technology

I plan on avoiding the US, despite having extended family there, as I would with any unstable country.

But if you have to go there get a cheap burner phone. As an Aussie even our government, as one of the closest allies to the US, gives pretty much the same advice.

In xiaomi phones there is a feature called second space where if you enter a different pin you get into a second profile with different apps and data.

They will unlock your phone if you don’t have a passcode and will look through it. If you do have a passcode they will ask you to unlock it so they can look through it and deny you entry if you don’t.

If there are social media accounts with your name on them they will ask you to log into them so they can look through em and deny you entry if you refuse.

This all presupposes that your phone and it’s os are hardened against cellebrite, which if you’re running older android devices or really android devices in general is not the case.

Your best bet is to cancel your phone plan and make a backup of your phone then walk through with a blank phone (“I heard the cell towers are different so I’m gonna go to Verizon to get this one turned on”) and restore the backup and set up a plan after you’re in.

Assuming you have the technical ability to do this, access to the technology required, and the competence under questioning to avoid getting jammed up.

The dumb guy method is to just not walk a phone through. They can’t look at your device if you don’t have it with you.

Buy a cheap burner phone.

Create a phony TikTok that posts about makeup and recipes.

Let them look.

I really can't stress enough that everyone should have a separate account for everything that is designed to be searched through. Use it regularly, have friends/followers, just make it noise. Then when you get burner phones, sign into those so they look authentic. If someone was really looking they could still connect your real accounts to your fake ones, but the TSA isn't going to bother with it so long it doesn't raise any red flags

Power it all the way off before arriving. It's the safest your phone can be. Before you enter your password for the first time after boot EVERYTHING is encrypted

I've heard Balatro is pretty cool.

The correct answer is a combination of your choosing of:

Remove biometric authentications (fingerprinf / face scan) and change the login with a strong password

Make an encrypted remote backup and wipe your devices, recover the backup once you are in

Go through with your phone turned off, on boot it will ask for password

Don't have anything sensitive easily accessible on an SD Card

So the advice about a strong password etc is good but due to some made up legal loopholes I think they can still legally compel you to unlock your phone in an airport.

What you have to do is learn how to make and restore encrypted backups of your phone, back everything up, and then wipe it / factory reset it before going through. Any important phone numbers you absolutely cannot do without while going through, memorize.