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Travelers on Air Force One ordered to throw away gifts, phones after China trip
- NooneAtAll3 5mo agoshouldn't they have been warned before even flying there?
- browningstreet 5mo agoJensen didn’t even know he was going on the trip… not a lot of forethought or process involved.
- daxuak 5mo ago[dead]
- rationalist 5mo agoAren't there companies that issue burner phones and burner laptops for the same reason?
- 866-RON-0-FEZ 5mo agoIt's standard practice in the industry — if your company has a competent IT department — to mandate burner laptops and devices in China.
- blipvert 5mo agoAnd now for EU visitors to the US.
- retired 5mo agoTen years ago, a Dutch company I worked for had a standard protocol after government delegation trips to China: every phone and laptop used on the visit was fed straight into an industrial shredder.
- jmclnx 5mo agoIf I am not mistaken, isn't doing this an insult to China ? Do me they could have put the items in a sealed maybe 'lead' box and examine them later.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- boothby 5mo agoThe Chinese government would be stupid to not do the exact same thing when departing the US. They aren't stupid, and they aren't going to wage war on the basis of some discarded lapel pins.
- stronglikedan 5mo agoStandard Practice? Yes. News? No. Hacker News? Hell no!
- NooneAtAll3 5mo agoit's literally the most important plane of US government secrecy concerns about happenings on board are obvious and are just basic security procedure --- the only question is whether there was an alternative way (on support transports) to keep anything to regift or smth
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- z2 5mo agoActually throw away as in discard and leave behind in China? I thought the logical thing to do would be to put them into a faraday cage and inspect them later in a lab.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- ChoGGi 5mo agoThe reporter only says placed in a container, so fairly likely yes.
- arbirk 5mo agoEU officials have to do the same when leaving the US
- gpt5 5mo agoSource? I didn’t know EU officials are required to use burner phones in the US
- ano-ther 5mo agohttps://www.theregister.com/security/2025/04/15/report-ec-issues-burner-phones-for-visits-to-us/609530 https://www.theregister.com/security/2025/04/15/report-ec-is...
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- 866-RON-0-FEZ 5mo agoAnonymous sources, the EC didn't confirm anything, and the "proof" is well they didn't deny it either. Quality reporting as usual from El Reg.
- arbirk 5mo agohttps://www.computerworld.dk/art/291220/frygter-spionage-eu-ansatte-skal-fremover-anvende-helt-skrabede-mobiltelefoner-og-pcer-under-besoeg-i-usa https://www.computerworld.dk/art/291220/frygter-spionage-eu-...
- surgical_fire 5mo agoThey definitely should. The US is a profoundly untrustworthy country.
- benbojangles 5mo agoDidn't China steal the F-22/F35/B2/C17 blueprints, and also stole COVID?
- Leonard_of_Q 5mo agoThe former, yes. The latter, no, that one was partly paid for by Fauci & co. who also did their best (but failed, [1, page 9 and onwards]) to keep this fact out of the news. [1] https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/letter-and-testimomy.pdf https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/letter-and-t...
- ChoGGi 5mo agoNot sure why you got down voted, I thought it was common knowledge the US funded the Wuhan lab doing gain-of-function research?
- Simulacra 5mo agoI mean, the Chinese are probably ordered to do the same thing after a state visit to America
- tibbydudeza 5mo agoSoviet children gave the US ambassador a plaque of peace -hidden inside was a recording device that drew no power and gave off no emissions - it was activated when the KGB beamed a specific frequency to it and the feedback from it using fancy maths could give a realtime recording.
- Paradigm2020 5mo agoSource ?
- wolfwyrd 5mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)
- Paradigm2020 5mo agoThank you!
- maxglute 5mo agoSo what happens to the stuff after, I presume the embassy picks it up for processing, or it gets forwarded to US on another flight for processing, presumably some Chinese janitor is not going to have access to Rubios burner phone to resell.
- not_the_fda 5mo agoIt should be SOP for any country's diplomats visiting another country.
- gorgoiler 5mo agoSeems odd to “throw the items in a bin”. You’d more likely want to know who was given what, put each item in a sealed container, then analyze them later on. Unless you were dumb enough to think it was a bomb.
- calmbonsai 5mo agoWhy did his non-news published by this perpetual rag make the front page?! Nuclear down-voting this.
- daft_pink 5mo agoI wonder if Tim Cook supplied burner phones.
- retired 5mo agoHe gave everyone an iPhone 5S.