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US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

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Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#281

Post by jellicle »

tajen wrote: post #271
Beltiras wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might be forced to in the fall. There's a conference within my industry held in San Fransisco in the fall. There really is no substitute elsewhere within a reasonable timeframe. I plan to have no devices with me on the flight. I'll buy a cheap Android and a burner SIM. Before flying home I'll toss the phone. "Give me liberty or give me death" has been subverted into "Give me security and I'll give you my freedom".

It's all up to you. But I personally chose not to go to US conferences because of the TSA. The risk of being jailed is real: If you chuckle while they ask questions then lose your temper because he's not happy and you lack sleep; If you have a false name on Facebook (Are you lying about your identity to any US company?); If you know the wrong person; If you've watched underage porn (knowing that even with above-age p…

Yeah, the U.S. throws people in jail because women claim they were harassed at conferences all the time. The risk is real!

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#282

Post by TillE »

confounded wrote: post #6

There needs to be some reasonable way to get your digital life into an E2E encrypted cloud, wipe your devices, fly into the police state you call home, and get setup again when you land. You can promise at the border that your head doesn't contain anything either. I get very worried about traveling with an object as alien and shiny as a Yubikey. I don't know how I'd explain it to an aneurism in a Kevlar vest without…

Encrypt a blob of your stuff (using a key derived only from a memorizable password), stick it anywhere, then download after passing through the border.

I don't think they have grounds to seize wiped/empty devices from US citizens, but who knows.

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#283

Post by brynx97 »

tomlock wrote: post #13

This sounds incredibly embarassing, and even as a US citizen makes me fear travelling to America.

The best way to approach any and all of this is to be prepared. Go into the checkpoints with all your items properly separated to efficiently take stuff out, put them into the bins, and then pick them up.

NYT recently did a piece of this I liked, which reported that 0.0012% of arrivals had electronic devices inspected in 2015 [1]. Also, EFF has regular blogs or new stories published on border crossing privacy issues, which this post triggered me to check for updates [2].

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/business/border-enforceme...

[2] https://www.eff.org/issues/border-searches

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#284

Post by saryant »

briandear wrote: post #186
kogepathic wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everyone proposing clever technical solutions. Burner phones and encrypted cloud data etc... you are solving the wrong problem. Yes, and this is why I will happily pay airlines more to transfer in another country that is not America (e.g. Canada, Mexico). It sucks because it makes travel more expensive, but US airports are not traveler friendly (they could start by having international transfer zones so you don't h…

Back in the late 1990s, they did used to have transfer zones. I am not sure why they stopped. US airlines lose some non-trivial amount of money especially from Latin American travelers headed to Europe.

Without exit immigration, none of our airports are configured in a way that makes this workable today. There's nothing stopping someone in transit from just walking out the door.

Some airports are designed in a way to quickly facilitate this if the government ever changed its mind (IAH and LAX TBIT, I believe), but today none of our airports are set up for international sterile zones.

From the perspective of an American departing internationally, this is a bonus since you don't have to wait in line for exit formalities.

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#285

Post by TillE »

mc32 wrote: post #23
icefo wrote: post #17

That's sad. I really want visit the US and see some national parks but the more I see stories like that the less I want to go. I hope it will be better in 5-6 years because I don't want to invent a plausible second life just to go through the border...

This occurred in October, under Obama, so even if the dems were to win next cycle, there is little hope for the change you seem to be going for.

"The Dems" as represented by Obama/Clinton are essentially a dead party. Some kind of radical change is going to happen, or they'll wither into nothing. They're not going to win in 2020 on Obama policies.

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#286

Post by dmix »

system16 wrote: post #70

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…

Were you a young male travelling by yourself?

I believe that automatically flags them to see if you are working in the US illegally. I always have this problem when I travel for work to SF. I was secondary screened when I said I was paid via PayPal and he didn't know what PayPal was. The girl in secondary screening had to google it to make sure I wasn't getting paid by American company but in fact was paid for a contract.

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#287

Post by dpark »

WildUtah wrote: post #269
extra88 wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> one flight from Latin America to east Asia Are the countries on the continent of South America not generally considered a part of Latin America? Because there are other options from Santiago, Sao Paolo, Rio, etc. to Tokyo. Some of the options are on Air Canada, with a stop in Toronto which avoids U.S. airports but presumably not U.S. airspace so there may still be some additional scrutiny at departure. You don't ac…

Are the countries on the continent of South America not generally considered a part of Latin America? Technically, every country in South America is considered a part of Latin America except British Guyana, Suriname, and France. Not including islands like the Malvinas or the ABC islands, of course. --- I should have specified one single flight. Of course you can fly to Dubai from São Paulo and then to Seoul or to Syd…

> France

French Guiana?

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#288

Post by dTal »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #44
grzm wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's your take on the story?

It shows a hole in our rule of law. There's a case in front of SCOTUS, Hernández vs. Mesa , exploring the Constitutional protection of foreign nationals at the U.S. border [1]. In 2010, an unarmed fifteen-year-old Mexican boy was shot in the head by a U.S. Border Patrol agent. The boy was in a culvert jointly patrolled by the U.S. and Mexico, but officially, the agent was in the United States and the boy in Mexico. T…

So we pay numpties to harass people, and then pay lawyers to harass the numpties for doing their jobs?

I'll give you credit, it's a very American solution.

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#289

Post by cryoshon »

sneak wrote: post #33

I get detained and harassed at every single border crossing into the US, and I am a citizen—simply for having on several occasions many years ago asserted my 5th amendment rights at the border. Non-US people traveling with me have been denied entry after being sent to secondary for refusing to unlock their devices (the only reason they were sent to secondary and the unlock demand made was because they were traveling…

>The sooner we can drive this issue to a head and get all these pigs out on the street looking for new jobs, the better.

hear hear.

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#290

Post by greenhatman »

kennywinker wrote: post #49

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 think doing both is a good idea. Fight it on both fronts.
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