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HelloUsername 10 hours ago [-]
> Graphene OS has a duress password and PIN, which “will irreversibly wipe the device (along with any installed eSIMs) once entered anywhere where the device credentials are requested.”
iOS kinda also offers such a solution, though a bit more suspicious to perform: "Erase all data on this iPhone after 10 failed passcode attempts"
John23832 8 hours ago [-]
But if the data is backed up on iCloud, Apple will provide it with a warrant.
bladeacidic 7 hours ago [-]
Turn on Advanced Data protection, which encrypts it so Apple can give them the data, but they don't have the keys to decrypt it. Doesn't help if the other person you're talking to doesn't have it turned on though.
HelloUsername 6 hours ago [-]
But how will they prove which Apple account was just wiped from that iPhone?
John23832 6 hours ago [-]
iPhones have unique identifiers. So do you, via your set of emails used. The email maps to the iCloud account, which then maps to the iPhone. It would be trivial to map a backup to an iPhone.
HelloUsername 4 hours ago [-]
Ah yes that makes sense, they can retrieve the iPhone's serial number and warrant Apple to handover the associated iCloud backup.
catlover76 47 minutes ago [-]
[dead]
timothyduong 9 hours ago [-]
Can be set to less attempts via MDM profiles.
Same for Android.
DivingForGold 15 hours ago [-]
"If you’re a fan of privacy in our age of creeping digital authoritarianism, there’s one famously effective way to pass through U.S. Customs at an airport without worrying about a device search: travel with a burner phone only."
What about setting your phone from the get go to store all data on the micro sim card ? Then, when traveling through airports, swap out for another micro sim that has some small, useless data on it, fake contact list, etc. ?
Real sim card is so small can be hidden in a million places.
tdeck 12 hours ago [-]
At least on Android they've removed the ability to encrypt data stored on external media, so in exchange for the ability to do this you're carrying around everything unencrypted (except what individual apps might encrypt themselves).
izacus 9 hours ago [-]
This is not true at all, adopted storage is encrypted.
tdeck 7 hours ago [-]
It seems like I was wrong about the platform support, but in fact some OEMs like Samsung have disabled it.
Most of the budget / midrange devices likely to have SD card slots do support it though.
ratelimitsteve 2 hours ago [-]
I thought the play was to travel with a burner and mail the real phone to a drop somewhere in the destination country. Supposing you could just put all your sensitive data on a microsim or microsd and do the same thing, but this all feels like different colored wrappers on the same piece of candy: don't bring data you want to keep secret to the place where they're allowed to use force to steal secret data. Obv packages are subject to search and seizure at borders the same way you and your phone are but a package in the mail has the advantage of volume and relative anonymity. There are a lot of packages and not enough resources to seize and search all of them, and it's harder to tie the package to a person or entity that warrants increased suspicion if it's mailed anonymously from another country than it is to tie a phone to the guy whose pocket it was in when he tried to cross the border.
inigyou 15 hours ago [-]
That isn't something that actually exists
londons_explore 14 hours ago [-]
Replace micro SIM with micro SD, and it can be done on android.
inigyou 8 hours ago [-]
Still no. Plenty of references to SD card stuff in the main storage.
londons_explore 8 hours ago [-]
If you root it, you can put all writable storage on the SD card, and the phones internal memory becomes readonly
Disgusting. I’ve never had to let anyone touch my phone in my entire life in any country I’ve visited.
Is there a list of countries that does this? At this point it’s obvious I won’t ever be traveling to the US, but I’m curious if genuinely authoritarian countries like China are actually less of a police state at the border than the USA.
ytoawwhra92 14 hours ago [-]
I think almost all countries do this if your name is on a list (as this person's is). It's the nature of the lists and what gets your name added to them that varies from country to country.
petterroea 12 hours ago [-]
Visiting another country is a privilege, not a right.
joeblubaugh 10 hours ago [-]
This is a US citizen, so that’s a moot point
mdp2021 12 hours ago [-]
That, whatever it means, cannot mean losses of personal rights.
petterroea 11 hours ago [-]
It means you aren't entitled to visit a foreign country. You aren't entitled to them letting you in.
Of course in a perfect world we all trust each other and have open borders, but that's a privilege we have to work for. I'm European and enjoy the open borders, but also am well aware that such a situation is not a given.
Cannot mean loss of personal rights, sure. Showing up at a border and being required to give up personal rights isn't ok.
But many people in this thread are writing as if they actually believe they have a right to go anywhere, and that simply isn't the case. It's the kind of thing you need live in a strong passport country to believe.
lazide 3 hours ago [-]
Most countries disagree?
aa-jv 11 hours ago [-]
Rights are universal, whether a state cares about them or not.
millzlane 5 hours ago [-]
Some might even say these are natural rights.
10 hours ago [-]
rmarquis 12 hours ago [-]
I've been to China recently. No phone search whatsoever. Their Internet is behind the famous Great Firewall though, but there is no issue using a (foreigner-only) unlocked sim or e-sim to access the rest of the Internet.
thenthenthen 13 hours ago [-]
I travelled to the US three times and once had my devices checked. Travelled to China more than 50 times, never had anything checked.
crimsdings 11 hours ago [-]
That's because they already checked in advance :)
10 hours ago [-]
artisinal 13 hours ago [-]
UK passed a law for this recently. Germany has been doing it for a while.
iOS kinda also offers such a solution, though a bit more suspicious to perform: "Erase all data on this iPhone after 10 failed passcode attempts"
Same for Android.
What about setting your phone from the get go to store all data on the micro sim card ? Then, when traveling through airports, swap out for another micro sim that has some small, useless data on it, fake contact list, etc. ?
Real sim card is so small can be hidden in a million places.
https://www.androidauthority.com/using-microsd-card-android-...
Most of the budget / midrange devices likely to have SD card slots do support it though.
And it's 3 day old news
[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49024436
Is there a list of countries that does this? At this point it’s obvious I won’t ever be traveling to the US, but I’m curious if genuinely authoritarian countries like China are actually less of a police state at the border than the USA.
Of course in a perfect world we all trust each other and have open borders, but that's a privilege we have to work for. I'm European and enjoy the open borders, but also am well aware that such a situation is not a given.
Cannot mean loss of personal rights, sure. Showing up at a border and being required to give up personal rights isn't ok.
But many people in this thread are writing as if they actually believe they have a right to go anywhere, and that simply isn't the case. It's the kind of thing you need live in a strong passport country to believe.