For people who are concerned about having their devices seized at the US border starting Monday when ICE "assists" the TSA, EFF has this guide: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/journalist-security-checklist-preparing-devices-travel-through-us-border
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@d3adpaul@mastodon.social @evacide@hachyderm.io
How is it hard? Law enforcement organizations have standard procedures of dealing with seized devices, they're not going to own it to incompetence if you told them a code and the code break the OS.
Also competent law enforcement organizations likely already knows what will happen if a duress password is entered (what happens immediately, and after a while) for a OS that's provided in public. They would have proof of you tampering with evidence if your device functions exactly like it has duress feature activated, after entering your password. -
@d3adpaul@mastodon.social @evacide@hachyderm.io
How is it hard? Law enforcement organizations have standard procedures of dealing with seized devices, they're not going to own it to incompetence if you told them a code and the code break the OS.
Also competent law enforcement organizations likely already knows what will happen if a duress password is entered (what happens immediately, and after a while) for a OS that's provided in public. They would have proof of you tampering with evidence if your device functions exactly like it has duress feature activated, after entering your password. -
For people who are concerned about having their devices seized at US airports starting Monday when ICE "assists" the TSA, EFF has this guide: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/journalist-security-checklist-preparing-devices-travel-through-us-border
@evacide I see so many reasons just to not go at all.
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@d3adpaul@mastodon.social @evacide@hachyderm.io
Oops.
One of the standard practice of LE is: they would put the devices into farady bags the second they seized it. -
@d3adpaul@mastodon.social @evacide@hachyderm.io
Oops.
One of the standard practice of LE is: they would put the devices into farady bags the second they seized it.@d3adpaul@mastodon.social @evacide@hachyderm.io They don't give it to the techies immediately. They follow whatever the techies said until they can hand it to the techies.
That's called cooperation. -
For people who are concerned about having their devices seized at US airports starting Monday when ICE "assists" the TSA, EFF has this guide: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/journalist-security-checklist-preparing-devices-travel-through-us-border
@evacide All
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@evacide - a significant number of Canadians have resolved the problem by stopping going into the country at all. This action by Canadians alone has cost the USA tens of millions.
@bazcook @evacide And you are right doing so... Honestly, who wants travelling to the current top hated country in the world? #StupidTrump
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For people who are concerned about having their devices seized at US airports starting Monday when ICE "assists" the TSA, EFF has this guide: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/journalist-security-checklist-preparing-devices-travel-through-us-border
@evacide
The Land of the Free now has many new rules that don't exactly sing of freedom.
NMAH | The Lyrics
Francis Scott Key completed four verses and copied them onto a sheet of paper, probably making more than one copy.
(amhistory.si.edu)
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For people who are concerned about having their devices seized at US airports starting Monday when ICE "assists" the TSA, EFF has this guide: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/journalist-security-checklist-preparing-devices-travel-through-us-border
@evacide In regards to the "uploading sensitive documents to the cloud, " please encrypt that data first. Either put them in a folder and password protect it, or encrypt it using other means.
I say this because cloud services can and do keep your data indefinitely (looking at you Google,) and there is no point giving them data they can read (especially sensitive stuff.)
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@evacide duress codes, play dumb "It was working when I handed it to you,. my password is my DOB..what did you do officer? why is my phone broken?"
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For people who are concerned about having their devices seized at US airports starting Monday when ICE "assists" the TSA, EFF has this guide: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/journalist-security-checklist-preparing-devices-travel-through-us-border
@evacide alternate solution: Take Amtrak
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For people who are concerned about having their devices seized at US airports starting Monday when ICE "assists" the TSA, EFF has this guide: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/journalist-security-checklist-preparing-devices-travel-through-us-border
Good I have currently no plans to visit US: After reading through I decided to double check it talks about US, not China. But guess at Border Control the difference for non US residents might not be that different nowadays.
I would for both countries take a dedicated and prepared phone (other devices alike).
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For people who are concerned about having their devices seized at US airports starting Monday when ICE "assists" the TSA, EFF has this guide: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/journalist-security-checklist-preparing-devices-travel-through-us-border
@evacide The most important tip from my PoV:
Bring as few sensitive devices as possible — only what you need.
Why? You should discard any device you travelled with into the U.S. upon returning.
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@evacide The most important tip from my PoV:
Bring as few sensitive devices as possible — only what you need.
Why? You should discard any device you travelled with into the U.S. upon returning.
@masek Because not everyone has the money to buy brand new devices every time they travel.
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@masek Because not everyone has the money to buy brand new devices every time they travel.
@evacide I know that my statement sounds harsh. I do not like to cause people discomfort. But I see no alternative.
If you your own data security is important to you, especially if the current administration might look negatively upon your environments activity, this is the only way.
That is why I avoid travel to such countries as much as possible.
A few years back, I had to travel to a country, where the government was "not a nice one" and also not known for fair play. Luckily it was only for a few days.
So I ditched my smartphone and switched to a $25 dumb phone for the trip. I bought a used $100 tablet as disposable internet device and sold it for $50 before I left. So the costs were bearable. Of course I felt severely limited during that time.
I know that people on tight budget may find those costs prohibitive already.
But be aware: you may loose your device anyway if the border agent wishes so, even if you are innocent of everything. That is nothing you can control. They do not care that you cannot afford a new device.
Another important thought (at least for me): I do not bear the risk alone. As I may work or be friends with people on the administrations shit list, any leak on my side may cause them harm. That thought scares me most.
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For people who are concerned about having their devices seized at US airports starting Monday when ICE "assists" the TSA, EFF has this guide: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/journalist-security-checklist-preparing-devices-travel-through-us-border
That is a hard "NOPE".
Traveling with brown skin, I would rather drive a week long road trip than go near an airport.
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@natharari @evacide
Ask most black people if they remember that time. I don't mean this as a "gotcha", the country has always been like this, it's just affecting white people more now.Agreed. It was always aspirational - no disagreement there. But people visiting the US from abroad in the 1980s and 1990s would never have thought to themselves: "They might detain me for something that I wrote that disparages Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, or Bill Clinton, so I better hide that." You can add Ford and Carter to that list as well. Hell, even George W. Bush wouldn't have done that.
That just wasn't a concern.
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For people who are concerned about having their devices seized at US airports starting Monday when ICE "assists" the TSA, EFF has this guide: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/journalist-security-checklist-preparing-devices-travel-through-us-border
@evacide - good information.
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@LukefromDC@kolektiva.social @evacide@hachyderm.io @d3adpaul@mastodon.social
If you want to wipe your device (either using "factory reset" feature or with the duress feature you set, doesn't matter), wipe it before you're served a search warrant, instead of relying on cops to trigger the wipe by offering the duress password to the cops.
Wiping it beforehand, you have "oh I was testing something on this phone and it went very bad", a plausible reason for the phone to be in a broken state w/ all data unreadable. Wiping it in front of the cops, you throw yourself into prison due to evidence tampering for no reason or benefit compared to the former situation. (Well unless you didn't get a chance to do the former)
This is what I meant. I don't mean "don't wipe your device", I mean "if you want to wipe your device, wipe it before the cops get your devices if you can, because doing it afterwards is legally risky".
Relying on cops to trigger duress wipe then playing dumb is extremely risky advice that can get people behind bars while they're not expecting it (unlike you, maybe). You're willing to wipe your device in front of cops and serve time in jail so your comrades won't be captured? Good for you. But suggesting that to the general public? Bad idea. (Also I'm not suggesting that solidarity is a bad thing here.) -
@evacide I know that my statement sounds harsh. I do not like to cause people discomfort. But I see no alternative.
If you your own data security is important to you, especially if the current administration might look negatively upon your environments activity, this is the only way.
That is why I avoid travel to such countries as much as possible.
A few years back, I had to travel to a country, where the government was "not a nice one" and also not known for fair play. Luckily it was only for a few days.
So I ditched my smartphone and switched to a $25 dumb phone for the trip. I bought a used $100 tablet as disposable internet device and sold it for $50 before I left. So the costs were bearable. Of course I felt severely limited during that time.
I know that people on tight budget may find those costs prohibitive already.
But be aware: you may loose your device anyway if the border agent wishes so, even if you are innocent of everything. That is nothing you can control. They do not care that you cannot afford a new device.
Another important thought (at least for me): I do not bear the risk alone. As I may work or be friends with people on the administrations shit list, any leak on my side may cause them harm. That thought scares me most.
@masek I think that you fundamentally don't understand harm reduction and I hope you don't do privacy/security trainings.
