171–180 of 398 posts
on a completely different note:
I chuckled when I saw that it comes from a gay website with the directed advertisement that is typically associated with this life style!
I wonder what kind of advertisement will be directed at me as a consequence of reading this article^^
After many unpleasant dealings with US Customs, I avoid flying to or through the US completely even if it costs me more. The last time I flew from Canada to Singapore through the US, the US Customs officer - on Canadian soil - was hostile, asked me numerous questions about my travel, itinerary, who I was intending to meet, and my personal finances. When I questioned if all this was necessary as I'm not even traveling…
Well to be fair when I was visiting Canada from EU I got asked exactly same questions from Canadian customs.
I'm Canadian running a company in California, and every time I cross the border, I get pulled into the office for an hour. There was one time last year where I got detained for 8 because they didn't believe that a college dropout could run a company, even calling me "full of shit" at one point. They had my computer and went through my email one by one asking me to cite specific dates of employment at 3am in the morni…
what does this even accomplish? Are there quotas for rejecting people? The only reasonable explanation apart from quotas I can come up with is that they want to harass people.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And for people who are not US citizens, the solution is pretty simple too: Don't travel to the US.
This. If travel is avoidable or exchangeable for another destination, just don't go to the states. As a EU citizen that visited Iran last year I'm no longer eligible for ESTA (visaless entry) and that - combined with these horrific border control policies - honestly made the threshold for me to visit so high, I'll probably never visit again.
-My work takes me to most places where there are - or suspected to be - hydrocarbons to be found. When visiting Iran a couple of years ago, the immigration officer leafed through my passport and burst out laughing halfway through.
Obviously, I got somewhat concerned - but upon looking up and seeing my worried face, he handed me my passport back and with a chuckle suggested that if he could offer a bit of professional advice, it was that my passport read like an appplication to go to Guantanamo - and I had better get a new one before attempting to visit the US again... (Prior to Iran, I'd been to places like Libya, Algeria, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Indonesia and Uzbekistan.)
Here's what I want: A way to hit a button and have the contents of my laptop or phone encrypted locally, shipped off to some secure cloud storage, and then purged from my laptop. I'll take the empty device through. I can just tell them that it's a gift for a friend, or something work asked me to bring over to a co-worker. Then when I'm on the other side, I hit the button... download, decrypt, and restore my stuff --…
Moreover, if you tell them anything but the truth about the device and how it ended up empty, you've just committed a felony and if they ever find out about it by any means, they have grounds to deny you entry forever. They probably also have grounds to prosecute you but that never happens, entry ban though does happen.
After many unpleasant dealings with US Customs, I avoid flying to or through the US completely even if it costs me more. The last time I flew from Canada to Singapore through the US, the US Customs officer - on Canadian soil - was hostile, asked me numerous questions about my travel, itinerary, who I was intending to meet, and my personal finances. When I questioned if all this was necessary as I'm not even traveling…
>asked me numerous questions about my travel, itinerary, who I was intending to meet, and my personal finances. Well to be fair when I was visiting Canada from EU I got asked exactly same questions from Canadian customs.
Do we even know if this true? Seems improbable to me.
For example:
Everyone proposing clever technical solutions. Burner phones and encrypted cloud data etc... you are solving the wrong problem. Instead of engineering a way for the few people who care deeply to avoid this at great effort, engineer a way for this to not be legal. Write your congressperson, donate time and money to political parties, make privacy at the border for ALL (not just citizens) a priority in every election.
And for people who are not US citizens, the solution is pretty simple too: Don't travel to the US.
This confirms things further. It's a shame, I'd like to visit some places in the US.
Even though my email is full of mundane things, I'm really uncomfortable with giving the password to some unaccountable bureaucrat.
There's also the weirdly puritanical aspect, they were obsessed with the idea he was a sex worker and blocked him for that reason.
Everyone proposing clever technical solutions. Burner phones and encrypted cloud data etc... you are solving the wrong problem. Instead of engineering a way for the few people who care deeply to avoid this at great effort, engineer a way for this to not be legal. Write your congressperson, donate time and money to political parties, make privacy at the border for ALL (not just citizens) a priority in every election.
I'm not US citizen. I have no one to contact and no one cares about me. And I will never travel to USA.