
Ask HN: Best Practices for Bringing Devices Through US Customs? - marymkearney
Apparently a lot of folks entering the United States are being asked by Customs and Border Protection officials for the passwords to unlock their phones and laptops.<p>If you say yes, and you have the usual apps on your device, then CBP can suck down all your encrypted data in a matter of minutes - search history, contacts, photos, purchases, documents, social media posts, etc. - and store it in their U.S. government database, where they can keep it forever, and inspect it at their leisure.<p>If you say no, your devices can be seized, and you can be detained. Legal or not, this outcome will, at minimum, ruin your day.<p>Various workarounds have been proposed to keep the data on your devices private when entering the United States. These include traveling with -<p>No devices.
Temporary devices.
Wiped-clean devices (keep data in cloud).
Dead-battery devices.<p>Privacy experts argue in favor of doing this, and security experts argue against it, saying it looks more suspicious.<p>Arguments for workarounds:
https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.freecodecamp.com&#x2F;ill-never-bring-my-phone-on-an-international-flight-again-neither-should-you-e9289cde0e5f#.wgurjewri<p>Arguments against workarounds:
https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;@thegrugq&#x2F;stop-fabricating-travel-security-advice-35259bf0e869#.o43h5lbiz<p>What&#x27;s HN&#x27;s opinion on the best practices in this situation?
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byoung2
I just got back from a trip and each time I went through a checkpoint I had
the factory reset menu on screen so if asked to unlock I would have just
stalled by asking why they needed to see my device while the wipe was in
progress.

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amorphid
This is brilliant.

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amorphid
My friend just wrote a blog post on the topic:

[https://honeypot.net/search-proof-your-devices-when-
travelin...](https://honeypot.net/search-proof-your-devices-when-traveling/)

