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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.

#311

Post by Gud »

gausswho wrote: post #196
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.

I've spent the last month and a half building an encyrpted backup system I could sleep peacefully with, independent of tech giants that secretly compromise you. I'm almost there but it's not easy for a lot of reasons you mention and more. Ultimately it's not enough for individuals to spend this effort for themselves. We need a self-managed option that is nearly as turnkey as iCloud. A distro with it built from the ou…

rsync to rsync.net?

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

#312

Post by rurban »

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.

China and Turkey were previously on our list. Also Turkmenistan and a lot of African countries.

China not anymore. You can now easily travel there without visa.

Turkey is still too aggressive and risky, but at least you don't have to wait 6 hrs at their border anymore.

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

#313

Post by Ferret7446 »

rbanffy wrote: post #86
tenacious_tuna wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not a lawyer, though I am a US citizen. First, it's the fourth amendment that protects against unreasonable search. Fifth amendment is protection against self-incrimination. My understanding is that fourth amendment protections effectively do not apply at the border [1] because the border is inherently a reasonable place to search people. In regards to being compelled to unlock your phone, CBP maintains the posi…

> because the border is inherently a reasonable place to search people. IIRC there is a radius around every international airport where such warrantless searches are legal.

Are airports not considered borders (i.e., ports of entry)?

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

#314

Post by dude187 »

WorldPeas wrote: post #296
dude187 wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That hasn't changed, they could still bring a bottle back if they choose

I'm surprised they'd let you do so in the claim luggage, but in this case it was carry-on. The story goes my mother just walked through customs and got on the plane with it.

Yeah carry on got the stupid liquid ban that's still around, but I don't think much if anything got banned from checked luggage after 9/11. Just the standard stuff like batteries and other things that could have issues in an unpressurized non temperature controlled hold.

Even carry on got a lot better than it used to be in the days right after that. Like I'm pretty sure they had banned lighters for a bit (and a lot of people assume they still are) but they're explicitly allowed and I throw mine right into the scanner bin every time I fly. Not even being able to carry in a sealed bottle of water and having to take your shoes off is stupid, but about the extent of what's left. No more keeping all liquids (what even counts as a liquid?) in a ziplock bag and having to take it out, and even laptops can stay in with the new scanners they're rolling out

I've carried on an inflatable life vest with an active CO2 cartridge and that's also listed as fine. Though it did get flagged and secondary screened because it was in my bag, even though they don't say you have to leave it out.

In general the more you fly if you pay attention, you can pretty much know what will trigger it if you put it in your bag. Metal water bottle in the bag? Your bag is getting pulled, every time. I've even told them right where to look lol. Left out and it goes right through.

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

#315

Post by morepork »

LWIRVoltage wrote: post #254
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…

This is an issue I face- I have a collection of thermal cameras that use apps to control them- after every install onto a phone, they then reach out t oa server to authenticate. Here's the issue- though I have a few older phones- these apps are 32 bit ones, so no modern phone after Android 13 will run them. And they are all now not on the app store anymore,as they all came out about around 2016. i did use a APK extra…

Have you considered using an Android emulator to run these apps? It should be much easier to make full image backups that way.

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

#316

Post by morepork »

pretzellogician wrote: post #13

I've often wondered if there's a supported way to have a honeypot passcode, i.e., a secondary passcode that leads to a relatively empty account. (Although as per the article, a fully wiped account looks suspicious -- it would need some innocuous apps or apps with no login info, etc.)

On Android you could add a second user which gets its own passcode and set of apps/accounts. If they know what they're doing they could see there are multiple users on the lock screen, but it may be enough.

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

#317

Post by snthpy »

kleiba wrote: post #113

> Before traveling, back up your devices so you don’t lose anything permanently. Then delete anything you’re worried about being misinterpreted or saved by the government. That can include conversations that compromise the privacy of the people on the other end. You might delete messages about politics, contact information for political dissidents, apps that save offline copies of sensitive documents like Google Docs…

> Before traveling, back up your devices so you don’t lose anything permanently.

_anything_ here presumably doesn't include freedom of movement of when you find yourself in an El Salvador concentration camp.

Next up: How to replace your Real Madrid tattoo by obtaining a skin graft

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

#318

Post by BriggyDwiggs42 »

AstralStorm wrote: post #291
BriggyDwiggs42 wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn’t that look suspicious these days?

Having a beard looks suspicious too. Literally there's nothing that can also not having anything as a suspicion. Too old phone? Suspicious. Too empty phone? Suspicious...

Yeah it’s bullshit, but it’s still true that you can minimize the suspicion. Not having any kind of phone these days is likely very rare for people entering a US border crossing, a clean but used phone not so much. The goal is to blend in.

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

#319

Post by buyucu »

stackedinserter wrote: post #262
buyucu wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

What kind of business is this, if US border is danger but Chinese is not?

I've been to Shanghai multiple times. Every time the border check was quick, efficient and uneventful. Unlike JFK where it's a 2h wait almost every time wiht 'random' extra security.

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

#320

Post by reassess_blind »

In a similar vein for laptops, Veracrypt offers (offered?) a "Hidden OS" feature that allows an OS to be stored within an encrypted container inside of another encrypted container, with two separate passwords. This allows the outside volumes password to be divulged, which would show a dummy OS and allow for plausible deniability, while the real OS is only accessible with the second password.

However, this feature doesn't seem to work for Windows 11, or on some modern laptop hardware anymore?

Is there other software that offers similar functionality?

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