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New DHS policy on demands for passwords to travelers’ electronic devices

papersplease.org

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Re: New DHS policy on demands for passwords to travelers’ electronic devices

#31

Post by lethargic_meat »

nicolas_t wrote: post #25
jimnotgym wrote: post #18

I don't know if it worries my American chums, but I won't visit the USA. As a foreign tourist bringing money into your economy I feel there is a very real risk to my privacy and increasingly my person. I am beginning to favour goods and services from EU where human rights still mean something. Perhaps it doesn't matter to you how the US is perceived overseas, perhaps you don't want my money. Perhaps you don't mind be…

I sometimes have to go to the US for business purposes but from now on will only do so with a wiped computer with just enough installed to look like a normal user's data.

Just have multi-boot and before crossing set the auto-boot timeout at 0, then change it later. If you want to be safe, you can also copy and delete the boot details for your actual partition.

I leave a dummy partition with Windows, office and other shortcuts and a wallpaper of a cat during my US visits. I also have both a facebook and a gmail subscribed to all the spam you can get.

Not because I have any criminal activities but my customers deserve to have their information protected.

If authorities want to check my private and work data, they can ask nicely through a judge.

Re: New DHS policy on demands for passwords to travelers’ electronic devices

#32

Post by saurik »

MentallyRetired wrote: post #28
nicolas_t wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sometimes have to go to the US for business purposes but from now on will only do so with a wiped computer with just enough installed to look like a normal user's data.

wait, so you're actually a spy? What kind of user are you if not a normal one?

The wiped laptop certainly doesn't look like that of a normal user without adding stuff.

Re: New DHS policy on demands for passwords to travelers’ electronic devices

#33

Post by saguro »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #26
saguro wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

www.google.com/search?q=i+contacted+my+representative+site%3Areddit.com Knock yourself out. Spoiler alert: almost everyone reports getting a cookie-cutter email or scripted response about why the rep will stay the course. They clearly have an established strategy of how to handle the 'contact your rep' crowd and channel their efforts to /dev/null.

> almost everyone reports getting a cookie-cutter email or scripted response about why the rep will stay the course Who is “almost everyone”? Any personal experience? Mine involves getting a personal e-mail from my state Assemblyman, being patched in to the senior legislative aide to my U.S. Congresswoman who spoke to me at length about the issue, getting follow-up by e-mail to calls after the points I raised were di…

You're suggesting that your n=1 anecdote weighs more than those thousands of reddit stories? Or that my position is invalid because instead of engaging in another n=1 anecdote I aggregated the outcome of many?

For your one story, you can click the top few links of that search to see detailed accounts and full documented histories from representatives who are clearly systemically stonewalling this kind of activism. And judging by those counts, they are the majority.

Re: New DHS policy on demands for passwords to travelers’ electronic devices

#34

Post by dawnerd »

saguro wrote: post #16
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Talking to your representative is roughly as useful in curbing these things, as doing nothing at all Have you ever called your representatives?

www.google.com/search?q=i+contacted+my+representative+site%3Areddit.com Knock yourself out. Spoiler alert: almost everyone reports getting a cookie-cutter email or scripted response about why the rep will stay the course. They clearly have an established strategy of how to handle the 'contact your rep' crowd and channel their efforts to /dev/null.

Oh, reddit. Yeah... I'll believe everything I see there.

Yeah, some reps are bad and don't listen but I'm willing to bet most at least log down how many people complain about what. Having an attitude of contacting them does nothing only just makes things worse and has no potential upside. At least if you do "waste" your time contacting them you may have a change to do good.

Re: New DHS policy on demands for passwords to travelers’ electronic devices

#35

Post by tunareter »

rimliu wrote: post #20
tunareter wrote: post #17

For those who aren't US citizens, the advice in that article is absolutely terrible. Refuse to cooperate and you'll be on the next flight to whatever CBP deem is your home, and good luck ever getting an ESTA or Visa in future.

> and good luck ever getting an ESTA or Visa in future Would you want one after this anyway?

Maybe your employer has offices there.

Maybe you have relatives there.

Maybe you have clients there.

Or conferences, or other professional events.

Maybe you are even resident there.

Re: New DHS policy on demands for passwords to travelers’ electronic devices

#36

Post by easytiger »

saurik wrote: post #32
MentallyRetired wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wait, so you're actually a spy? What kind of user are you if not a normal one?

The wiped laptop certainly doesn't look like that of a normal user without adding stuff.

> normal user

The normal user browses the web and almost nothing else.

Re: New DHS policy on demands for passwords to travelers’ electronic devices

#37

Post by tallanvor »

b6 wrote: post #12

Absolutely not. Having lived outside the US for two years (so far), I halfway expect to encounter suspicion when I return. I absolutely will not stand for this. I will not cooperate and I will resist as much as possible, short of violence.

As someone who has been living overseas for over 11 years, I can honestly say that US border control and TSA have the most unprofessional and disrespectful employees I've encountered in my travels. It's unlikely they'll ask to check your electronics unless they suspect you've been someplace like Syria, Iraq, etc., but nevertheless they'll look for any reason at all to question you as if you're a criminal.

If foreign visitors get treated even half as poorly as I've been treated, and I'm sure they do, it's an embarrassment. I wish more Americans traveled overseas because if they experienced the difference between how we treat people vs how others do, they'd be properly outraged.

I stopped bothering even being polite to them after getting repeatedly questioned about my travels when I trying to get back home before my mother died. I'll be the first to admit that I often have trouble showing empathy, but these people make me look like a saint.

Re: New DHS policy on demands for passwords to travelers’ electronic devices

#38

Post by cinquemb »

saguro wrote: post #33
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> almost everyone reports getting a cookie-cutter email or scripted response about why the rep will stay the course Who is “almost everyone”? Any personal experience? Mine involves getting a personal e-mail from my state Assemblyman, being patched in to the senior legislative aide to my U.S. Congresswoman who spoke to me at length about the issue, getting follow-up by e-mail to calls after the points I raised were di…

You're suggesting that your n=1 anecdote weighs more than those thousands of reddit stories? Or that my position is invalid because instead of engaging in another n=1 anecdote I aggregated the outcome of many? For your one story, you can click the top few links of that search to see detailed accounts and full documented histories from representatives who are clearly systemically stonewalling this kind of activism. An…

I suspect that they're suggesting that your apparent disillusionment with the call your representatives process, whom have over time, enabled in part what we see before us today == being busy or lazy and that you are bragging about being busy or lazy, as if change could only happen by picking up phone and sending emails telling another how upset you are or that even if you did do the aforementioned and were received favorably by such representatives, you would be placated and faith in the process overall will be restored even without the actual change you seek even occurring.

Onlookers are to make of that what they will.

Re: New DHS policy on demands for passwords to travelers’ electronic devices

#39

Post by chrisper »

jimnotgym wrote: post #18

I don't know if it worries my American chums, but I won't visit the USA. As a foreign tourist bringing money into your economy I feel there is a very real risk to my privacy and increasingly my person. I am beginning to favour goods and services from EU where human rights still mean something. Perhaps it doesn't matter to you how the US is perceived overseas, perhaps you don't want my money. Perhaps you don't mind be…

Isn't it the same with Canada, though? I admit, I only watched those Border Patrol Shows on Netflix and what not, but it always disturbed me how much they always wanted to check the whole phone.
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