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.
In the case of US citizens there is no need, there they know already the content of the phones
quietly
Which laws are we supposed to obey nowadays? It’s all very confusing.
Restore to default settings before crossing international borders.
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.
MLP?
I am sparticus@lemmy.bs
- 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.
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.
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.
You refuse to let them search and they dont let you into the country.
> 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??
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.
Well that’s convenient, now they don’t have to do it illegally anymore.
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.
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 :(
Tbh I’m shocked it wasn’t already. Like I thought the border has been a “no rights zone” for as long as I’ve been alive.
Yah I thought SCOTUS ok’d that within 100 miles of a boarder.
…
Seems not! Just lots of circut courts have affirmed the general idea. This is the first at an appellate court.
and that number goes up significantly if you consider an international airport a “border”
I saw someone also mention “waterways” in another thread as being subject to this. If that means navigable rivers like the Mississippi, etc., then between coasts, land borders, airports, and waterways, it’s probably most of the US.
That existing map is already probably 90+% of the population. But yeah, including those would get it to be most of the last mass too.
The article with that map claims 2/3 of the population. I think it could go to 90% if you included waterways and international airports.
What about embassies?
US embassies in other countries, or foreign embassies on US soil?
Yes.
I believe it also includes international airports in the orange area?
I don’t know, the map doesn’t display that.
Very telling that almost every state not part of that zone is a red state.
Lol Toledo but no Cleveland
So anywhere within 100 miles of a border or international airport.
That’s basically anywhere in the us
