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.
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.
As if there weren’t enough reasons already to avoid visiting this shithole country.
- 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.
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.
Is it a requirement to be on social media, to enter the us?
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.
I am [email protected]
How hard is it to eject the SD card?
In a modern phone?
Sounds like a you problem.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
Just today I wondered how long it is till americans
will need a VPN to watch YouTubeWhy would America (US, rather) ever want to restrict their citizen’s access to one of their primary propaganda drivers? If you’re in America, it’s already necessary to avoid youtube directly and access it via frontends like invidious if you want even slightly decent privacy and to try to avoid being sucked into youtube’s personally tailored algorithm. Though you may at some point need a VPN in order to access those (the frontends) if they aren’t already outlawed. I can definitely see the US banning youtube alternatives like peertube instances, further restricting any kind of oppositional content on youtube itself, and enforcing strict identity requirements to access things on the internet, but they aren’t ever going to make it difficult to access their state-approved slop troughs.
Because current administration copies what Russia is doing (I want to add China to the list, but have no experience, so for now omitted), and is now also run by a moron. That’s how low I think of them governments of both countries
What you’re missing is that youtube only shows what the US govt allows so there will never be a reason for the Us govt to block it. Google is to US as Gazprom is to Russia.
I mean, it’s the US, literally nobody expected otherwise. If they were unable to do it, they would invent something, or coerce whatever they need to, in order to do it anyway. They kill children daily, in so many ways already.
Seems like you need to travel with a burner phone now?
It’s not enough. We leave such a large digital footprint anymore, it’s not hard to connect everything and everyone together. They almost certainly have some pretty crazy technology that we don’t even have access too as well.
The bigger thing here, is this is a supposed first world country using your personal information and communications to intimidate and threaten you. Heck to even imprison you. That’s third world country tinpot dictator-like behaviour.
As someone who lives in a third world country, no third world country gives a damn about what’s on your phone. The police only care if you make a scene in public (or publicly post something spicy) and somebody complains.
By what measure is the US a first-world country?
Absolutely zero, anymore.
Reminded me of a video of Mutahar’s where he was discussing about someone getting prosecuted as he gave grapheneos distress pin instead of his real pin when customs asked him for it. He was some activist or someone like that. US citizen in believe.
In thay video he told he’ll wipe his iphone every time he enters the US and restore it from iCloud. Seems like this is one of the very few ways to defeat thia stupid law I mean what they gonna do if they find a clean phone? Arrest me for being way to clean!?
Well that’s convenient, now they don’t have to do it illegally anymore.
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.
So anywhere within 100 miles of a border or international airport.
