
Travelers just won back a bit of their privacy at the border - finnn
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/07/14/travelers-just-won-back-a-bit-of-their-privacy-at-the-border/
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sbov
I don't see anything travelers won back. The letter is saying CBP policy
doesn't allow these things, when obviously agents have been doing them. It may
be against policy, but unless you reprimand or fire people over it your policy
is useless.

The letter is just ass covering and the title is terribly misleading.

~~~
4bpp
This seems to be a general issue with any sort of attempt to impose
restrictions on police-like agencies these days - between the boundlessly
sympathetic legal system, the political power of police unions and an
institutional culture that distributes responsibility between superiors and
"boots on the ground" in a maximally deniable way, in practice the only way to
get them to abide by a rule is to get them to believe themselves that to do so
is for the better.

~~~
riffic
This is exactly why I donate to the EFF. I urge anyone else to do so as well:

[https://www.eff.org/helpout](https://www.eff.org/helpout)

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jjbiotech
Phone applications and their data are so abstracted these days, it would be
difficult for even an IT expert to differentiate between cloud and local data
if search takes place using the device itself (which I assume is what
happens). If they connect the phone via USB and browse the contents with a
workstation, that might be a different story.

So in practice, nothing has changed.

~~~
lb1lf
Just put the phone in flight mode.

Wireless interfaces are deactivated, and any attempt at accessing online
material is greeted with a message stating that you're offline.

~~~
fuzzybeard
Some apps won't let you access any of your content without authenticating with
their servers. So even if it's local content, not having an internet
connection would deny access. I can envision CBP saying they need to crack
your phone to get to the local stuff.

~~~
eridius
What apps do that, besides games?

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jliptzin
1\. Backup phone

2\. Encrypt backup

3\. Upload encrypted backup to cloud server

4\. Delete backup

5\. Wipe phone back to factory settings

6\. Cross border

7\. Download backup from cloud

8\. Decrypt backup

9\. Restore phone

This is the only sane thing to do besides not crossing the border with an
electronic device at all.

~~~
smegel
Won't it arouse suspicions to have a clearly used, but blank phone?

~~~
droithomme
Yes it does. There was one recent case where possession of a factory reset
phone was considered obstruction of justice. No I don't have a link or
citation, so feel free to ignore.

~~~
dawnerd
If you knowingly did it to hide evidence then I can see how that would be
obstruction. No different than wiping your hard drives if you think you're
going to be raided.

~~~
droithomme
Hide evidence of what?

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yladiz
A crime.

~~~
droithomme
What crime? Are you assuming there is some crime?

~~~
dawnerd
Thats what I was trying to say. Casually wiping drives I agree shouldn't be
suspicious but if you're doing something that may be unlawful and you're
wiping - can't really complain they nail you with obstruction or worse.

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epmaybe
Hm. Lots of information is cached, like facebook messages. And Whatsapp is
located on the phone itself. Honestly, it's still pretty bad no matter how you
look at it.

~~~
mozumder
Sync to the cloud, then reset the device at the border, then restore from
cloud after that.

~~~
porlune
Except now you've transferred your data over an international border and into
a third parties infrastructure. If you're paranoid, that isn't more reassuring
either. I suppose if you encrypt the files yourself before uploading, then
your data are a bit safer.

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eridius
Sounds like 1Password's new Travel Mode
([https://support.1password.com/travel-
mode/](https://support.1password.com/travel-mode/)) is actually going to be
effective.

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draz
Not to sound facetious, but data on a "remote server" could be accessed
through a (legal or non-legal) backdoor. So this amendment is little relief.

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pavel_lishin
Unless they install Faraday cages at airports, I don't see how this
practically changes things for travelers.

Do I turn on "airplane mode", and make the border patrol agent super-duper
pinky swear that he won't toggle it back off?

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codezero
Are they required at all to produce a list of what they are looking for, like
the police must do when serving a search warrant? If not, what guarantees do
people have that they won't hold/prosecute you for anything unlawful they
find?

~~~
bigbugbag
Basically, when crossing the US border you have no rights.

~~~
codezero
That doesn't really answer my question.

~~~
majewsky
But it does. It's the most gigantic "NO" possible.

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aluhut
It's not that long ago when downloading SMS etc. was worth an outrage. I hope
it's not only time between us and the server access.

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kleiba
I couldn't care less about cell phones as long as I still have to provide my
finger prints.

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xyzxyz998
And I can't even delete my profile/old comments on "Hacker news".

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droithomme
The "freedom won" described in the article is not significant. It clarifies
that border searches won't routinely include using your local credentials to
log into your facebook or other social media accounts whose data is not stored
on the phone other than log in credentials. Yet one is still expected to
provide log in credentials to the phone during border crossings. This still
means that the only reasonable and sane process is to factory reset a phone or
not carry one at all.

