6 ms·
i like this. i've wanted to do this. but what might be the "right answer" to an inquisitive border force who ask why you have device(s) that are factory fresh?
by ricktdotorg 2y ago
i like this. i've wanted to do this. but what might be the "right answer" to an inquisitive border force who ask why you have device(s) that are factory fresh?
- xenospn 2y agothey don’t know your device is factory fresh unless you give them the code.
- ricktdotorg 2y agothis has not happened to me yet, but as a non-US citizen with a green card, if USBP told me "give us the code or you're not admitted" the next time i try to enter US, i'm gonna give them the code
- lazyasciiart 2y agoGood choice. The only circumstances where it’s not a big risk to withhold your PIN is when you are a citizen entering your home country. Even then they can turn it into a pretty nasty time for you (as seen by the guy in the article, where they threaten to just keep his stuff).
- dfadsadsf 2y agoDepends how much you want to visit the country in question. I will be bummed if I am blocked from visiting EU (I am US citizen) but any other country is kinda irrelevant. If Japan put me on no travel list, I would not care one bit. There is inconvenience of being deported but frankly risk of giving access to all clouds account to random official is just too high. There is also risk of them putting you in jail but I am not sure if unblocking phone really mitigate it.
- lazyasciiart 2y agoAll the deportations I’ve heard of where the person arrived by air, they were jailed until they could be put on a flight back. They only say “you can’t come in, now go away” if you’re crossing a border by land - and plenty of countries are going to refuse to let you walk away even then.
- ukd1 2y agoIANAL, but as a green card holder my lawyer told me they cannot deny you entry without an order from an immigration judge (likely if travel was not brief - more than 180 days, or they engaged in illegal activity after leaving the United States as defined in 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(13)) - you only have to answer questions about your name and status, nothing more - though, obviously it will likely cause delays. Still, give them the code if you want.
- retrac 2y agoIt's similar in Canada; permanent residents and citizens have the legal right to reentry and it can't be denied. But that right applies to you, not anything you are carrying. Play that game and you'll probably lose the device to border security.
- bmitc 2y agoDamn. I was fairly certain that U.S. citizens are not subject to such warrantless searches and confiscations, but yet: https://informationsecurity.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf1121/files/searches_of_electronic_devices_at_the_border_-_faqs_-_march_2017_0.pdf https://informationsecurity.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toru... It's pretty unbelievable that you have reduced constitutional rights as a citizen re-entering the country.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- csomar 2y agoLosing the device in such circumstances is definitively the best outcome. There is a shit ton of data that these devices have and the law is so complex that you probably committed a crime somewhere without you realizing it.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- kogir 2y agoI’ve never actually been detained or questioned (but know people who have). If I were I’d tell them the truth that I feel more vulnerable during the chaos of travel and don’t want any risk that a lost or stolen device could leak anything personal. Would this satisfy them? No idea. Getting stopped at the border is legitimately a single small concern of many more likely scenarios.
- lazyasciiart 2y agoThen what’s the actual reason you wipe your phone?
- ricktdotorg 2y agothis is a good question. 1) i don't really have anything to hide / i'm not doing crimes however i also: 2) don't want to give my unlocked phone to a border force so they can download my entire life but if i am compelled to unlock a blank phone to a border force: 3) they will suspect me of doing crimes
- lolinder 2y agoIt's not a difficult answer—I bring a burner phone with me when traveling internationally because I don't want to run any risk of a thief getting the keys to the kingdom. Sure, I could remote wipe if that happened, but it feels a lot safer to just not have a phone with real data on it at all. You're not the first person they've detained who didn't want to bring their real phone with them for totally innocent reasons.
- morkalork 2y ago"I don't want to lose everything if I get pickpocketed"
- tzs 2y agoIf you are being asked by the border force of the country you are entering tell them you don't trust the border force of the country you came from. If you being asked by the border force of the country you are leaving tell them you don't trust the border force of the country you are going to.
- kazinator 2y ago"So that I have the maximum amount of space available for downloading tons of beheading videos over the hotel Wi-Fi when I get to my room in New York." More seriously, I would say that the wiped phone has a minimal amount of data in it, which has the advantage that if it is has to be searched, the search time will be minimized.
- shermozle 2y ago"It's my company's policy for international travel"