France’s research minister said a French scientist was denied entry to the US this month after immigration officers at an airport searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration.
Honestly, dude probably dodged a bullet. Stay away from our shit hole country
I told my wife before I could never go to the US because of the stuff I write online, now I’m sure of it
You’re not missing a fucking thing, buddy.
But think of the endless suburban car parks and Walmarts. Such culture.
Personally I’d like to visit the US for their national parks, or whatever is left after this administration policies.
Paving all of them over would be a huge endeavor. I hope Putins orange labrador doesn’t take is as a challenge.
Eh, I think I might be turned off visiting ever again.
I have to admit that ironically “Days Gone” made me fall in love with your nature.
These guys are handing their phones over to show work itinerary in their emails amd the immigration officers are then going through all their other emails and messages.
Never, never, never, hand your unlocked phone over to an immigration officer. Print everything you need out before hand.
Yeah but he can just say “hand over your unlocked phone or I will reject your entry” and then it’s the same thing
Go to the US with a dedicated phone, just like to China.
Except nobody molested your phone.
If you use fingerprint or face scan to unlock your phone, they can compel you to unlock your phone.
If you use a PIN, they cannot.
Restart your android before going through customs
Travel advise: prepare for a trip to the US like you’d prepare for a trip to Russia or China. (Note: being an anarchist who thinks Putin, Xi and Trump don’t deserve a separate rope for each, I wouldn’t consider a visit.)
Don’t bring your real computing device. Bring an empty device from which you can VPN to a system that actually has your data.
If you need to bring an encrypted device, consider the possibility that authorities will attempt to coerce you into unlocking it (and will cause you great disruption and indignity if you won’t). You might be safer bringing a concealed + encrypted microSD card and a device loaded with an OS intended to be searched. If the data matters, make sure you cannot unlock your device under coercion.
(Trivial method: send your friend in the US a snailmail letter. Ask them to keep the letter until your arrival. Into the letter, steganographically embed the OTP key material to obtain the passphrase to decrypt your device. Now to decrypt the device, three things will be needed: your cooperation and knowledge, the device, and the letter. And you can deny that the letter contains anything.)
Edit: upgraded advise - mail your local contact an encrypted MicroSD card. Cross the border with a Raspberry Pi in factory packaging, or buy it locally (they’re still permitted, despite their widespread use by anarchists).
My entry to China was really easy. I’m very concerned about my return trip to the US. I have to come back at my home and family are there… doors anyone know if I’m denied entity if I can just book and flight and leave? Why do I need to have the government deport off in rolling to go on my own?
because they need the deportation numbers to outdo biden. plus prison contracts. plus it’s just fun I guess. it’s a whole thing.
Well if you don’t see a message from me after Saturday, you can assume the worst.
I’d say good luck, but if you’re coming here that ship’s already sailed.
The cruelty is the point, so I imagine you would be detained and forcibly removed. They would make it as miserable for you as possible.
That’s not only US either, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, China - all can coerce you into unlocking your devices and detain you if you refuse which is fucking crazy.
Never ever give them this right even if you trust the government as they’ll make a redundant copy and government data security is such a joke you’ll be 100% pwnd.
Make sure your laptop is encrypted and disable face unlock on your phone. They can detain you for 24h in most places (6h in US) and will tell you to buy a return ticket. Do not take the risk even if you have nothing to hide.
As a security expert - these laws are 100% authoritarian abuse. As if terrorists can’t host their encrypted terrorist files offsite and pull them from public wifi when they enter the country. It’s an absolutely joke.
I’m not quite sure I’d call that trivial, haha.
There’s also the option of making a hidden partition or otherwise doing stenography within the device. I’m guessing for most travelers just pretty surface level hiding of things will be enough, though. TSA agents are not cybersecurity experts.
Fucking hell. Freedom of speech isn’t a thing anymore and all those shitheads who were crying about simply being called out for saying things are fine with the government punishing people for saying things.
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Fuck this shitty ass country.
All countries should advise their citizens against travelling to the USA. Edit: fixed typo.
It should be common sense.
Would be helpful if we could see those messages so we can form an opinion.
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Yes, death threats and rape threats are a good reason why a visitor should not be admitted to the United States.
I wonder how they search it. I doubt they manually read every fucking text message in all apps, so I guess they search for keywords or something.
So, let’s say someone wanted to get someone in trouble, they could write them an email with some “incriminating” white text on white background and have them stopped by the thought police at the border.
It would be funny if they stopped some Canadian Mexican returning from Cancun and found shittalk about Trump on his phone.
Btw. Does anyone have Ted Cruz’s email address?
I have no proof, this is anecdotal, but I suspect they used a forensic analysis tool like Cellebrite, GreyKey, or Magnet Axiom to extract all the device data and search it, which makes it a cakewalk to filter for keywords, images, files, and the like. cops use this shit all the time, as do their terrorist friends all around the world.
Freedom of speech, eh? Guess I’m banned if they find out about this account or my Bluesky account.
I have a burner but it seems like you need to create social media accounts filled with non political content and keep them updated so they don’t look fake. Anyone know how to automate this?
don’t do this. it’s a waste of your time. if you’re actually scared of the us government, the answer is to stop using social media
The answer is to stop visiting the US.
I mean, there could be situations where one doesn’t have a choice. Definitely try and avoid it, though, and don’t go for fun.
Elbows up buddy! 🍁
Not just the US government.
The issue is border control won’t believe you don’t have any social media accounts and might refuse entry.
What if all my accounts are old and haven’t been updated in a decade? That’s kind of outrageous.
The USA has no place criticising the actions of other countries. Never has.
I seriously doubt the intelligence of anyone still traveling to the USA. I hope whatever project he is working on is not critical.
these travels are scheduled months even years in advance depending on the field of study, nobody could have predicted how much worse second Trumps term would be. also other than travelling to somewhere where its bad much more reliable indicator of low intelligence are very confident statements outside of one’s own depth.
more reliable indicator of low intelligence
I would add inability to use proper punctuation to that criteria.
*those criteria, criterion being singular.
You sound like an internet addict who never lived real life. What the hell is with this logic?
These types of things are usually scheduled well in advance. Just one example, it is worth noting that I am not saying that this was the reason the scientist traveled to the United States, scientific centers with certain types of very expensive equipment usually rent it to projects from other scientific institutes and universities, sometimes with such high demand that you can wait years for it to be available for your project.
“Freedom of speech.”
Welcome to Trumps America.
Where everything that Trump doesnt like, or is legitimately critical of him, or is just an opinion that Republicans don’t like… is Terrorism.
Seems an awful lot like that oppressive government tyranny the ammosexuals were feverishly polishing their rifle barrels to, doesnt it? I wonder why they are all so suspiciously silent! /s
So people these days still not understand that border crossing are a sensitive location?
Like, literally, anywhere you go, the first thing you should do before leaving is encrypt and reinstall / factory reset (which should delete all encryption keys to the old data) the devices. And if you have very sensitive stuff, use a disk overwrite program, and for phones start recording a video with the phone aimed at like a wall (and turn off the audio recording). Leave it recording overnight and it should fill up your phone. Use 4K recording to fill the storage faster. Then just wipe the phone again. Now, DONT DOWNLOAD ANYTHING THAT COULD BE CONSIDERED SENSITIVE. Load the phone with innocuous things like pet photos, nature, etc… and act like a “normie”. Don’t have anything critical of any politician, especially not of the country you’re visiting, nor of its allies. Its best to not have any social media apps, preferrably, you should never post things under your name, but if you already did have such accounts, delete them.
If they ask you “Do you have any social media accounts” you say “I don’t recall having any” or “I don’t think so” and “I’m not the type of person to use social media”. Or alternatively, you can have a social media account that have only non-political posts, and show then that.
Edit: To be clear, don’t travel to the US. But this should be how you prepare for border crossings, even if it isn’t the US.
This might be normal opsec for a foreign agent, but absolutely ridiculous to expect average people or some French doctor to adhere to.
The reality is this issue would never have happened just three months ago, and the reason it’s happening now is fascism.
The laws haven’t changed. This didn’t start three months ago.
Phone searches: not new. People being rejected at the border because of posts critical of the incoming president, yes, that is very much a new thing.
Would love to see some stories of people rejected at the border for criticism of Biden or Obama if you can find any.
People already worried then. There was no need for the law to grand this power. We don’t need laws if wo rely on people to be just.
I think Europeans, coming from a sane place where border crossings are more of a formality than anything else, don’t expect a plane to the US to be a time machine/teleporter to East Berlin.
This is completely unnecessary if you travel to a western democracy, like an EU country, Canada, Australia, etc. America is no longer part of that group though, sadly.
