I can put on a USB in my checked baggage, or mail ahead to my destination, upload to my personal server, whatever. Then I'll just do a factory reset, install some cover apps, and go. Then reinstall my backup when I get where I'm going.

The Android backup feature that comes with the phone backs up contacts and photos, but it's very incomplete. Settings, saved logins, and other stuff gets lost. You have to reinstall swype every time. It's too inconvenient to use the way I've described. Other phone cloning apps exist, but a cursory google search only finds ones that require two phones, rather than a phone and a PC.

Re: Social Media Needs a Travel Mode

#177

Post by mayneack »

Kluny wrote: post #176

Instead of that, I'd like a way to clone everything on my phone and save it on a USB. Every app, logins, contacts, photos, settings, factory updates, wallpaper, lock screen password, everything, in an encrypted archive that I can put on a USB in my checked baggage, or mail ahead to my destination, upload to my personal server, whatever. Then I'll just do a factory reset, install some cover apps, and go. Then reinstal…

If border patrol can ask for your password, can they just sign in on a different device?

Re: Social Media Needs a Travel Mode

#178

Post by vosper »

NeutronBoy wrote: post #15
idlewords wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please read the entire post.

I understand, but their default response for "You've done something to hide information from us" isn't going to be "Oh well, we tried. On your way!"

Exactly. They'll just take you to a computer they control and make you login there. Or there'll be a law that requires an override authority.

Re: Social Media Needs a Travel Mode

#179

Post by fakeshoes »

kefka wrote: post #106

(Read on the screen) "$Company noticed an intrusion by the US Federal Agents, Border Guards, and have marked this as a compromised account. Please have your designated friend, if set, to authenticate your account." Its now out of the persons sphere to fix, even if coerced. And companies can defend this by fact of an Acceptable Use Agreement violation itself is breaking a federal law: CFAA. That, and it seems the only…

And if you're a permanent resident with a green card or any other type of visa, you won't be allowed in at all. All these solutions assuming you're a citizen aren't all that helpful to every other person.

Re: Social Media Needs a Travel Mode

#180

Post by [deleted] »

tedunangst wrote: post #153
krapp wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook and Google also cooperate closely with the US government, law enforcement, intelligence services and state department. How can they be part of the solution when they're part of the problem?

If they already have unlimited access to your account, they wouldn't need to ask for the password. But ok, fine, stipulate that the US knows everything. The feature is still useful for people going to Canada.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN