9 ms·
> With fears over access to devices at border control points around the world, this quick trick will at least prevent Touch ID from being used until a passcode
by leereeves 9y ago
> With fears over access to devices at border control points around the world, this quick trick will at least prevent Touch ID from being used until a passcode is entered.
This won't help much at borders. Customs will require you to unlock the phone before you can enter the country (or just refuse to allow you to bring the phone, if you're a citizen).
- jasonjei 9y agoJust an idea, if you're really afraid of customs checking your phone, couldn't you bring 2 phones, and hide your real phone deep in your luggage, and bring a moderately used/old smartphone with you? I feel like customs only wants to see a phone, and as long as you present them what they want to see...
- xyzzy_plugh 9y agoConsider that if they discover this, then you look much more suspicious, and you're going to have a harder time explaining yourself.
- celticninja 9y agobetter yet just bring one phone, wipe it to factory settings before the flight, when you land log into dropbox and restore from backup. No hiding phones (makes it look really suspicious) and easy to comply with their requests.
- eugeniub 9y agoI too, love handing all of the contents of my phone to Apple.
- mikestew 9y agoThat’s nice. What does that have to do with the comment to which you replied? Your comment sounds like something an Apple fanboy would say, who’s just looking for an excuse to inject the name of their favorite company.
- jclardy 9y agoUhh, he is bashing Apple...I guess because he assumes iCloud backup is the only way to backup an iPhone? You can back up an iPhone locally with iTunes. Unless you are afraid they will go through your laptop to find your phone backup.
- celticninja 9y agoAnd you can backup and android.
- mikestew 9y agoUhh, he is bashing Apple... Sure, that much is obvious. The question is, why even bring it up unless supporting a narrative that no one asked about? There's no mention of Apple in the replied-to comment.
- eugeniub 9y agoiTunes backup doesn't really fit with the scenario that is being discussed, which is making sure agents don't get access to your information during customs. If you back up to your computer, then they can demand your computer password. If you don't bring your computer, then you can't restore from the backup upon exiting customs.
- jlgaddis 9y agoFWIW, you can encrypt iDevice backups (on your computer) with a password too.
- celticninja 9y agoThat's why I said Dropbox, you don't need your own laptop with you.
- giobox 9y agoWhile it's more effort than I'd be prepared to go to, there is nothing stopping you storing the encrypted backup of your iPhone on the server/service of your choice, then pulling from said server location to restore via iTunes upon arrival. You don't need to keep the encrypted backup stored locally on the laptop you take with you through customs.
- ceejayoz 9y agoCustoms is likely to consider "I wiped my phone, so there's nothing on it" suspicious too.
- eridius 9y agoIf you're a US citizen it doesn't matter, they won't bar you from entering just because you choose to cross with a factory-reset phone. If you're not a citizen, then I have no idea. I've seen people claim they'll block you from entering the US if you do this, but I'm pretty sure that's just speculation.
- NamTaf 9y agoThe only solution for a non-US citizen is to simply not travel to the US. This is far less of a loss than it seems to many; it's a large and fascinating world out there and there's many other wonderful places to visit instead.
- scarface74 9y agoOn an iPhone you wouldn't have to use DropBox. Just backup to iCloud.
- westbywest 9y agoLikewise for non-state actors. If they have access to your physical person, most security provisions become pointless. https://xkcd.com/538/ https://xkcd.com/538/
- mikeash 9y agoI'd much rather enter without my phone than allowing them to search it, so I'd say it helps a lot for certain cases.
- sowpati 9y agoAm I missing something? Admittedly I have not traveled much internationally, but I don't remember customs ever asking me to unlock my phone.. I have only traveled to and from Europe though. So maybe it's different in the US?
- mikeash 9y agoIt's not normal, but it can happen if they decide to give you special attention.
- DKnoll 9y agoWhat's the country? I heard there are several.