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French scientist denied US entry after phone messages critical of Trump found
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2025
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How’d they get into his phone? Face or fingerprint?
Make sure you turn off biometrics before traveling. They can’t force you to disclose a passcode.
EDIT: Actually, if you have to travel to the USA, wipe your phone before you leave.
Years ago they would already ask for social media accounts and email address on US visa forms, it was creepy back them , scary now.
So, what if I as an american, travel to canada. On my re-entry, am i going to get my phone searched for anti-maga stuff?
The US Government cannot deny US Citizens from entering the US.* However, they can (and mostly likely will) seize all your belongings and detain you for up to 48 hours. So its best to wipe your devices before crossing the border (both ways). They can deny permanent residents (aka: green card holders) from entry.
*for now
But my real advice is: Unless you are intending to migrate permanently, do not cross the US borders (neither in nor out) under the current administration.
They could try. They can compel you to open it with Face ID or fingerprint. If that’s turned off they cannot compel you to disclose your passcode. They can seize your phone. They cannot prevent you from entering the country.
They’re probably only going to do it with some kind of suspicion. But that suspicion could be the border protection officer is having a bad day.
Only applies to US citizens. Any non-citizen, including Permanent Residents (aka: Green Card holders), could be denied entry.
Thanks. It's fucking wild the things we have to be concerned about in this upside down timeline.
They could always do this before, it was jsut that previous administrations weren't this insane to actually do it.
IIRC they can compel you to unlock your phone. Or just deny you entry if you don't. It's best to make sure you travel with a 'clean' phone and PC, border patrol got ridiculous powers in the patriot act and nobody's ever rolled any of it back despite decades of abuses.
ive seen people buy budget/used phones and leave thier main ones at home.
I've got old phones that I've been considering for this use.
They both still work, minus the cellular data. So I'm having a tough time deciding between making my actual phone squeaky clean, or using the old ones have making it a bitch to get home from the airport with no internet to call an uber/friend/deal with airline shenanigans.
or avoid going to america
I've been very purposefully avoiding the US ever since the Patriot Act exactly because it became possible for the TSA to riffle through your electronics (even confiscate them) and do this kind of shit.
Then on top of that festering pit of autocracy which, by the way, nobody reversed in all this time, Trump added the risk of ICE detention and "free trip to El Salvador (to go check a mega prison there)".
Yep, 12 years of Democrats in charge and none of them did anything to reign in this whole apparatus that could easily be abused by an autocrat. Now Trump has a turnkey surveillance state that can be turned on anyone in the country. All your internet traffic, current location, licence plate readers, face recognition, etc. It was all created to alternately catch terrorists or pedophiles, and now Trump is going to use it against anyone he doesn't like.
And it's not like nobody was warned, there was plenty of dissent about the patriot act from experts and the people, but politicians were just like 'don't worry, it'll only be used against terrorists'. Guess what, everyone's going to be deemed a terrorist now. They're trying to charge Luigi with terrorism already (and those are state charges in a Democratic state).
Its hard to actually repeal it. Any politician, republican, democrat, independent, whatever, who does so, and then a terrorist attack happens, they take the blame. That's why nobody tries. Its not an excuse tho, its just an explanation.
Definitely.
As a Latin American, the US is the very last county I want to visit on the entire continent. Literally the only thing that I kind of want to see there is the Lego store in NYC.
Better off going to Legoland in Denmark in that case.
Since when did travel to the US become worse than to Russia? This is shocking...
They can still make your life difficult though. I think the better option is don't fly into or through US territory if you can help it.
Get a burner for ANY international travel.
Consider it an insurance expense as a part of the trip.
They will also ask you for your password for online accounts and refuse entry if you don't. And as we have all seen recently that does not necessarily mean "next flight home".
people can make social media accounts full of soft core rat erotica just for travel purposes.
John Oliver? Is it really you?
Just don't come here unless you have to. And get a burner if you do come.
If you have an android device, setup a second user account with nothing on it and use that when going through customs.
I mean, you might fool them. But its best to just backup everything to a Non-US cloud provider in an encrypted format, and wipe the device before leaving. I wouldn't rely on the "multi-user" trick. Who knows what forensics tools they have.
I was looking for this as well. It seems like a rather important piece of info for the article to leave out.
Here's how the borders work:
"Sir/Ma'am, please unlock your device"
"No"
"Entry Denied"
(Except for US Citizens, they cannot be denied entry* even if they refuse to unlock their device, however, their devices could be confiscated
*for now)