51–60 of 228 posts
I feel it would be quite obvious looking at your device and it's lack of data that such a feature was in force and they would just deny you entry. Nice idea but the problems need fixed in law. IMO technical solutions are just temporary bandaids.
How do you turn a travel mode off? Once border patrol knows this feature exists and how it works, the jig is up. Any expiration/timeout would just cause you to be detained for the duration the travel mode is enabled. A second password to turn it off would just cause that second password to be coerced out of you. Location-based deactivation can be spoofed.
> To work effectively, a trip mode feature would need to be... irrevocable for an amount of time chosen by the user once it’s set. There’s no sense in having a ‘trip mode’ if the person demanding your password can simply switch it off, or coerce you into switching it off.
How do you turn a travel mode off? Once border patrol knows this feature exists and how it works, the jig is up. Any expiration/timeout would just cause you to be detained for the duration the travel mode is enabled. A second password to turn it off would just cause that second password to be coerced out of you. Location-based deactivation can be spoofed.
If they get your password can't they just turn of travle mode for you? Or wait until you do the same? I don't know that there is a technical answer here accept wiping your phone/laptop before you go through customes. The real solution is a political one where we speak up and legeislate and litigate that the 4th amendment applies a the border.
From the article: > To work effectively, a trip mode feature would need to be easy to turn on, configurable (so you can choose how long you want the protection turned on for) and irrevocable for an amount of time chosen by the user once it’s set. There’s no sense in having a ‘trip mode’ if the person demanding your password can simply switch it off, or coerce you into switching it off.
There is no technical solution to this. If you want there to be no searches of your phone when crossing the border, speak to your representative in Congress and your Senator. If they don't listen, then vote for someone else or even better, run yourself. The only way this is going to change is with a change in the law.
The point of the travel-lock proposal is that it's actually common sense. Everyone should want this feature. It is actually weird that we walk around all the time with unfettered access to decades of personal correspondence and a detailed log of every person we've ever meet even fleetingly online. The default should be different: getting access to years-old emails or a photographic memory of every acquaintance you have should be extraordinary.
To be effective, this would need to become a kind of norm for overseas travelers, the same way traveler's checks used to be. The idea would be that just as you don't carry a bag with your birth certificate, stock certificates, property titles, and jewelry with you, you also don't carry a 10 year archive of every email you've ever sent or a detailed list of every person you've ever spoken to. In particular, it needs t…
>>In particular, it needs to be normal enough that a significant fraction of all travelers do it. Yes, exactly. Border agents are trained to look for anything out of the ordinary. Currently, using a feature like this would immediately raise a huge red flag and encourage more questioning, detention and possibly even deportation based on the person's country of origin and the mood of the border agent. Incidentally, tha…
That can be addressed by how it is marketed. Instead of calling it "Travel mode," it could be called "Work mode" or something like that. Commercials could target college students going home to visit parents and not wanting parents to see all their crap or that sort of thing.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
CBP is not allowed to detain US citizens past some nebulous limit measured in hours.
My gut feeling is that non-US citizens are more likely to be affected by this CBP policy than US citizens. Don't get me wrong here, happy if some solutions works for some subset of people, but as a non-US citizen I want something that works for me .
Earlier quoted context omitted.
CBP is not allowed to detain US citizens past some nebulous limit measured in hours.
My gut feeling is that non-US citizens are more likely to be affected by this CBP policy than US citizens. Don't get me wrong here, happy if some solutions works for some subset of people, but as a non-US citizen I want something that works for me .
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A travel-locked Facebook account should just look like a quieter Facebook account.
So, pretty evident from the most casual analysis.
Surely, if this became popular, CBP would simply start asking aliens seeking entry whether their accounts were travel locked. And the standard advice would be, "never lie to CBP".
But I'm still curious about why you think this would be so obvious.