I’m wondering at what point if any would I give up when it comes to privacy, obviously I’ve been overseas from australia (which is bad in itself for internet surveillance) but at least here our laws in terms of discrimination and rights are good in comparison to say, china or the uae.
should it be reasonable for me to bring a different phone or try to remove any or all personal/identifiable information from my current one beforehand?
Is it also reasonable for me to pay for more private cloud storage or would it be completely useless? if so, are there any options you would recommend?
Or maybe I am freaking out? I managed to visit the UAE and didn’t even think about privacy, and nothing bad seemed to happen.
Yes. Both countries have highly invasive laws and will demand access to many things.
DO Bring a completely clean and clear Burner Phone. Do not log into anything on it, do not download any apps, or sideload necessary apps when you can, do not do anything besides basic activation.
DO invest in personal private cloud storage but make sure it’s hosted somewhere SAFE and that you won’t have issues getting through the Great Firewall (China) to it. Make sure you paid up to host it for the duration of your stay BEFORE you leave your home country.
You are not freaking out! It’s perfectly fine to protect your privacy and it is NOT illegal. You cannot predict when or if you will have a run-in with local authorities in some countries. It’s best if those authorities have nothing to hold you on.
Having a clean, secure, and private device which does not leak any unnecessary information about you when seized is ideal.
My previous company required us to use a burner phone if we visit China. We were also not allowed to plug the phone into a work laptop afterwards.
I would say that second restriction is actually not necessary if the phone is factory reset when you arrive back home.
Although I do understand the strategy behind it; and it does provide an air-gap so that in the case the device is deeply compromised that it cannot compromise other things.
Had a company that would check for installed hardware hacks on burner phones after visting China because of past experiences.