Instead of trying to ship your electronic device to yourself on the other side why not pack it in your checked luggage instead? The few times I’ve gone through U.S. customs the baggage claim was past the Customs and Immigration line. If it’s not on your person when you go through they can’t ask you to unlock it. Yeah, it’ll still go through the X-ray scanner at the security checkpoint but all international shipments that cross the border are subject to inspection (however unlikely).
Because the TSA will open your checked luggage to inspect it, especially if an electronic device shows up on the X-ray?
Buying a burner once you get to the states?
https://medium.com/@thegrugq/stop-fabricating-travel-security-advice-35259bf0e869#.1ufriceyh basically agree with the things we’ve said here and in the show not to do: don’t lie, don’t revel with a factory reset device, don’t claim you can’t unlock it. Look innocuous.
4 Likes
1 Like
I’d agree here, I have two phones one on a contract, the other is “pay as you go”, so it could easily be lost if I felt it necessary. A phone no call history looks like you are trying to hide something. You may be able to argue it’s a new phone but suspicions have already been raised. No social media either and very little web browsing screams out you are hiding something.
I should point out the reason I have two phones is I am an active human rights campaigner and so while I am confident that here in the UK I have nothing to fear there are other places I feel much less secure so would not take my second phone.
Absolutely. I’d also say, limit your attack surface without getting into tinfoil hat territory. Most security is a trade off - ideally you’d want to protect everything to the highest possible level, but that’s mostly not practical or necessary. And the mere fact of you being that paranoid will set alarm bells ringing in the heads of border control staff.
So, compartmentalise. Things you don’t need, don’t take them. Things you do need, just suck it up and accept you might get searched (but probably won’t because you’re an innocuous-looking white guy). If you do, change your passwords afterwards.
If it was me, I’d probably take a spare phone and laptop. I wouldn’t put anything on them I didn’t need for the trip. But equally I wouldn’t do anything different from on my main devices (so I’d probably take a subset of my password database) and I wouldn’t bother with all this gubbins of putting an encrypted blahblah up in The Cloud. Unless, maybe, I really needed access to something super secure while I was away.
I backpacked around South America some years ago. Parts of it have a certain… reputation. So you see people with cable locks on their bags and all sorts. Thing is, they stand out like the mutt’s nuts. When planning the trip one of the best bits of advice I was given was simply to not take anything you weren’t willing to lose. Same sort of idea applies here I think.
Also, XKCD nails it as usual…
3 Likes
I have used Helium in the past for Android backups. Needs a pc to activate the backup capabilities. Not sure if Linux is supported. Does apps with al their data. Not sure about call logs etc.
Made by a well known android developer, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdutta.backup&hl=en
1 Like
Your cereal comes in bars? … brit-landers are funny. 
Weetabix was invented in Australia, and has been sold in Canada and the US since 1967/68.
Carry a small notebook and a crayon in your travel wallet.
Best advice possible in 1917 I MEAN 2017.
I’ve read recently this article about going to the US for work as well.
I have to go to the US territory in May, so I’ll use my old smartphone with only music on it (and Firefox ;)).
I’ll be interested to know what @sil decided and how he fared getting into the US this time around (not that we’re trying to treat him like a guinea pig or anything…)
So do Foster’s, Coca Cola, Microsoft and American Express. What’s your point? 
Doesn’t make my point any less valid or right
I’m intrigued here, I have had a few problems in Asia travelling with an Ubuntu laptop just because it is an OS they are not familiar with it and so don’t have the tools to find if I have anything “dodgy” on the PC. So far this has only ever resulted in a slight delay where I have had to explain things. Never had any major issues but you can imagine if the security services are particularly paranoid it could be an issue.
For those asking, i imagine this is a topic we’ll discuss on the next show (being the first one we record after the live show).
–jeremy