6 ms·
Ask HN: How to monitor what happens to device examined at US border?
If these folks are going to monitor us and take our electronic devices, we might as well monitor them whilst they do so...hypothetically speaking of course.
So what are your suggestions for software that would monitor everything that happens to the device?
I'm talking both phones and laptops or any other devices you carry.
- DamonHD 9y agoIf I ever* travel to the US again I shall avoid all of the above by NOT taking my real laptop and phone; I may take fresh ones or buy/borrow while in the US to finesse the issue. I know it doesn't answer your question directly, and whatever other answers you get may still be applicable to fresh kit brought in. *In the foreseeable future, with fingerprinting and device scanning and generally treating all visitors as at least a nuisance...
- PuffinBlue 9y agoI figured this sort of thing would be best put on a fresh device. If we're forced to go to the trouble of getting a clean device just for transit, we might as well load it up with monitoring software and see what happens to it. If nothing else it would be very interesting to see just what sort of examination our devices are subject to.
- mod 9y agoThere was extensive discussion about this in another thread, and the basic idea was that it doesn't matter if you carry dummy devices. They can just force you to login to your accounts. At a minimum you'll need an email and facebook to appease them, likely. If you're targeted.
- DamonHD 9y agoI simply won't be carrying my passwords with me, and I don't have them memorised. I would use fresh accounts while travelling and not update social media. I would apply the same rules to China, but nowhere else that I can think of right now. Maybe Russia.
- Artlav 9y agoHow often does this actually happen? Never been to the states, keep hearing rumors of illegal device searches like that.
- DamonHD 9y agoI gave up travelling to the US approximately at the intersection of the time that (a) automatic fingerprint scanners were brought in at US borders and (b) the TFA lost a copy of all its own staff's confidential data. I can't afford to replace my fingerprints when the TFA discloses that data. Plus from other environments I know that my fingerprints don't scan very reliably for whatever reason. Also I realised that on every visit that I could remember I was getting my baggage searched like some kind of persona non grata, which annoyed me a lot when I thought about it. And this on various flavours of visa/waiver coming from the UK. So searching laptops etc just for the sake of it, never mind necessity, utility, privacy or courtesy, is a logical (unwelcoming) extension of this.
- odonnellryan 9y agoI'm from the US, got my stuff searched both times I went out of the country by that country's border patrol.
- bsvalley 9y agoFor iPhone owners for example, use 3rd party apps for contacts, emails, web browser, etc. Typically google apps like chrome, gmail, etc. Delete them right before the border check. Clear your caches just in case. Then re-download them when you're done. Long story short, move all your data to the (evil) cloud and just synch so you never lose your history and configurations.
- PuffinBlue 9y agoGood advice, but this doesn't answer the question posed though.