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Perhaps Google, Apple or others have a product opportunity here: build a pre-border crossing full phone archive process. You pump literally everything personal

Perhaps Google, Apple or others have a product opportunity here: build a pre-border crossing full phone archive process. You pump literally everything personal to the cloud before you go, leaving a limited core of anonymous functions working, and then when you're back on a network in the arrival county the phone recovers the content. It's not that much of a leap beyond current capabilities as switching to a new phone is quite like this when most of your files are cloud based, it would just need to take all the local files/settings and figure a reliable secure way to ensure only you got access to restore the content (preferably in a way that you can't easily be forced to apply at the border, so maybe a geo fenced reactivation element to it?) Keeping certain large files as "home country only" and not restoring them when "in country" could mitigate the volume of data needed to transfer. Obviously is not going to appeal to people who don't trust those companies either but would be less easily abused than an in-person search of your phone by a dodgy border guard.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
ulfw 7y ago
All this for entering a democratic free and open country with a rule of law?
- dschn_dstryr 7y ago
  No, for entering the US.
  - bmmayer1 7y ago
    Have an upvote.
systemtest 7y ago
I already do this. Wipe my iPhone just before landing. Hand over the phone at customs. When they see the welcome/configuration screen they know that there isn't anything on the phone so they don't have to investigate. When I arrive at the hotel I connect to WiFi and restore an iCloud backup.
- snazz 7y ago
  You could fake the welcome/configuration screen too (maybe with a jailbreak tweak) if they completely overlook phones that display it.
  - codetrotter 7y ago
    Don’t do that. Just wipe it and restore it properly. “Faking” the welcome screen first of all means your data is accessible if they do decide to look closer. And secondly it’ll probably lead to some additional questions meaning that more of your time is wasted at the airport.
  - justadudeama 7y ago
    It's also illegal to lie to a boarder agent, and that would probably include this.
- stronglikedan 7y ago
  Don't worry. They'll be permitted to compel you to restore your backup soon enough.
- Zelizz 7y ago
  How often are you having to hand over your phone to customs? I've literally never been asked to do so.
bboygravity 7y ago
Until a few years ago I was using Blackberry OS 10, which allowed for getting a backup image of the phone through USB (backing up literally everything). It also had "securely wipe device" functionality (or something along those lines) to make sure restoring files after a whipe was impossible/harder. I'm still blown away by the fact that (unrooted) Android does not offer such basic functionality. Even many years later. And by the fact that Android is spyware by design, but thats another discussion. According to another comment here Iphone also has similar backup features to BBOS10. Conclusion: don't buy an Android phone and do as describe in parent post?
drexlspivey 7y ago
Or you could have a second partition with different set of apps/documents and have a second pin that unlocks that.
xoa 7y ago
Cloud is unnecessary with the kind of hardware backed crypto being used now. Apple's setup with iOS in particular given the strong app-based containerization and granularity of keys would be well suited to allowing users to define conditionals for decryption that go beyond passwords, like GPS, time, network connections, or any other data input. Coercion inputs could also fit into this (both biometric and alternate codes). I'd love it if they allowed the creation of "views" where only certain apps (and associated data) could be accessed, cryptographically enforced. But the data would still be there on the phone, so it'd work fine with no cellular and be instant and in turn convenient. It would usefully have applications far beyond mere border privacy (usefully because it wouldn't just be a "border check evasion" thing at all). It would just plain be good for security period first of all, if sensitive applications just autovanished while traveling it'd further reduce the risk of a device being stolen or someone being held up and coerced. But also important, and related to growing concerns about overuse of devices, it would allow device owners to reduce mental load, clutter and temptation by recreating the lines between various parts of our lives that have been blurred. I'd love to be able to have "views" for work, working out, travel, and home (even times of day at home) where some stuff vanishes and thus isn't tempting. Work apps could vanish off hours, news apps and games except for limited times of day, etc.
auiya 7y ago
Google pretty much already does this with ChromeOS laptop devices. It would be nice to see the same concepts applied to mobile phone devices too
fit2rule 7y ago
"Pumping to the cloud" is not compatible with my idea of not wanting state or other nefarious actors to ever have any access to my data, ever, whether I'm crossing a border into a hostile state or otherwise. I'd rather see some kind of application which takes my data and replaces it with pictures of kittens and other harmless things, using steganography. If the fascists want to see what I'm doing with my own property, they're going to have to look at some pussy.
giobox 7y ago
While I think it’s a valid idea personally, I think the political fallout of marketing a feature designed specifically to circumvent border security would politically go down like a cup of cold sick today, and would likely invite some very unwanted attention from legislators. Again not saying I agree, but can see many reasons why a product management team might shoot the idea down. Besides, for those who care about this, I’m assuming existing options for wiping and restoring a cellphone probably achieve the same thing in practice.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

ulfw 7y ago

All this for entering a democratic free and open country with a rule of law?

dschn_dstryr 7y ago
No, for entering the US.
- bmmayer1 7y ago
  Have an upvote.

systemtest 7y ago

I already do this. Wipe my iPhone just before landing. Hand over the phone at customs. When they see the welcome/configuration screen they know that there isn't anything on the phone so they don't have to investigate. When I arrive at the hotel I connect to WiFi and restore an iCloud backup.

snazz 7y ago
You could fake the welcome/configuration screen too (maybe with a jailbreak tweak) if they completely overlook phones that display it.
- codetrotter 7y ago
  Don’t do that. Just wipe it and restore it properly. “Faking” the welcome screen first of all means your data is accessible if they do decide to look closer. And secondly it’ll probably lead to some additional questions meaning that more of your time is wasted at the airport.
- justadudeama 7y ago
  It's also illegal to lie to a boarder agent, and that would probably include this.
stronglikedan 7y ago
Don't worry. They'll be permitted to compel you to restore your backup soon enough.
Zelizz 7y ago
How often are you having to hand over your phone to customs? I've literally never been asked to do so.

bboygravity 7y ago

Until a few years ago I was using Blackberry OS 10, which allowed for getting a backup image of the phone through USB (backing up literally everything). It also had "securely wipe device" functionality (or something along those lines) to make sure restoring files after a whipe was impossible/harder. I'm still blown away by the fact that (unrooted) Android does not offer such basic functionality. Even many years later. And by the fact that Android is spyware by design, but thats another discussion. According to another comment here Iphone also has similar backup features to BBOS10. Conclusion: don't buy an Android phone and do as describe in parent post?

drexlspivey 7y ago

Or you could have a second partition with different set of apps/documents and have a second pin that unlocks that.

xoa 7y ago

Cloud is unnecessary with the kind of hardware backed crypto being used now. Apple's setup with iOS in particular given the strong app-based containerization and granularity of keys would be well suited to allowing users to define conditionals for decryption that go beyond passwords, like GPS, time, network connections, or any other data input. Coercion inputs could also fit into this (both biometric and alternate codes). I'd love it if they allowed the creation of "views" where only certain apps (and associated data) could be accessed, cryptographically enforced. But the data would still be there on the phone, so it'd work fine with no cellular and be instant and in turn convenient. It would usefully have applications far beyond mere border privacy (usefully because it wouldn't just be a "border check evasion" thing at all). It would just plain be good for security period first of all, if sensitive applications just autovanished while traveling it'd further reduce the risk of a device being stolen or someone being held up and coerced. But also important, and related to growing concerns about overuse of devices, it would allow device owners to reduce mental load, clutter and temptation by recreating the lines between various parts of our lives that have been blurred. I'd love to be able to have "views" for work, working out, travel, and home (even times of day at home) where some stuff vanishes and thus isn't tempting. Work apps could vanish off hours, news apps and games except for limited times of day, etc.

auiya 7y ago

Google pretty much already does this with ChromeOS laptop devices. It would be nice to see the same concepts applied to mobile phone devices too

fit2rule 7y ago

"Pumping to the cloud" is not compatible with my idea of not wanting state or other nefarious actors to ever have any access to my data, ever, whether I'm crossing a border into a hostile state or otherwise. I'd rather see some kind of application which takes my data and replaces it with pictures of kittens and other harmless things, using steganography. If the fascists want to see what I'm doing with my own property, they're going to have to look at some pussy.

giobox 7y ago

While I think it’s a valid idea personally, I think the political fallout of marketing a feature designed specifically to circumvent border security would politically go down like a cup of cold sick today, and would likely invite some very unwanted attention from legislators. Again not saying I agree, but can see many reasons why a product management team might shoot the idea down. Besides, for those who care about this, I’m assuming existing options for wiping and restoring a cellphone probably achieve the same thing in practice.