An Appeals Court panel has ruled that federal agents can legally search through travelers’ cell phones without reasonable suspicion, probable cause, or a warrant when they cross an international border.
As if there weren’t enough reasons already to avoid visiting this shithole country.
I have a question… there’s data on my phone and other devices that are protected under an active NDA. I am legally obligated to prevent disclosure of that information.
So… what happens then?
An NDA is just a contract, an actual law always trumps it.
> agree to do corporate espionage for company A
> get a job at company B, sign an NDA, put all their sensitive data on your phone
> have your buddy get a job with the CBP
> cross the border, “oops, I guess he gets to look at my phone, what can I do?”
> buddy doesn’t have an NDA so he tells company A what he saw then splits the money with you
> profit??
You refuse to let them search and they dont let you into the country.
No, you’re not. Encrypt the device and turn it off.
And if they ask you to unlock it, you just say no and it all goes fine?
They hold you for a few hours and make a bunch of vacant and vague threats.
Then, yes, they release you.
A few court rulings from now and I won’t be surprised if they’ll start indefinitely detaining people or using “enhanced interrogation”
It depends if you’re a citizen or not.
That’s merely how is starts.
Very telling that USians are being Berlined and the reactions here are pretty mild. At least in Berlin they had communism inside. In the US is just a hellscape of late stage capitalism.
I don’t know if any phones have this, but on a PC you can set up multiple partitions and have the password you entered determine which is logged into on boot. Then if the ICE brownshirts demand to see your sick memes, you can show them a boring install with some basic apps, instead of the install where you’re informing the denizens of the interwebs that Trump raped kids and the entire GOP is covering it up.
The brown shirts just clone the whole drive and hand it to the egg heads.
I’m hoping the brownshirts aren’t smart enough for that, but you may be right.
Android has this: every OEM calls it something different, but it’s called something similar to second space. iPhones don’t have it at all unfortunately.
You also have to provide all your social media handles when applying for a visa. Even a tourist visa so they can check if you ever posted anything negative about the US or it’s leader.
What if we all start giving them the same handles?
Just give them a second facebook account filled with thousands of images of MLP porn.
Or a youtube channel with dozens of variations of the “Most annoying sound” scene from Dumb and Dumber with the screeching repeated for hours and hours.
MLP?
my little pony
I am sparticus@lemmy.bs
Is it a requirement to be on social media, to enter the us?
Well that’s convenient, now they don’t have to do it illegally anymore.
Turn it off before crossing. They may ask you to power it on, which you may comply with. In my experience, biometrics don’t work after a fresh boot and the device password must be entered before biometric unlocking works.
That prevents them from getting into your phone, but probably prevents you from getting across the border too.
Encrypt all your real devices and use a dummy phone to cross. If you get questioned, give lawyer contact info and say nothing else
Might sound extreme, but unironically everyone should do this
The lawyer is for you, not them. Just prepare to say “no thank you. Am I free to go now?” for a few hours. Don’t say anything else.
No. Even the guy who used the duress password to wipe his device was allowed through the border.
They will use psychological pressure and make you wait hours, but they will let you through, even if you stand your ground.
With protesting and dissent nearing illegality, It’s no longer safe to have password managers, browser history or social media on your phone. (at borders for now)
I see a lot of people saying just shut it off. They will turn it on, tell you to unlock it, you refuse, they’ll detain you, try tools to bypass, confiscate it (you need to make sure you get a receipt) and they’ll let you out without it at some point. Even citizens can get detained for periods greater than 24 hours.
If you express any public dissent toward the administration, you should consider traveling with a dumb phone or a burner, not connected to your email/social online services/password systems.
With protesting and dissent nearing illegality, It’s no longer safe to have password managers, browser history or social media on your phone. (at borders for now)
I had not considered the risk of having a password manager on my phone and being cohered to unlock it. There’s nothing dissentious there to find so I’m not concerned about that (don’t infer from that that I think it’s acceptable that they can look, I do not). But what’s to stop them from stealing financial login info while they’re at it? That’s the worry that just triggered.
If you express any public dissent toward the administration, you should consider traveling with a dumb phone or a burner, not connected to your email/social online services/password systems.
Traveling with a dumb phone isn’t always viable. A recent example I can think of is I had to scan a QR code and fill out a customs form on a website. There was not a paper based alternative. But a burner works.
Yeah, that and actually taking decent pictures. If you just need a function, you can get non-flagship Android burners really cheap, or just keep a previous phone, wipe it, and travel with an eSIM.
My primary concern isn’t so much what i’m saying now, but what they think about it later if we keep heading toward darker times.
Yeah, that and actually taking decent pictures.
Cheap phone + nice camera is another option. But with the downside of more to pack and carry around.
My primary concern isn’t so much what i’m saying now, but what they think about it later if we keep heading toward darker times.
… yeah that feels entirely possible. Valid concern.
In the early 00’s there were a few nice cameras with a 3x zoom that would fit in an altoids tin.
I think most of the current crop of micro cameras are toys :(
This was already the legal case. I’m confused what changed. This was okay legally for international travel anyway because borders are not considered protect it by the Constitution. I’m so confused. What’s different?
People are just clueing in to how bad it’s actually been since 9/11.
It was gray. The used the concept of being outside of US jurisdiction to skirt the laws on illegal search and seizure. Somebody pushed back on this recently, so they made it less gray.
ohhh! ok. thank you so much.
So… traveling outside the US and think you want back in… break out that old phone and keep it effing clean for travel. Actual phone goes in to safety deposit box.
The land of the free eh?
Not any more, kids.
Liberal democracies are rare because they are so challenging to maintain.
So anywhere within 100 miles of a border or international airport.
That’s basically anywhere in the us
Leave your phone at home, back up all the important data you need into a server. Keep all important information and documents you need for the trip printed on a paper.
Go through border without a phone, buy new phone and SIM abroad to avoid roaming. Access/download your important info through the internet using the hotel’s wifi.
After the trip you can bring the phone home and it will only contain some holiday photos.
Create even more waste every time you travel
Don’t buy the phone anywhere near an embassy or airport. Pay cash. Don’t give your name or ID. Reinstall the OS immediately after taking it out of the box. Setup FDE with a strong passphrase. Don’t use biometrics.
- Travel with a cheap burner phone.
- Just before returning change your password to a long randomly generated string of letters and numbers.
- Write it down and mail it your home address.
- Lock your phone when you arrive at customs.
- Tell border agents what you did and that you can’t unlock it until you get your letter next week.
Thus they only have 2 options: A. Seize it and have the lab unlock a burner with nothing on it. B. Or they can just let it go. In either case they’re suckers wasting their own time instead of yours.
Option 3: They just detain you until you hand over the password. You are allowed to call someone to retrieve it from your mail.
I can’t unlock my phone. How am I supposed to call anyone?
I guess I’m old enough to remember calling people from other phones than your own
How? I ain’t got any numbers memorised. They’re on my phone. It’s locked.
Then you’re going to be detained for quite a long time.
So bits are considered a controlled substance now?
Sure, but not encrypted bits.
That’s a hassle. They won’t find anything they’d be interested in while searching through my phone. Because I am a fairly boring man (and I’m cool with that). But I don’t agree that they should have the right to do so in the first place, and I do travel fairly frequently so this is a concern.
I guess I can get a burner and create a separate password database that just has stuff I know I’ll need to use while traveling (like airlines and rideshares). And memorize ones that I don’t want them having access to, like my email account (makes password resets a risk) and bank accounts.
Nice thing for me is I already have 2 phones. I get a phone stipend for work so I can keep my sensitive personal stuff and my sensitive work stuff on separate devices. I work in the public sector, so it’s especially important because of Open Records stuff.
But it also means that if I’m going on vacation out of country, I can just take the work phone that’s already sanitized.
I actually have a separate work phone too. Jealous that you get a stipend for it. Mine is just a older phone with no sim card. Mostly sits in my home office. Connect it via hotspot when I’m out and about during work hours or am oncall.
No reason I can’t repurpose it as my travel phone when needed like you do. That’d be pretty easy.
