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How to lock down your phone if you're traveling to the U.S.
31–40 of 363 posts
Re: How to lock down your phone if you're traveling to the U.S.
#32"Motorola moto g play 2024 Smartphone, Android 14 Operating System, Termux, And cryptsetup: Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS) Encryption/Decryption And The ext4 Filesystem Without Using root Access, Without Using proot-distro, And Without Using QEMU": https://old.reddit.com/r/MotoG/comments/1jkl0f8/motorola_mot... (old.reddit.com/r/MotoG/comments/1jkl0f8/motorola_moto_g_play_2024_smartphone_android_14/)
the same phone, but with nothing usefull or important on it, no apps with personal info
banking done through email sign in.....everything done through email sign in
switching my email to webmail sign in, so there will be nothing on the device at all
just random pics, sd card,music, meaningless files for jobs
plus there is no password or encryption, want it?
have it.......sims got a pass code though
Re: How to lock down your phone if you're traveling to the U.S.
#33This article is a nice reminder that free speech is awesome. Also, it is terribly unhelpful and uninformative. Schneier’s blog post on this has tons of useful information in the comments: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2025/04/cell-phone-op... The EFF wrote the canonical guide to this in 2017: https://www.eff.org/wp/digital-privacy-us-border-2017 . I don’t know if it has been updated, but there is a lot that’…
As a US citizen it is still a bit useful. You cannot be denied entry (CBP has told me they would deny me entry, but in the end they just threaten to revoke your passport which is also a lie). If they have decided they want to search your phone, they will tell you that you just have to answer the questions and they will let you out in time to catch your next flight or whatever. The truth is they are vicious liars, as I have found out, once they are that suspicious you have already missed your connection. Once you are in secondary they are usually going to fuck you no matter what so might as well assert your rights.
Re: How to lock down your phone if you're traveling to the U.S.
#34> Data copied from devices during advanced searches at entry points into the U.S. gets saved for 15 years in a database searchable by thousands of CBP employees without a warrant.
This is incredibly sketchy. As a non-American (Canadian), I think I’d probably just prefer to be refused entry to the US at that point.
Re: How to lock down your phone if you're traveling to the U.S.
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
This would be useful beyond getting in and out of customs too. For instance, most people don't want to carry around a work phone and a personal phone, so we end up mixing two personas on one device, and it gets awful. For instance I keep two 2fa apps, one for work stuff and one for personal stuff. It would be so much easier if I could have a separate login that showed just my work apps. Like ... wouldn't it be nice t…
Recent enough Androids have this "Work Profile" feature. You get two app stores, and work apps get little "work" overlay. There are separate lock settings and sound/notification settings for work profiles too - I think this means you can have simple pincode for personal stuff and more complex for work one. And you can turn off all work apps at once with a single button press. And if your admin gives "remote wipe" com…
You can use Shelter to create your own work profile: https://f-droid.org/packages/net.typeblog.shelter/
Sadly it doesn't seem to work on all phones.
Re: How to lock down your phone if you're traveling to the U.S.
#36"Locking down" is almost always a bad approach when it comes to border crossings. You have very little rights at the border, so keeping your phone locked and refusing to divulge the 20 characters password isn't really an option. Even without the threat of detaining you, they can refuse entry (if you're not a citizen/permanent resident), or seize your $1000 phone/laptop. Far better to wipe your phone and restore from…
What happens if it looks freshly wiped?
Re: How to lock down your phone if you're traveling to the U.S.
#37"Locking down" is almost always a bad approach when it comes to border crossings. You have very little rights at the border, so keeping your phone locked and refusing to divulge the 20 characters password isn't really an option. Even without the threat of detaining you, they can refuse entry (if you're not a citizen/permanent resident), or seize your $1000 phone/laptop. Far better to wipe your phone and restore from…
Does anyone more knowledgable know if US citizen 5th amendment rights still applies at the border, i.e. I can't legally be compelled to unlock my phone at the US border? Law is not my area of expertise at all. (The article might have addressed this but it's behind a paywall.)
Thanks in advance.
Re: How to lock down your phone if you're traveling to the U.S.
#38> Don’t just take a wiped phone Oh, and if I don't have (bring) a phone at all?
Because phones are really useful.
I've got an old blackberry lying around somewhere. Even though that helps with "can you communicate at all with people not in shouting distance", there's a lot of stuff that just presumes you have the ability to install an app or visit a website — and that blackberry is so old that its web browser can't handle current standard HTTPS encryption.
Re: How to lock down your phone if you're traveling to the U.S.
#39The US is hardly the only country where this is the case and locking down your phone is almost entirely pointless (see xkcd #538). If you're concerned about having it searched, don't bring your primary phone. Go to a phone shop, buy an old phone, put your SIM card in it, and use that instead.
Not really how I expect to have to act before I enter the 'Land of the free'.
Re: How to lock down your phone if you're traveling to the U.S.
#40I'm just not going to go to the US frankly. Only reason I would is tourism, and I like my vacations harassment & risk of detainment free
Same. I wish I had visited the US back in the days, especially pre-9/11 times when flying was super hassle free and people were optimistic about the future.
Sadly I was still quite young. Oh well, there are many other beautiful countries in the Americas. And especially south-America is substantially cheaper.