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I fail to see how that actually reduces risks. Mail/Packages across international borders are routinely searched without warrant. It's explicitly allowed by law
by anarazel 7y ago
I fail to see how that actually reduces risks. Mail/Packages across international borders are routinely searched without warrant. It's explicitly allowed by law:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/19/1583 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/19/1583
"For purposes of ensuring compliance with the Customs laws of the United States and other laws enforced by the Customs Service, including the provisions of law described in paragraph (2), a Customs officer may, subject to the provisions of this section, stop and search at the border, without a search warrant, mail of domestic origin transmitted for export by the United States Postal Service and foreign mail transiting the United States that is being imported or exported by the United States Postal Service."
And I think most other countries have similar rules.
And depending on what kind of parcel service you use, you'd not even have protections against warrant-less searches in US domestic context. I'm not remembering the details, but IIRC only First-Class type mail / parcels are protected. Most packages aren't.
- JohnFen 7y agoThe risk is reduced in two ways -- first, a smaller percentage of such packages are actually searched. In practice, the searching happens if there's something overtly suspicious about the package, or if you happen to already be of interest to authorities. If any of my packages have ever been searched, it was done well enough that I didn't notice. Second, should my devices get damaged then the parcel carrier is on the hook to make me good.
- saagarjha 7y agoPlus there's no (or very little) risk of the courier service employing rubber-hose cryptanalysis.
- bpchaps 7y agoDo you have any proof of this?
- saagarjha 7y agoI mean, they don't have you stuck in a room for hours on end, do they?
- yellowapple 7y agoFedEx is awful, but not "hunt me down wherever I'm at, kidnap me, and beat me until I type in a passphrase for a laptop I shipped via Next Day Air" awful.
- sneak 7y agoHowever it does run the risk of being thoroughly compromised via rootkit or even bootkit if you are of sufficient interest to the target country. We’re not the only ones who know about Thunderstrike.
- kbenson 7y agoLet's not forget that you get to avoid being forced to unlock your device when detained if it's present, and dealing with the consequences of refusing to do so if you take that route. You're essentially the key to your device, so you're essentially shipping the encrypted payload and the encryption key in different mediums, so the capture of either without the other is of little use to an adversary, assuming they don't see you as a target worth trying to break the physical security of the device for. If you haven't actually done anything wrong, that's probably a safe assumption most the time, and it's likely not any worse than taking the device with you if you have.
- mrunkel 7y agoAdditionally, because it's not traveling with you, it's now subject to import duties unless you include proper paperwork showing that it traveled out of the country originally.
- huudhidf 7y agoIt's only a matter of time before you get routinely harassed for not having a phone.