They are also cancelling ESTA for security professionals without warning and the resulting visa application gets stuck in administrative processing for months due to a security flag.
Ex-Mozilla CTO: I was grilled for three hours at US airport by border cops
211–220 of 378 posts
Re: Ex-Mozilla CTO: I was grilled for three hours at US airport by border cops
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why wouldn't a rented laptop be trustworthy?
Because it's someone else's hardware, someone else's software, and someone else's firmware.
To be pedantic, unless you flashed coreboot it's not your own firmware and if you aren't using an open hardware laptop then it's not really your hardware either.
Re: Ex-Mozilla CTO: I was grilled for three hours at US airport by border cops
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or simply just leave yours at home, buy a burner phone on arrival.
The other thing to consider is that a burner phone will look quite suspicious.
Say that you take a burner when traveling abroad because you don't trust foreign governments to accord you the same civil rights protections against unreasonable searches that the United States does.
Re: Ex-Mozilla CTO: I was grilled for three hours at US airport by border cops
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anecdotally?
Yes, or as we used to call it back in the day "empirically". Plus, it doesn't matter if it happens as much or more in some backwater third world country. It's already enough of a problem that among first world countries the US is quite a pain in the ass airport control. Heck, it's enough of a problem that it feels like a pain in the ass. It wont be less of a problem if per capita e.g. Belgium or Albania are worse...
There isn't data on this. This incident likely wasn't logged in any way. CBP is a rogue agency and the least transparent. They don't respond to FOIA anymore either.
Re: Ex-Mozilla CTO: I was grilled for three hours at US airport by border cops
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
I strongly suspect that CBP's "strong suspicion" is equivalent to a HN poster's "whim." I'm not insulting either party, however when anything similar to this debate plays out, parties talk past each other on this sort of disagreement.
"Reasonable suspicion" is a legal term. In this context, a CBP officer would need to have evidence that would lead a reasonable person to believe the item to be searched is illegal to bring into the country, or contains something that is illegal to bring into the country. A hunch is not sufficient; it requires objective evidence. Reasonable suspicion is not required for every search at a border crossing, and the Fede…
Exept borders (and anything within 100 miles from it) are basically a zone where US Constitution does not apply. You can be detained and sent to Guantanamo for made up "terrirst threat" and there's no really a legal recourse.
Re: Ex-Mozilla CTO: I was grilled for three hours at US airport by border cops
#216I love the creative writing and entitlement that comes through when someone has been wronged. > Ex-Mozilla CTO Has no more or less rights than anyone else. > Techie says he was grilled for three hours Clearly click bait 'grilled for three hours'. Not questioned but 'grilled'. > "There I quickly found myself surrounded by three armed agents wearing bullet proof vests." So what? Of course they were armed. Of course the…
He would have been arrested in many other countries, including Canada, NZ, Australia, UK, not to mention the slew of non-democratic countries.
I don't think most of those countries need a reasonable suspicion to demand password nor to do track how often they do it. https://www.newstatesman.com/law/2013/08/welcome-britain-bor...
Re: Ex-Mozilla CTO: I was grilled for three hours at US airport by border cops
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
Quick reminder: Non US citizens only go to conferences outside the US. There is no excuse we should put up with this. Canada and EU are much better locations for this reason alone.
Canada is not exactly welcoming to visitor. Particularly visitors that may have a mark on their background check from any number of years ago. Good luck getting in at all -- its becoming a common mention in hip hop lyrics even.
Pretty much any country does this. Unless you're a citizen of that country, you have no right to enter it and should be on your best behavior at all times, and they can decline you for any reason they feel like, justified or not.
Re: Ex-Mozilla CTO: I was grilled for three hours at US airport by border cops
#218Traveling internationally with encrypted data you don't want to disclose to border officials is not a good plan these days. Much safer to transfer securely via network connection. It's easy to single out the US but the reality is that most countries have pretty far reaching rules these days. E.g. the UK and Australia are hardly any safer. And forget about China, Russia, or indeed most countries with even less democra…
Interestingly, Russia doesn't do this at all, at least for now.
Re: Ex-Mozilla CTO: I was grilled for three hours at US airport by border cops
#219Quick reminder: US citizens have an absolute right to reenter the country. Customs can temporarily detain you, but they cannot refuse entry. Any threat, whether implied or stated, that they will hold you until you unlock your device is not real. They can hold your stuff indefinitely, so be prepared to lose it if you go this route, but never unlock your device based on the idea that it’s the only way to go free. Non-c…
Quick reminder: Non US citizens only go to conferences outside the US. There is no excuse we should put up with this. Canada and EU are much better locations for this reason alone.
I don’t think this so great for non us citizens working in the USA because they have to go in and out and can just as well be denied entry. For someone like that who made his life in the USA and has family here, going to conferences outside the USA is potentially much worse and riskier than say a German resident and citizen getting denied travel into the USA for a number of years.
Re: Ex-Mozilla CTO: I was grilled for three hours at US airport by border cops
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
Very good point. The key here is to make sure your devices are all fully encrypted. Feel free to turn them on to prove they are real. But never decrypt. If this results in you missing your flight, so be it .
> But never decrypt. If this results in you missing your flight, so be it. Why? Is that more important to stay locked than miss granma's funeral, or more positively, 75th birthday?
Ultimately it is up to each individual to make this call. As for myself, this is a principle I hold above all else.