Crossing into the United States has become increasingly dangerous for digital privacy. Here are a few steps you can take to minimize the risk of Customs and Border Protection accessing your data.
Ryan Lackey has traveled to countries like Russia or China[;] he has taken certain precautions: Instead of his usual gear, the Seattle-based security researcher and chief security officer of a cryptocurrency insurance firm brings a locked-down Chromebook and an iPhone that’s set up to sync with a separate, nonsensitive Apple account. He wipes both before every trip and loads only the minimum data he’ll need. Lackey has gone so far as to keep separate travel sets for each country, so that he can forensically analyze the devices when he gets home to check for signs of each country’s tampering.
Now, Lackey says, the countries that warrant that paranoid approach to travel might include not just Russia and China but also the United States
Thats what he wrote right after your quote, implying that he hasnt tested it. Also this level of paranoia was always justified for US travel and he surely knows that. The thing is that the US is now probably worse than Russia or China when it comes to the chance for random people to be arrested. For political activists its probably equally likely but the survival chance in the US is still higher.
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, said a French minister.
It barely gets worse than this. This wasnt even for public statements, it was private messages. The only difference between this and China might be the scale at which it happens, but that is kind of hard to track.
You can tell that to
Thats what he wrote right after your quote, implying that he hasnt tested it. Also this level of paranoia was always justified for US travel and he surely knows that. The thing is that the US is now probably worse than Russia or China when it comes to the chance for random people to be arrested. For political activists its probably equally likely but the survival chance in the US is still higher.
I doubt that the US restricts entry based on speech more than China.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/trump-musk-french-scientist-detained
It barely gets worse than this. This wasnt even for public statements, it was private messages. The only difference between this and China might be the scale at which it happens, but that is kind of hard to track.
A fucking Chromebook lmao
I mean it is quite locked down and something cheap enough for the nonce.
Pretty funny in the US context tho, I’d imagine it wouldn’t be too hard for them to get google to “help”
The purpose isn’t to keep them out of your devices. The purpose is to have none of your critical data on it when they inevitably search/copy the data.
A Chromebook is really easy to wipe/reset and switch between accounts. Plus they’re relatively cheap.
Until he gets detained by trumps border people.