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

[zahara@mastodon.social]

@evacide It's ridiculous that it has come to this. I live an hour or so from the U.S. border. We used to go on day trips there just for fun, shop, get a bite to eat... Not anymore.

[meltedcheese@c.im]

@evacide Thanks for the timely reminder. I strongly support the work of #EFF . Everyone who has demonstrated or even expressed as little as a sentiment contrary to the regime should be concerned about what could happen when you in a border zone or crossing a border into or out of the US. If you are or become a “person of interest” then you must take personal #infosec seriously. I will never take the device I’m typing on right now across a border. Nor my personal smartphone.

[natharari@hostux.social]

@evacide There was a time, growing up, that the USA was called "The Land of the Free"....

What is happening now is so ludicrously insane that words fail me.

[petko@social.petko.me]

@evacide sorry, I am defo too afraid of getting a soldering iron up my rectum to bring any encrypted devices through the US border...

[heathen_cat@furs.social]

@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.

[ricardoharvin@mstdn.social]

@heathen_cat @natharari @evacide

It seemed to be getting better, finally, but now it feels much closer to Jim Crow days, than true freedom.

It's a limbo that fills me with existential dread.

[dnkboston@apobangpo.space]

@heathen_cat I'm AAPI, not Black, but the difference between the way I'm treated vs the way my white husband is treated is amazing. (And I have witnesses: our children.) Conventions that he thinks are suggestions I have to observe scrupulously.

I've seen people be more hostile and aggressive with my Black friends. Yeah, they don't remember Land of the Free very well.

@natharari @evacide

[bazcook@mas.to]

@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.

[fazalmajid@social.vivaldi.net]

@evacide one flaw in the guidance is it assumes there is still the rule of law in the US, e.g. the difference between US citizens and not. Minneapolis has shown otherwise.

If I were a journalist or any other enemy of the gangster state, I'd basically rely on Tails OS on a flash drive purchased locally, with all information stored on encrypted storage overseas. Also to be prepared for rubber-hose cryptanalysis.

[d3adpaul@mastodon.social]

@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?"

[meneerdebruin@mastodon.nl]

@evacide The best way to avoid all the hassle is to not go.

[orca@nya.one]

@d3adpaul@mastodon.social @evacide@hachyderm.io
That would be good, if there isn't a thing "tampering of evidence".
Duress code is good only for wiping your device before they lay hands on your device.

[d3adpaul@mastodon.social]

@Orca @evacide very hard to prove you tampered with evidence if you had over a perfectly good phone and they input your password and it's nuked. good luck proving it wasn't their incompetence.

[thestoicking@mastodon.social]

@evacide Interesting...

[orca@nya.one]

@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]

@Orca @evacide you can send duress via sms too and I think in practice enforcement is nowhere near that competent. before it ever gets to a techie it passes through a bunch of beat cops.

an besides prove it to a judge.

[jan@fedi.kcore.org]

@evacide I see so many reasons just to not go at all.

[orca@nya.one]

@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.

[orca@nya.one]

@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.

[powerfromspace1@mstdn.social]

@evacide All ️