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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.

#231

Post by IncandescentGas »

fragmede wrote: post #209
gorgoiler wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Analogies only go so far. Going to the store, buying gasoline and rags and a lighter and then committing arson and burning my house down is maybe a little bit different from sitting down for a few hours with my laptop connected to my phone.

Right! Backup planning is not black magic. And neither is testing icloud backups.

It's quite easy to restore an icloud backup to a different phone or even ipad for testing purposes, if one were reliant on icloud to hold their data.

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

#232

Post by IncandescentGas »

ta1243 wrote: post #170
IncandescentGas wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is it even possible to test a backup of a typical phone without first wiping the phone? It's not like my backup of my ~/Photos directory where I can copy to a USB and md5sum the files on a separate computer and check the match.

Yes. You can restore your icloud backup to another target iphone without wiping the source iphone, as long as the target iphone has enough storage capacity.

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

#233

Post by devilbunny »

LoganDark wrote: post #212
redczar wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ll add a few more freedoms. 1. Can’t walk about drinking a beer. 2. Can’t carry too much cash or it’s at risk of being confiscated. 3. Criminalization of walking. https://illinoislawreview.org/print/vol-2017-no-3/the-crimin... 4. Pretty much have to own a car in most places. 5. Thousands of polling stations closed since the Voting Rights Act was gutted. 6. Federal politics held hostage by low population states. It’…

> 4. Pretty much have to own a car in most places. Hey, electric scooters are not the worst ever (although I got hit by a truck while riding one and decided to get a car just because I don't like getting hit by trucks)

They aren't, but I live in a hot, humid climate where it often rains. So a scooter is not the best there. And then my workplace is right on a highway - I can take lower-speed roads to get there, but even the slowest path involves 35 MPH roads (~55 km/h), and it's longer.

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

#234

Post by Izikiel43 »

gorgoiler wrote: post #106
IncandescentGas wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> What I don’t want to do is to test my backup in a non catastrophe situation

Isn't that actually one of the things you want to do to validate the backup process?

Better to figure out in a non disaster scenario where you have alternatives.

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

#235

Post by phpnode »

gruntbuggly wrote: post #230
xingped wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That businesses are allowed to surprise you with unexpected fees is a negative thing. How can you interpret it otherwise?

Don't you just go out to eat knowing the price is going to be 20% higher after tip? I can understand the desire for predictability, but menu prices are artificially low as they don't account for labor. If tipping were 'abolished' food service prices would have to rise 10-20% across the board to compensate.

That would be fairer and more honest

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

#237

Post by buyucu »

fragmede wrote: post #214
buyucu wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My company gives burner phones and laptops for employees and salespeople traveling to countries with agressive borders. USA is on the list, together with Israel, Iran and a few others I can't remember now.

China

China is not on the list. We never had any difficulty or problem in the Chinese border.

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

#238

Post by fragmede »

buyucu wrote: post #237
fragmede wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China

China is not on the list. We never had any difficulty or problem in the Chinese border.

fascinating! Where are you from? I'm in the US and for employees going into China, best practice has been to issue them burner phones and laptops for the trip for decades at this point.

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

#239

Post by fsflover »

gausswho wrote: post #187
jFriedensreich wrote: post #111

Ignoring the US political situation for a moment I want to point out how ridiculous modern phones and apps storage access given to their users is. You used to be able to mount a phone as a full hard drive and have access to all your files, do a real full backup without some encrypted databases that only facebook, google or apple hold the key for. The first tragedy is that we accepted that the US gives no rights to no…

It's for this reason I really just want a Linux that optimizes for a phone-factor touchscreen. No cell radio. The vast majority of my time I am never far from WiFi and I don't see why I need to give up the phone's form factor just to operate with digital hygiene independent of blackbox spyware.

> I really just want a Linux that optimizes for a phone-factor touchscreen

I'm writing this from a GNU/Linux phone, Librem 5, which offers the full freedom of a desktop (including a full desktop mode when you connect it to a keyboard and screen). My daily driver.

> No cell radio.

Librem 5 has a hardware kill switch for that.

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

#240

Post by ryandrake »

dylan604 wrote: post #194
incanus77 wrote: post #127

One lesser-known tip for iPhones with FaceID or TouchID: press and hold the lock button and one of the volume buttons until prompted for power options/medical ID/emergency call. You'll then have to enter a passcode in order to use those auth methods again. Having to reveal a passcode can sometimes be considered a higher bar than biometric auth. You can do this even when in it's in your pocket without looking, quite q…

If you know you're traveling through an adversarial border, just disable Face/Touch ID before getting to the border agents

This is not really a checkmate. If the border officials are suspicious, disabling biometrics is not going stop them. What are they going to say? "Ohh! Drat! You foiled us! We can't compel you to enter your passcode! Go on, have a nice day!"
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