this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2025
168 points (98.8% liked)

News

29500 readers
3186 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Amid the recent news of a U.S. citizen being asked to turn over his phone to authorities at a border crossing, Sophia Cope of the Electronic Frontier Foundation has tips on digital civil liberties.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250412154222/https://www.npr.org/2025/04/11/nx-s1-5359447/what-are-your-rights-if-border-authorities-ask-for-your-phone

Related, "Attorney representing a student protester detained by federal immigration agents"

When a man in Michigan was heading home on Sunday from a family vacation in the Caribbean, he was stopped in the Detroit Airport. Federal officers, border agents, detained him, interrogated him and pressured him to hand over his cellphone. The man is a U.S. citizen. He's a civil rights and criminal defense attorney, and among his clients is an activist who has been charged in connection to a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Michigan.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250410185452/https://www.npr.org/transcripts/nx-s1-5357455

(page 2) 34 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 52 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

You don't and haven't had rights near the boarder since the Patriot Act. If you're traveling, use a burner phone and backup/wipe your laptop. Setup a NAS at home and do not setup any logins for it on the laptop before you arrive at your destination if you really need files.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month ago (10 children)

Wipe phone, set it up with dummy info like a Gmail account that you’ve previously signed up for random newsletters.add your mom and your dr as contacts, cross border, wipe it again, then restore from cloud.

When I was supporting people in hostile countries they would use a “burner” device. It literally was considered unusable upon return.

There’s a story about how a person brought back a cheap Pdu from an hotel they were staying ant and one day it caught on fire. IT opened it, because power strips are designed to not catch on fire, to find a bug in it.

If it about of your sight for any amount of time it’s probably untrustworthy.

load more comments (10 replies)
[–] dick_fineman@discuss.online 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

"I'm a US Citizen, eat my dick".

[–] kmartburrito@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Lol you will get this then with that attitude

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Ep1cFac3pa1m@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

PSA on an iPhone, by default, if you press the lock button 5 times in a row, your phone will lock and facial recognition and fingerprint unlock will be disabled.

[–] MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago (2 children)

You're better off turning the device off entirely. Lockdown mode doesn't put the device back into a BFU state so you're still leaving room for an exploit from Cellebrite or Greykey. Not having that first unlock after you turned the device on gives them a shitload of problems.

[–] kmartburrito@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

This, 100%. Lockdown mode is a false sense of safety in all honesty. As MegaUltraChicken (he is legend) is saying, you need to have your phone in a Before First Unlock (BFU) state to have maximum protection of your data (and is also phone model dependent)

Here's a great link to read more about this and find where your phone falls susceptibility wise.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] twistypencil@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Depends if you are a citizen or not. Limited rights at the border, but you have an absolute right of entry as a citizen, but depending on the situation they may detain you for some hours, or take your phone. Turn off all devices before crossing, citizen or not, use full disk encryption, have backups somewhere else. Assume you will never see your devices again. Be prepared for that.

If you aren't a citizen, you have even less rights, they can send you back if you fart on their general direction.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ugtug@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

The clear solution is to back up all your data, wipe your phone, and restore it later.

[–] mkwt@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Use a pass code. Do not use fingerprint or face ID unlock.

The current law is that you can be compelled to unlock your phone with your face or finger. (Probably should require a search warrant).

You cannot be compelled to say what a pass code or password is. You have the right to remain silent.

[–] twistypencil@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Turn off phone before crossing, safest, easiest most resistant

[–] Zikeji@programming.dev 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If you don't want to disable biometric auth, familiarize yourself with your phone and see if it has lockdown mode. Apple phones and most modern Android phones support it, using it will require your password / pin for unlocks. Put it into lockdown mode for the flight.

[–] kmartburrito@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yes, this is good, however lockdown mode does NOT protect you against forensic extraction of your data, for example from the Cellebrite tool. Your phone has two states, BFU and AFU (before/after first unlock). To maximize your protection against your data being extracted, your phone needs to have not had its first unlock after being powered up. Lockdown mode does nothing here.

So, use lockdown in general if you like, however, when going through customs or in a place where your phone may be confiscated, power it down fully. Don't unlock it if you power it up, and don't use biometric fingerprint or face unlock so you're not forced to unlock it.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] PunkRockSportsFan@fanaticus.social 71 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Tell them to fuck off.

Make sure your phone is already turned off before you go through.

Refuse to let them turn it on.

“I can’t remember my password”

Smile and be polite but make sure they hear the “fuck off nazi” in your tone.

DO NOT CONSENT TO A SEARCH.

[–] twistypencil@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

Don't do that. Be nice and respectful when you are asserting your rights. Nothing good comes from being an ass about it

[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 62 points 1 month ago (5 children)

I love the spirit of what you're saying, but per the attorney's advice in this article, they might seize your phone no matter what you say, password protection with no fingerprint or face scan unlock should ideally keep them out (note that law enforcement usually can take your picture or finger print you without needing a warrant or anything, but they can't force you to tell them a password), but you will probably never get that device back and you could be detained indefinitely while they try to intimidate you into waiving your 5th amendment silence rights.

So because citizens have an absolute right to reenter the country, they have a bit more leverage to, you know, deny a request or refuse to comply with requests to unlock their phone. But that doesn't mean that there aren't going to be consequences. They could be detained for several hours. Their phone could eventually be confiscated. So even U.S. citizens have to think about those potential consequences.

...

[As for lawful permanent residents,] [t]echnically, they also have to be let back into the country, but as we've seen in sort of a nonborder contexts, the government and the current administration is pretty willing to question the status of LPRs. And so we always say that, you know, they should be especially kind of mindful and thoughtful about how they comport themselves at the border.

I think your best strategies would be 1) just do not travel to the United States if it can at all be avoided; 2) if you must to travel to the US, don't bring any electronic devices capable of storing media with you, purchase new ones after you are past the border, securely download what you need, then erase and destroy those devices before leaving; 3) if purchasing throwaway devices isn't an option, just act as white as you possibly can and just hope you get lucky and they ignore you.

[–] Ep1cFac3pa1m@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If you’re a US citizen they can only hold you for 48 hours without pressing charges. I no longer have faith that limit will be enforced, but it’s there in theory.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] twistypencil@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Face scan unlock is NOT enough. When crossing the border turn OFF the phone. Don't just lock it, full off. The security protections from cellibrite attacks are much much much much stronger if it is off

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] PunkRockSportsFan@fanaticus.social 30 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Act as white as possible lol

[–] Gerudo@lemm.ee 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This 100% is a thing, and it helps. My wife isn't white but can turn it on and fool almost anyone. It has gotten her out of tickets, sticky situations, rude service industry etc.. it's hilarious to watch.

[–] PunkRockSportsFan@fanaticus.social 10 points 1 month ago (6 children)

lol. I am white but I don’t know how to act white. Am I screwed ?

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] solrize@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Use a burner phone if possible.

[–] obvs@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Great advice, but what if you're concerned about the possibility that you might be stuck in the other country permanently(not because of the search itself but because the U.S. Government could fall apart while you're visiting the other country)?

Do you just give up on having your phone?

[–] solrize@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Yes don't bring a phone with anything really private on it. Fixing the country is obviously preferable but sometimes you want a practical stopgap.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm not sure I'm understanding your question. The prior poster you're responding to said to use a burner phone. So you have a phone. It looks like you're asking: "If I get stuck in another country and can't come back, how do I get the device (your primary phone) I left in the USA?"

Is that what you're asking?

[–] obvs@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Me personally, if I was stuck in another country I didn't plan on being in long term, getting a phone back I spent a few hundred dollars on probably wouldn't be very high on my list.

If your concern is not being parted from your primary phone because of its replacement cost, you could backup you data to the cloud on your primary phone, wipe it clean, then carry it across the border (not hiding it). If there's nothing on it then if they ask for it they would likely hand it back to you fairly quickly when they see there's nothing to snoop on it.

Alternatively, prior to your departure, mail it to your new location in the other country. I'd still wipe the data before mailing it though.

[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

If that comes to pass the burner phone would become "your phone," as much of a pain in the ass and potential cause of losing media as that would be

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments