7 ms·

So it sounds like a workaround is to avoid storing any data locally on the device. I wonder how effective that would be in practice. It might raise some suspici

So it sounds like a workaround is to avoid storing any data locally on the device. I wonder how effective that would be in practice. It might raise some suspicion if you unlocked your phone and they discovered you were logged out of everything, and there was nothing on the phone.

jsjohnst 9y ago
> It might raise some suspicion if you unlocked your phone and they discovered you were logged out of everything, and there was nothing on the phone. There are countries[0] I travel to where that’s exactly what they find, essentially a freshly wiped phone. Hasn’t raised suspicion yet. [0] it’s also how I travel to certain security conferences. Buy a used/refurbished device before, use for duration of event, sell immediately after.
- mysterypie 9y ago
  > sell [device] immediately after I've heard people say that if their laptop or phone were searched out of their sight by border officials, they'd sell it afterward. But is it ethical? I think this meat might be contaminated; I'm not going to risk eating it, so I'll sell it.
  - jsjohnst 9y ago
    > But is it ethical? Oh, the e-word! The word that has an entirely different meaning to every person you ask and more often than not, when it’s drug out in an Internet debate it turns into a pseudo-Gotwin’s Law alternative. I’ll spin is back to you to prove the point. Is it ethical the work environment that the device you are using to reply to me with was built in? Is it ethical that it was built with environmentally unfriendly materials and practices? Is it ethical that the electricity to power your device (and this site and the internet in between) is not 100% renewable? Is it ethical that you have advantages in life that many of the billions of people in the world have? If you really want to have a discussion on ethics, I’m happy to entertain it, but this doesn’t seem to be the time or place for it.
    - carapace 9y ago
      You're doing it, do you think it's ethical? If so, why? (I actually don't care, but your response was ridiculous and I noticed you avoided answering.)
      - dang 9y ago
        Would you please stop posting uncivil and/or unsubstantive comments to HN? You've done this a fair bit, and it violates the spirit of this site, as described at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html. Your comment would be fine with just the first sentence.
        carapace 9y ago
        Dang, I respect you and the work you do here, and I really value the HN site. I never set out to post uncivil and/or unsubstantive comments, and when I do I usually delete them or at least add an edit or reply to soften them. And if somebody calls me out on something I check myself, and apologise if I think I messed up. I started to write a whole long thing defending my previous posts but I stopped myself. I did add up all the points from my most recent 10 comments, the total is 17. I'm having a bad run at average 1.7 points. So, yes, you're absolutely right, and I'll try to do better. (There was one exception to my policy that happened recently, where I snarked at some person who was complaining about how hard it is for white men to speak their truth in silicon valley, from an account with a racial pejorative for username. My comment got flagged. Rightly so.) I consider myself a hacker, I hope I'm a net benefit to the community, and I'd really like to see HN stay high quality. I did reread both the guidelines and the welcome page you linked and I am "on-board". But, ... Just kidding, no "but". Sorry for the noise dude, I'll try to do better.
        dang 9y ago
        Thanks! I really appreciate this.
  - gradschool 9y ago
    I'd consider it my lucky day and auction it off to security researchers.

jsjohnst 9y ago

> It might raise some suspicion if you unlocked your phone and they discovered you were logged out of everything, and there was nothing on the phone. There are countries[0] I travel to where that’s exactly what they find, essentially a freshly wiped phone. Hasn’t raised suspicion yet. [0] it’s also how I travel to certain security conferences. Buy a used/refurbished device before, use for duration of event, sell immediately after.

mysterypie 9y ago
> sell [device] immediately after I've heard people say that if their laptop or phone were searched out of their sight by border officials, they'd sell it afterward. But is it ethical? I think this meat might be contaminated; I'm not going to risk eating it, so I'll sell it.
- jsjohnst 9y ago
  > But is it ethical? Oh, the e-word! The word that has an entirely different meaning to every person you ask and more often than not, when it’s drug out in an Internet debate it turns into a pseudo-Gotwin’s Law alternative. I’ll spin is back to you to prove the point. Is it ethical the work environment that the device you are using to reply to me with was built in? Is it ethical that it was built with environmentally unfriendly materials and practices? Is it ethical that the electricity to power your device (and this site and the internet in between) is not 100% renewable? Is it ethical that you have advantages in life that many of the billions of people in the world have? If you really want to have a discussion on ethics, I’m happy to entertain it, but this doesn’t seem to be the time or place for it.
  - carapace 9y ago
    You're doing it, do you think it's ethical? If so, why? (I actually don't care, but your response was ridiculous and I noticed you avoided answering.)
    - dang 9y ago
      Would you please stop posting uncivil and/or unsubstantive comments to HN? You've done this a fair bit, and it violates the spirit of this site, as described at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html. Your comment would be fine with just the first sentence.
      - carapace 9y ago
        Dang, I respect you and the work you do here, and I really value the HN site. I never set out to post uncivil and/or unsubstantive comments, and when I do I usually delete them or at least add an edit or reply to soften them. And if somebody calls me out on something I check myself, and apologise if I think I messed up. I started to write a whole long thing defending my previous posts but I stopped myself. I did add up all the points from my most recent 10 comments, the total is 17. I'm having a bad run at average 1.7 points. So, yes, you're absolutely right, and I'll try to do better. (There was one exception to my policy that happened recently, where I snarked at some person who was complaining about how hard it is for white men to speak their truth in silicon valley, from an account with a racial pejorative for username. My comment got flagged. Rightly so.) I consider myself a hacker, I hope I'm a net benefit to the community, and I'd really like to see HN stay high quality. I did reread both the guidelines and the welcome page you linked and I am "on-board". But, ... Just kidding, no "but". Sorry for the noise dude, I'll try to do better.
        dang 9y ago
        Thanks! I really appreciate this.
- gradschool 9y ago
  I'd consider it my lucky day and auction it off to security researchers.