Live data from Hacker News

US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search

techspot.com

651–660 of 1001 posts

Re: US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search

#651
post #383

I co-wrote a border search guide for EFF some years ago. I was very interested in finding clever technical approaches but I later ended up feeling that I hadn't given enough thought to the overall threat model questions (even though the guide did address them, perhaps even somewhat usefully). The big picture problem is that the agents performing the searches have an enormous amount of power in terms of potentially se…

So I guess what you really want is a duress PIN that loads into a fake innocent profile.

Not enough, e.g. when crossing the Russian border (even as a citizen) your phone can be connected via USB to a device that uses exploits and whatnot to download all of the data. Surely US border guard can do something similar.

And using encryption will only make you more suspicious, and may be a reason to get jail time until the situation is "cleared up" one way or another (e.g. by getting even more jail time).

Only a second phone works, if you can make it seem like a device you're actually using (though also not a silver bullet as e.g. a lot of messenger metadata is available to governments and border control can physically coerce you to log in to your real accounts)

Re: US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search

#653
post #560

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting. I don't even know most of my passwords (thanks to password managers).

Don't worry, they can ask for that password too :D

Yes, but that one has 2FA, and I might not travel with that second factor on me.

Of course, they won't be amused.

Re: US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search

#654

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like an insane thing to have to do for visiting a supposed first world country. If phones had been around during USSR times I imagine you would have had to do the same. Personally I will rather just avoid any travel to the US, and I hope others do the same.

The US is first world on a technicality: the first world is defined as countries that were allied with the US during the cold war. If not for that, it'd be classified as developing. It's common to mix up developing/developed and third/first world because they were largely aligned during the cold war. But there is one first-world developing country.

This is not true. However, because of the massive inequality, I often found it easy to use a sentence I saw somewhere: "the US is a South American country that happened to become successful".

Re: US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search

#655
post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that border searches of electronic devices are extremely rare overall. There were some statistics from CBP implying a base rate lower than 1 in 10,000 (I think lower than 1 in 100,000) border crossings. I do know two people who have experienced them as a result of the government taking a personal interest in them, so it's certainly not impossible. However, it's not a common experience. I've personally experience…

But why would that be legal? The device is owned by the individual. No judge signed any warrant search for the device. I can do what I want with my device - that is a basic right of property. Imagine if border guards seize money willy-nilly.

> Imagine if border guards seize money willy-nilly.

This jogged my memory, though I couldn't find the example I was thinking of. But here's an item that is pretty similar:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenaha,_Texas_asset_forfeiture...

Edit: Not on the border, btw. Just people travelling inside US. I guess it was their mistake to carry cash instead of getting a bank check or something.

Re: US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search

#657
post #383

I co-wrote a border search guide for EFF some years ago. I was very interested in finding clever technical approaches but I later ended up feeling that I hadn't given enough thought to the overall threat model questions (even though the guide did address them, perhaps even somewhat usefully). The big picture problem is that the agents performing the searches have an enormous amount of power in terms of potentially se…

> you may have to think both about protecting your data by technical means, and about not angering the agents more than you plan to That's the same problem with technical solutions to crime. I come from a very dangerous city and I used to have a car that needed a PIN to work. You could turn then engine on and drive but after a minute if you didn't input the PIN it would turn off without warning and start blasting the…

As one does. Why, six of the eleven times I've had my car stolen, it was a carjacking with myself or my family member in it.

Re: US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search

#660
post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can you share the link? This? https://www.eff.org/document/eff-border-search-pocket-guide ---- Seems the better strategy (for iOS) is come in with a plan to say yes to agents without pissing them off (like handing them an empty phone). better to local back up, encrypt, upload to your home server etc. Then login to a fresh iCloud account, selectively install apps, photos, and mail accounts. So it doesn't look like you…

who believes an empty phone?

You're right for non-citizens.

For citizens, no one needs to believe it. You give them your empty phone and they can't download your phone contents and contacts.

Post reply on HN