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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.

#101

Post by BrandoElFollito »

antris wrote: post #81
BrandoElFollito wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does this has to do with the topic of trying to be clever with the border police with some tricks to conceal information? (as opposed to not having it in the first place) Otherwise yes, you are right - they are bullies.

It has to do with your argument of "if you don't like it, don't go there". Also, you specifically asked "who came for you" so it's direct answer to your question.

Well yes, just don't go there with incriminating devices.

They will try to bully us in many other ways but this has nothing to do with the devices and how to hide stuff.

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

#102

Post by miros_love »

Not sure about CBP specifically, but many countries already use specialized tools to break into phones and silently install backdoors — Cellebrite comes to mind.

As my favorite blogger puts it: "If the data is important, it's not stored in only one place. If there's no backup, it wasn't important." With that in mind, wiping the device and filling the gallery with high-resolution images of genitals covered in excrement remains one of the more effective passive defense strategies.

Jokes aside, it's depressing that crossing borders often means giving up fundamental digital privacy — and that we've largely normalized this. The idea that any government agent can dig through your phone without a warrant just because you're crossing a line on a map is dystopian at best.

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

#103

Post by BrandoElFollito »

buyucu wrote: post #84
BrandoElFollito wrote: post #57

Also known as "how to visit detention centers". The amount of bad advice here is staggering. You are not James Bond or some kind of ninja Seals secret agent. You are a nobody attempting to enter a country, and you will be pissing off the border police. Have some common sense.

Common sense is suspending US travel. I did that last month.

So did I - and I kinda liked the place (not the border police, it seemed as if they hated me and hated the fact that I was coming to spend money there).

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

#105

Post by unethical_ban »

itscrush wrote: post #17
pretzellogician wrote: post #13

I've often wondered if there's a supported way to have a honeypot passcode, i.e., a secondary passcode that leads to a relatively empty account. (Although as per the article, a fully wiped account looks suspicious -- it would need some innocuous apps or apps with no login info, etc.)

Certainly doable, grapheneOS has it https://grapheneos.org/features#duress .

I really want to respond to the dead comment under this.

Setting a duress password is not tedious.

AFAIK the justification for them to say "don't rely on adblockers for security/privacy" is that you can be more easily fingerprinted and those adblock lists are a moving target, vs. having better sandbox capabilities in the browser.

The rest is conjecture I don't have the motivation to debate at the moment.

As for the rest of the article... just get a second phone if this is a major concern, or wipe the phone and have it be perfectly clean when you go through customs. The only thing you need to remember is the password + a single TOTP backup code (write that one down maybe) to restore your cloud password safe (which you should have) then you can get access to all your other data from there.

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

#106

Post by gorgoiler »

IncandescentGas wrote: post #59
gorgoiler wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Your phone could become damaged and inoperable every day. From dropping it in the toilet, being stolen, a house fire, etc. If you're "petrified" of losing your data, it's worth the work to ensure your data backup procedures are adequate.

You’re right, but also I know I have enough backed up to survive a catastrophe. What I don’t want to do is to test my backup in a non catastrophe situation and invalidate all my TOTP, WhatsApp history, mail settings etc. just because I wanted to test disaster recovery.

It feels like buying a fire safe (phone and app backups) without any kind of understanding if it works then burning your house down to see if it works. I want a fire safe (phone and app backups) that is up-front with guarantees it works!

I should have said this by the way: for a long time I did wipe my phone when crossing borders, learning the hard way all the little details that don’t quite work properly when doing a restore from backups.

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

#107

Post by NoImmatureAdHom »

The situation at the U.S. border re phone privacy is exceptionally good. In most countries this isn't a live issue because you have no such rights and everyone would laugh at you for asserting them. There are exceptions, perhaps Germany? In Britain they'll throw you in prison for refusing to give them your phone password, and if you do they'll throw you in prison for the wrongthink tweets they find on your phone.

Should Americans be subject to search-for-no-reason at their own border? No, and I hope that as these border issues work their way through the legal system this will get sorted out. Please note that the CBP can say whatever they want about you having to give them a phone password, but you don't have to. They might keep your phone for a while and fuck around with it.

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

#108

Post by vzaliva »

One thing I would definetely do is to secure my password manager. This would minimise potential exposure in the future in case your phone is backed up in some government database. 1Password have a feature for that: https://support.1password.com/travel-mode/

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

#109

Post by tantalor »

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…

> refusing to divulge the 20 characters password isn't really an option

> wipe your phone and restore from backup

If they can compel you to divulge the password, then they can compel you to restore from backup in front of them.

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

#110

Post by lawlessone »

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #76
lawlessone wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Have some common sense. The common sense would be don't go to countries where you risk being immediately sent home or to a slave colony in El Salvador for writing something mean about its president.

Oh yes, this is one of the possible solutions with common sense. This is what I decided to do BTW.

You made the right choice, I didn't mean to sound critical of you, more the situation.

Its sad but people taking these other measures are rolling dice every time they go. Negotiating the leopard.

my biggest worry entering and leaving my own country is that my bag was lost, or theres a queue.

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