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We live in interesting times. Friend of mine is a scientist in France. He just got briefing on what to do when traveling to the US. He was told to use an empty, freshly installed laptop with nothing but his presentation on it. Uninstall all messengers and social media. If he has to surrender any of his devices even for a minute, he shall get it checked by the French secret service for back-doors and Trojans.

I guess I rather stay home then going to a conference in the US.
#science #usa

in reply to Carolyn

@CStamp Yeah.. traveling to the US, especially the border control was a major PITA before (e.g. getting treated like a criminal each and every time). Now it's at a level where I can't travel there without fear of being persecuted for being... invited...
in reply to Attila Kinali

The winners in this debacle are going to be firms providing video conferencing (mainly Microsoft).
Here are the European alternatives, but good luck trying to get US folk to adopt any of them…
european-alternatives.eu/alter…
in reply to Kim Spence-Jones 🇬🇧😷

@KimSJ If the EU mandated interoperability among the video conferencing providers that might be more useful!
in reply to Attila Kinali

Do NOT travel to the USA right now.

Even if the government doesn't put you in a concentration camp, we have disease outbreaks and planes falling out of the sky.

in reply to Attila Kinali

I think this has been the case for some time. Was advised similarly in 2017 for a conference attendance.

This is output from an AI query in respect of this topic...

"In 2008 Border Protection (CBP) began to assert its authority to search and seize electronic devices, including laptops, at the border. This was based on a 2008 policy statement that allowed for the search and seizure of electronic devices without probable cause or a warrant.

In 2009, the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a lawsuit challenging the CBP's policy, arguing that it violated the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

In 2017, the CBP issued a new directive that outlined its policy for searching and seizing electronic devices at the border. The directive stated that CBP officers could search electronic devices without a warrant or probable cause, but that they were required to follow certain procedures and guidelines."

in reply to Ian Davis

@id1om if you're not in a position to have a burner laptop, you can do what I do and like, encrypt it at the drive / boot level. US law does not allow them to force you to provide passwords. Do not use biometrics, they can force you to use those (law is dumb.)
in reply to Dio

@tieflingdio @id1om Doesn't that law apply only to US citizens?
You can still be denied entry for other reasons, like not giving up your password...
in reply to Geert Uytterhoeven

@geert @tieflingdio @id1om not giving your password at customs can get you arrested in many other countries too, border law is awful almost everywhere.
in reply to Nicovel0 🍉

@Nicovel0 @geert @tieflingdio @id1om Could you please tell me which other countries these are? I don't know of any country that can lawfully force me to give up my passwords at the border. At the very least it requires a curt order which in turn requires the police to prove that I am a suspect in a crime with high probability.

Meanwhile, the US does that regularly on people who's only fault was that they traveled to the US as tourists or on business.

in reply to Attila Kinali

@Nicovel0 @geert @tieflingdio @id1om if you're not a citizen you have almost no rights at a foreign country's border, and you can (technically) be detained for any reason or length of time or (more likely) just returned home, often at the discretion of the person stamping your passport. It's something I'm not sure most people are aware of
This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to Dio

@tieflingdio
@id1om
I'd say don't even bring a laptop, period, if you can. You can purchase your burner at Walmart or something once you're in. Keep your data at home on a hidden service server (e.g. i2p) run off a raspberry pi or similar clone. Don't even bring a URL key with you, have that on another online service you can access easier but doesn't necessarily give up your identity, maybe hidden in a pastebin document, you get the idea. The less you have on you, the better.
in reply to Attila Kinali

@JoBlakely

The recommendations to travel "safely" to the US, in addition to onerous, make you highly suspect:

- Buy a burner phone
- Delete your social media accounts
- Create a fake media account that is bland or praiseworthy of fascism
- bring a blank laptop with only your presentation
- Etc.

Why would anyone risk detention and deportation to Bukele's outsourced concentration camps?

in reply to Attila Kinali

well, this has been my MO since I've traveled to the USA for the first time. Always a fresh burner phone and a burner laptop with some counter intelligence surprises on it (core booted into hypervised Windows on an amnesic CoW image, taking measures of every peripheral connection).
This entry was edited (1 week ago)