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Ex-Mozilla CTO: I was grilled for three hours at US airport by border cops

theregister.co.uk

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Re: Ex-Mozilla CTO: I was grilled for three hours at US airport by border cops

#201

Post by orwin »

saiya-jin wrote: post #62
a012 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or simply just leave yours at home, buy a burner phone on arrival.

For business? Yes if I have to, but thank god I don't. For leisure? I mean, seriously, who would shell their own free time and money and risk being treated like this? You get 1000x better treatment in Iran as a visitor for example. In fact, any country not currently in some sort of civil war is a better idea for a visit than US.

People in Charleston WV are super nice (but we were caucasian so it might have helped). They might be _sightly_ surprised that someone from another country chose their place as a vacation/tourist spot however (despite amazing rivers).

Re: Ex-Mozilla CTO: I was grilled for three hours at US airport by border cops

#202

Post by Datenstrom »

mcv wrote: post #24
ape4 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can they ask for online logins?

Maybe, but you can also hand those over to a trusted party. Would be nice if email services lets you lock your email account until a trusted party unlocks it again.

Why does this make me think of Harry Potter, the Fidelius Charm, and the secret keeper. Is this really what things have to come to?

Re: Ex-Mozilla CTO: I was grilled for three hours at US airport by border cops

#203

Post by _zskd »

linsomniac wrote: post #128

I was once randomly selected for screening at Chicago Midway, that quickly became shockingly specific: "Do you know that professor at DePaul that teaches Python?" "Do you mean Massimo Di Pierro?" "Yeah, I think that was his name." "I've met him a few times..." At this point it all seems very surreal. "He was through here a few weeks ago and had stickers on his laptop that were like yours." Ooooh...

Haha that is a name I have not seen in a while! I was a student of his at DePaul. Great guy! Massimo is awesome!

Re: Ex-Mozilla CTO: I was grilled for three hours at US airport by border cops

#204

Post by cyberfart »

mikeash wrote: post #14

Quick reminder: US citizens have an absolute right to reenter the country. Customs can temporarily detain you, but they cannot refuse entry. Any threat, whether implied or stated, that they will hold you until you unlock your device is not real. They can hold your stuff indefinitely, so be prepared to lose it if you go this route, but never unlock your device based on the idea that it’s the only way to go free. Non-c…

Can they deny entry to a non citizen and hold their stuff?

Re: Ex-Mozilla CTO: I was grilled for three hours at US airport by border cops

#205

Post by alehul »

alex_hitchins wrote: post #116
DigiMortal wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We lead the world in R&D, we aren't in a surveillance state like China (~1.3B people), we aren't undeveloped, we have the US dollar - the commanding world currency. We develop the best military technology, space technology, most all technology. We issue the most patents, by far. We (as people) have more rights than most all other nations and we led many other rights to attain rights for their own citizens. We protect…

I think you left the /s from that post. I don't believe you can seriously believe such statements.

> I don't believe you can seriously believe such statements.

While the parent commenter's tone was extremely glorifying, do you _not_ believe that the U.S. leads the world in R&D? Or that China _is_ a surveillance state, and one in which the citizens have much less in terms of rights? Does the U.S. not hold the most patents?

At least half of his statements aren't even subjective ones... Are you berating him for his content, or his tone? This seems like the opposite of the Principle of Charity, which is what HN was built upon.

Re: Ex-Mozilla CTO: I was grilled for three hours at US airport by border cops

#206

Post by jeltz »

everdrive wrote: post #137
a012 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or simply just leave yours at home, buy a burner phone on arrival.

The other thing to consider is that a burner phone will look quite suspicious.

They are just cheap smartphones these days. Do they really profile people because their smartphones look too cheap?

Re: Ex-Mozilla CTO: I was grilled for three hours at US airport by border cops

#207

Post by xeeeeeeeeeeenu »

geofft wrote: post #178
mav3rick wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Winning wars is also about strategy not just technology. Also, Russia was an ally in WW2, it demanded reparations. These two are unrelated and historical facts.

Good points. Military technology isn't that important, therefore the US continues to be the best country because it has the best military technology. Also, it's okay that the US didn't defend Europe from Communism because it was allied with the Communists.

So you are saying that USA should have started WW3 immediately after WW2?

Re: Ex-Mozilla CTO: I was grilled for three hours at US airport by border cops

#208

Post by schoen »

Diederich wrote: post #170
Cerium wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All flights that stop in the USA require all passengers to clear customs before continuing their journey.

I had no idea, thank you.

This is often called "sterile transit" (the ability to depart the airport without passing through immigration), and the U.S. and Mexico (and apparently Canada) don't allow this, while generally European and Asian countries do.

https://wikitravel.org/en/Avoiding_a_transit_of_the_United_S...

Re: Ex-Mozilla CTO: I was grilled for three hours at US airport by border cops

#209

Post by busterarm »

darksaints wrote: post #151
busterarm wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better, have a secure server at home and ansible playbooks to set up laptops (including getting any minor secrets that you need onto that laptop. Restrict more important stuff to just ssh). If your threat model doesn't include physical tampering/rootkits, just wipe your devices pre-travel and set it up when you get where you're going. If it does and you can afford to mitigate that risk, arrange to have cheap new devi…

If you're going that route, why not just create a disk image and scp it from your server? Certainly a lot easier than trying to rebuild everything from scratch.

An ansible playbook gives you much more flexibility to get to the same place. The one I run takes a mere 3-5 minutes to run (typically) regardless of where I am in the world.

Re: Ex-Mozilla CTO: I was grilled for three hours at US airport by border cops

#210

Post by cylinder »

Diederich wrote: post #84
thebooktocome wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, don't fly through the US to get to that conference in Canada.

Is it a risk if you stay in the airport, in the secure zone? (Whatever it's called...I've flown rarely over the past couple of decades.)

There is no transit visa to the US. Everyone landing goes through customs and immigration regardless of whether you are connecting to another flight.
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