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How to lock down your phone if you're traveling to the U.S.

washingtonpost.com

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Re: How to lock down your phone if you're traveling to the U.S.

#41

Post by gorgoiler »

gruez wrote: post #4

"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…

I used to do this but these days I’m petrified of the restore being imperfect in some way.

I use the he.net app for TOTP. Will I get those back in working order?

I have a billion photos I want to keep — were they properly backed up to iCloud?

My mail settings are a pita to recreate. Will those come back?

Are passwords stored in the Secure Enclave? Could I lose those?

When I sign back into iCloud am I going to be able to use a username and password, or is it going to require me to approve the login on my laptop — which I left at home — as a second factor?

WhatsApp, Signal — how much is tied to my physical phone and/or any key material unique to the OS — material that is irretrievably lost, by design, when it is wiped.

I think really the long term answer is to stop using an opaque, closed source iPhone. Maybe some time in the next five years one will emerge that competes with Apple’s quality? Until then, every border crossing is going to risk handing over a huge part of my life to ICE because I can’t risk losing anything in a backup/restore hysteresis loop.

Post.: Another future direction would be for iOS and apps to recognise this as a common use case and provide guarantees about what is and what isn’t restorable after a wipe.

There’s also a conflict here between wiping data so that it is irretrievable and wiping data to later retrieve it. If you wipe with the intent to retrieve I can believe that immigration will just detain you until you restore your phone so that it can be searched.

Re: How to lock down your phone if you're traveling to the U.S.

#42

Post by ty6853 »

joshlemer wrote: post #36
gruez wrote: post #4

"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?

It's my experience that once you get sent to secondary they have already decided to fuck you, they are just deciding which flimsy excuse they will use to do it. My totally non-legal conjecture (and livid experience) is if you are a citizen they will play mind games with you in secondary or a holding cell for hours to a day or so and then eventually reluctantly release you after muttering threats about revoking your passport and/or not letting you in.

Re: How to lock down your phone if you're traveling to the U.S.

#43

Post by nico »

ty6853 wrote: post #33
vessenes wrote: post #21

This 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…

> might as well assert your rights

I wonder what could happen to citizens who weren’t born in the US

Given what we’ve seen recently. Could it be possible they would refer these people to the state department to revoke their citizenships?

Re: How to lock down your phone if you're traveling to the U.S.

#44

Post by [deleted] »

gruez wrote: post #4

"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…

[deleted]

Re: How to lock down your phone if you're traveling to the U.S.

#46

Post by sipofwater »

Havoc wrote: post #5

I'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

"‘It’s like our friend started a fist fight with us’: These Europeans are skipping US travel": https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/09/travel/european-travelers-ski... (www.cnn.com/2025/04/09/travel/european-travelers-skipping-us-trips/index.html)

Re: How to lock down your phone if you're traveling to the U.S.

#47

Post by NoTeslaThrow »

FWIW I wiped my phone entering the country and they ushered me right through anyway. Still, I was very concerned about finding texts from other people and getting them in trouble. I think the fear is the point more than the practicality as it stands.

Re: How to lock down your phone if you're traveling to the U.S.

#48

Post by [deleted] »

nico wrote: post #43
ty6853 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> might as well assert your rights I wonder what could happen to citizens who weren’t born in the US Given what we’ve seen recently. Could it be possible they would refer these people to the state department to revoke their citizenships?

[deleted]

Re: How to lock down your phone if you're traveling to the U.S.

#49

Post by dijit »

xnx wrote: post #15

Isn't it better to factory reset a phone before entering the US and then restore a backup?

Anything stored in secure storage would also be wiped.

Apple Pay cards and so forth, anything with 2FA codes, in Sweden we use "BankID" which is largely using a private key in secure storage and a pin to "sign" and "identify" people, you would be destroying those things in an unrecoverable way.

Also, restoring a phone takes a seriously long time (8-10hrs?) and some things might not restore. Music you might have saved for example.

Also, your restore process might be using the internet (which is also an issue), but if it's not: then you're bringing your backups with you most likely, so they're forfeit.

Re: How to lock down your phone if you're traveling to the U.S.

#50

Post by jeroenhd »

xnx wrote: post #15

Isn't it better to factory reset a phone before entering the US and then restore a backup?

Entering with a completely clean phone is suspicious. To any border patrol agent intent on abusing their power, that screams "I'm trying to hide something and want to be detained for an unspecified amount of time".

If you're trying to protect your data, probably better to set up a secondary, plaubile profile, and restore from backup after crossing the border. Or to take a burner phone and buy a completely new one inside the US after crossing.

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