Not everything can be backed up to the cloud these days. Banking apps, for instance, (understandably) like to use secure storage, so at the very least you will need to do a 2FA handshake all over again, which can be very painful when you are abroad.
This is why I have my old iPhone as a dedicated travel phone. No way am I going to let officials rifle through my real phone looking for sensitive information or private photos. Especially out of sight!
With my travel phone, I always assume everything I put on there is public info. If I lose my phone, no big deal, just an annoyance.
Rather silly advice. Sometimes one has no choice about their destination. Secondly, many countries now apply these grotesque little petty tyranny laws. Canada does, for example, and many people consider it "welcoming". Better practical advice, ad maybe also activism than depending on a possibly shrinking list of supposedly "nice" governments.
As a non-citizen, I don't think you have enough rights to really fight back, and you could risk upsetting a petty border agent who may decide to 'punish' you and maybe deny entry.
Thankfully I've learned to back up and wipe devices before travel and then only restore after landing.
That's idiotic. They are wasting time harassing people, and searching physical devices for material that can be easily transmitted between any two internet-connected points on the planet. The "bad guys" they are trying to bust will do exactly that.
It's like still doing body searches for drugs when remote matter replicators have become ubiquitous.
I don't think they're illegal, but journalism aside, they may at times be suggestive of a terroristic inclination. It will raise further red flags. They can however lie to you that the possession is illegal and detain you for it, even though it's legal as per the First Amendment, and no jury will find you guilty if you quote the First Amendment in your defense, except in the event of a Supreme Court precedent against such possession.
Some countries like NZ and Australia do ban content that is violence and censor it despite journalistic value. They recently tried to force X to ban footage of a stabbing globally for all users, and Musk said no luckily.
I’m probably a little odd but I wipe my devices before international travel. All my travel documents are printed. If they want to steal a device, I’ll just replace it.
When I arrive safely I restore from backup and nothing is lost except an hour or so.
This is not nearly as odd as it may seem to some people. Many federal agencies and DOE national laboratories use a similar procedure to this by issuing you separate temporary devices while on international travel. That basically requires you to only bring the files that you need if you bring any of them at all.
How do you deal with banking apps, the type where you confirm a credit card transaction? They cannot be restored from backup, need to be setup fresh on every new phone…
Endpoint navigation is not optional for me. I suppose you could pre-login to only those apps, but still, there is nothing that interesting on my phone that I want to spend the energy to wipe, restore, and re-login to a hundred apps.
How is that a big deal? Half the time you'd have to install the local equivalent of those ride hailing services anyways - that is if regular local cabs aren't the preferred way to get around.
I use like 2-3 apps for getting around, depending on country. I don't know what you're doing with hundreds.
1password works just fine with OTP across all my devices.
Using an authentication method tied directly to and dependent on my phone seems extremely risky and short sighted. A phone can be lost, fall out your pocket into a toilet, etc and those are just accidents. They also basically have a max life time of five years. What happens when you buy a new phone?
KeePassXC is a TOTP authenticator and it saves to a file. You can put the file anywhere you like. You can, given the correct master password, open the file again on any device and generate TOTP codes.
i like this. i've wanted to do this. but what might be the "right answer" to an inquisitive border force who ask why you have device(s) that are factory fresh?
I’ve never actually been detained or questioned (but know people who have).
If I were I’d tell them the truth that I feel more vulnerable during the chaos of travel and don’t want any risk that a lost or stolen device could leak anything personal.
Would this satisfy them? No idea. Getting stopped at the border is legitimately a single small concern of many more likely scenarios.
"So that I have the maximum amount of space available for downloading tons of beheading videos over the hotel Wi-Fi when I get to my room in New York."
More seriously, I would say that the wiped phone has a minimal amount of data in it, which has the advantage that if it is has to be searched, the search time will be minimized.
A good solution while it remains legal and backups remain unreachable authorities.
Are they unreachable? How sure are you? Aren’t you just raising suspicion and acting like a criminal by walking around with wiped devices at International borders? Seems suspicious.
How is it suspicious? Buying a burner phone is one of the most common pieces of advice you'll see for traveling internationally [0]. This wiping strategy is just one small step from that, especially if OP doesn't have a current-year flagship smartphone.
For most people border patrol is not the biggest threat they face when traveling internationally, and OP's steps are very reasonable ones to take against all manner of non-state-sanctioned thefts.
But why? Like for example, in the US you can chalk it up to reducing labor rights to drive down cost and increase stock price, but what’s the reason Australia has this authoritarian boner atm?
The solution to this is simple; erase your devices before you cross an international border and carry no data storage. If the reset device was taken from you then it's been bugged go buy a replacement. Otherwise just log back in to the cloud on the other side.
Depends on the device. When they take it out of sight they'll plug it into an automated unit that just hoovers up the data and sends it to intel. They want to build a detailed profile on every traveller. Now if you wipe the device and are logged out of your accounts, they're stuck. So they leave a rootkit that relays the login info when you type it in at home later.
If they take your device out of sight or plug it into any of their hardware, then it's a write off. Straight to Craigslist
It’s so strange to see a country concerned about Chinese incidence essentially turn into them, with greater and greater threats to free speech, digital freedoms, and privacy. It’s one thing to complain about China and another thing to complain about them while adopting the worst of their practices and none of the good pieces.
`“My only defence is to regress to 1985 and travel without a single electronic device, depriving me of my ability to communicate, my livelihood and to even call my airline.”`
There’s an easier way. Just buy a device and keep it in Australia, and cross the border without a phone.
There could be multiple duress passwords, one type would silently wipe the phone while displaying some fake data in a fake/locked down OS. Another would brick the device, another would turn on tracking and call authorities of choice..
Readit News
I was asked if my device contained any contraband, like illegal porn or beheading videos.
I had the option of handing over my passcode, or have my device confiscated and sent to a lab for cracking.
As a non-citizen, I complied. The device was searched for about an hour out of my sight. Meanwhile, I was quizzed by another border agent.
In hindsight, I realized that this gave access to my keychain and all my cloud documents. It feels very violating.
If anyone has suggestions how to prepare for this in advance, let me know.
All of this is completely legal under current law.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/without-warrants-u-s-...
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5983533-90-2.html
Backup your phone to cloud storage prior to travel, wipe it, hand border agents a nearly empty phone, restore once across the border.
(If your phone looks suspiciously empty or has a weird account, you might as well have said "no", that phone will be taking an extra detour.)
With my travel phone, I always assume everything I put on there is public info. If I lose my phone, no big deal, just an annoyance.
Thankfully I've learned to back up and wipe devices before travel and then only restore after landing.
It's like still doing body searches for drugs when remote matter replicators have become ubiquitous.
Why?
I believe they have journalistic value.
Dead Comment
When I arrive safely I restore from backup and nothing is lost except an hour or so.
Endpoint navigation is not optional for me. I suppose you could pre-login to only those apps, but still, there is nothing that interesting on my phone that I want to spend the energy to wipe, restore, and re-login to a hundred apps.
I use like 2-3 apps for getting around, depending on country. I don't know what you're doing with hundreds.
There’s nothing interesting on my phone either - except keychain, which would give someone access to nearly all my online accounts.
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Using an authentication method tied directly to and dependent on my phone seems extremely risky and short sighted. A phone can be lost, fall out your pocket into a toilet, etc and those are just accidents. They also basically have a max life time of five years. What happens when you buy a new phone?
[1] https://github.com/beemdevelopment/Aegis
https://2fas.com/
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If you being asked by the border force of the country you are leaving tell them you don't trust the border force of the country you are going to.
If I were I’d tell them the truth that I feel more vulnerable during the chaos of travel and don’t want any risk that a lost or stolen device could leak anything personal.
Would this satisfy them? No idea. Getting stopped at the border is legitimately a single small concern of many more likely scenarios.
More seriously, I would say that the wiped phone has a minimal amount of data in it, which has the advantage that if it is has to be searched, the search time will be minimized.
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Are they unreachable? How sure are you? Aren’t you just raising suspicion and acting like a criminal by walking around with wiped devices at International borders? Seems suspicious.
For most people border patrol is not the biggest threat they face when traveling internationally, and OP's steps are very reasonable ones to take against all manner of non-state-sanctioned thefts.
[0] https://global.psu.edu/article/travel-safety-tips-know-you-g...
There’s an easier way. Just buy a device and keep it in Australia, and cross the border without a phone.
Thats pretty much all of them now.
If only iOS supported accounts.