Off to the USA this summer to see my sister (who is now an American) and her family. Sounds like a good time to not take the main phone but invest in a candy bar phone for travelling. I suspect I’ll get a PAYG SIM over there rather than incurring the excessive costs from my mobile provider. I can wipe my tablet and re-install it later, probably would be good for it.

I really don’t understand why the USA has started this. I already have multiple online accounts, multiple social media accounts, lots of cloud storage – some I access by my phone, some tablet, some from work and some from the PC at home. Are the USA expecting me to handover all my details for all my accounts regardless?

And given the NSA/GCHQ tie up they already know virtually of the information about me. If the NSA/GCHQ don’t know about it, then I am not go to revel it at the time of entry into the USA. And how many staff will they need to make it work

From a work point of view, if you have a UK work phone linked to your business you may be in breech of the data protection act if you hand it over with passwords. Perhaps business need to start briefing their employees on what information your phone should hold.

And lastly – is STW a ‘social media’ site – will I need to declare my username/password to the authorities?

Was meant to be going to the states to visit friends this summer but put it off 4 years (hopefully just 4 years). Any country that can elect Trump can kiss my arse dollar. Just hope a few other follow suit.

Are the USA expecting me to handover all my details for all my accounts regardless?

Basically, yes.

I was over in the states recently – I was surprised the ESTA (online visa thing) was asking for my facebook/twitter account details. I left those blank and was approved pretty much asap.
However, it felt uncomfortable being asked.

If I knew that ‘someone’ at border control had the power to force me to unlock my devices/personal acocunts, I’d strongly think twice about entering that country.

It just feels ‘horrible’.

Fair enough – if they said “DrP, you’re on our watchlist, here’s evidence you’re a bad boy” then I would kind of understand (I’d be annoyed, but see that they were gathering/refuting data), but just random checks on all and everyone – not nice.

DrP

My wife is American and is distinctly cool on the idea of visiting currently, even though all her family are there.

Ditto.

Fair enough – if they said “DrP, you’re on our watchlist, here’s evidence you’re a bad boy” then I would kind of understand (I’d be annoyed, but see that they were gathering/refuting data),

I’ll log in and add you 😉

Most likely is that those on a watch list or associated with someone on a watch list will be targeted. Next most likely will be those who raise suspicion at the security checks. Then it will be those who wind up/annoy the homeland security staff. Finally there’ll be some purely random checks.

The only social media account I have is a dormant Twitter one, it’s a good six months since I’ve even visited the site let alone posted (other than automatic posts from blog updates).

Personally I’m done visiting the states til they knock it off with this new world order crap.
I spent way too much of my holidays over there back when I was married to a yank. Plenty other lovely places to go in the world and trying to explore as much of Europe as I can til the walls go up

Indeed. To be honest, I felt safer in Morocco than I would in the USA, anyway. That *should* be ridiculous…

Rachel

Over here visiting family at the moment. Came through Washington Dulles, two iPhones, Android, laptop no issues at all. Would have even made it through the Passport Express machines (don’t need to speak to border protection) if I’d had a few more months left on my passport.

That’s a potentially worrying attitude to security from a bank. What corporate / personal / customer data are you likely to have on there, any or none?

I don’t think there’s much else they could do – they can’t encourage employees to be uncooperative with a government official, no matter how much it stinks.

Employees shouldn’t have any customer data on their phones – they are pretty locked down too, no social media etc. In theory though, you can access most of the network that isn’t subject to 2FA.

The only social media account I have is a dormant Twitter one,

This place is the apogee of social media dontchaknow. Hermland Security are all over it!

This place is the apogee of social media dontchaknow. Hermland Security are all over it!

B***er! I bet chewkw has been onto his mate Donald and grassed us all. 😉

….Israel ….. Security…control…. etc

My dad was telling me with a fair degree of satisfaction about some of his Israel border crossings when he worked in Palestine.
“What is the purpose of your visit?”
“It is not Amnesty International’s policy to answer such questions”
“Which Palestinians have you been talking to over here?”
“It is not Amnesty International’s policy to answer such questions”
“What are you planning to do…?
“It is not Amnesty International’s policy to answer such questions”
“Where have you been during your trip to the West Bank?”
“It is not Amnesty International’s policy to answer such questions”
etc etc

The thing is, being the type of person he is, he probably immensely enjoyed it and wasn’t particularly phased by the questioning. Must have driven the security forces mad.

I remember one time he brought back a variety of plastic bullets that he’d picked up. If ever there was a misnamed weapon then “plastic” bullet is definitely it.

RIP Dad, I’m really proud of you. 🙁

In theory though, you can access most of the network that isn’t subject to 2FA.

That’s a good point actually. “Sure. Here’s my password. My account is protected with 2FA and I’ve left my phone at home. Good luck!”

It’s an abhorrent abuse of power and a massive invasion or privacy.
People could have all manner of things buried away in their social media – personal conversations, intimate chats with loved ones, maybe you’re homosexual and haven’t come ‘out’ yet. “Sure, you can come into our country, but first you must show us the sex videos your partner has been sending you.” Surely in the Land of the Free this must be unconstitutional?

I don’t see what it’s going to achieve anyway. There are many many ways of sending communications outside of traditional social media that they’d never know about, you could divulge your Facebook password and not care because you’re secretly talking with your terrorist buddies on FlapChat or some such. Or you give them credentials to your other Facebook page, it’s hardly difficult to set up a sock puppet account then like a few USA: Hell Yeah! pages and suchlike. Hell, you could sign up to a popular mountain biking forum and abuse their PM function. (If you’re reading this and are a terrorist, please don’t do this.)

I spend half my life telling people not to divulge their passwords to anyone ever. No-one has ever known any of my passwords (by me telling them, at any rate), not friends, not family, not partners. When I die, they’ll go to the grave with me. I would have an exceptionally hard time in agreeing to this sort of request, it goes against everything I believe in at a very fundamental level.

I went to that America once, about 22 years ago. Really enjoyed being there.
Don’t think I’ll go again now.

I saw an article today suggesting that I’m far from unique. Some US carriers are seeing a large drop in bookngs

I’ve got at least one work trip to the South this year. Journalist mates of mine have already been asked for their social media passwords on entry to the US. Fortunately, I have a minuscule social media footprint. in fact, this place, with its relative anonymity, is where I express myself most freely. But in case any US Government officials are reading this, I am really looking forward to spending some time around God-fearing, Trump-voting white folks. Can’t wait.

As so much is “in the cloud” now, blank phone / tablet, and just log into the stuff online when there.

Makes 2FA a bit of a pain though if they rely on an app you’ve pre-installed and authorised. SMS is okay, but outrageous roaming fees in US makes that a costly option unless your plan doesn’t charge for inbound SMS (many do when roaming in US and not cheap either).

Anyway, as said, main concern really is the security of their data store. They grab all my private and social media data, but can I trust the guy in the airport, and can I trust their data store to not be hacked and the data leaked? In short, no.

That’s even more vital for corporate data. It’s tricky if you’re a developer on a work trip and need the code on your laptop/tablet. You can encrypt it but you can be forced to allow them into that to copy. Commercially sensitive information. No way. An option at least is code is on a secure git server somewhere and you VPN to it from wherever you end up and get the code. Or even remote desktop to a machine to use and just use the laptop/tablet as a dumb terminal. Bit crap on a coffee shop / hotel wifi though (yeah, okay, insecure network but you’d hopefully be using VPN and a crap load of firewall).

DrP – Member

if they said “DrP, you’re on our watchlist, here’s evidence you’re a bad boy” then I would kind of understand

I wouldn’t- there doesn’t need to be any evidence that you’re a bad boy to get you on the US no-fly list. A colleague of mine ended up on it because he’s of syrian origin and he has a slightly similar name to a “person of interest”. That’s it. I was going to say “that’s the burden of proof” but it’s not a burden of proof is it, it’s a burden of nudge-nudge-wink-wink. And that’s the sort of logic that runs through the system.

Incidentally, finding out why you’re on the no fly list is very hard too, which makes the process of getting off it a proper catch 22- “show us why we should take you off” “Well why am I on?” “Not telling.” We resorted to heavy handed favour-pulling with the US goverment and the home office.

Northwind – Member
Incidentally, finding out why you’re on the no fly list is very hard too, which makes the process of getting off it a proper catch 22- “show us why we should take you off” “Well why am I on?” “Not telling.”

Each trip I got stopped they’d tell me nothing except the last one who said, “bet you’re wondering why you keep getting stopped?” and proceeded to explain but also said he’s not supposed to tell you why. However then went on to say I could use the TRIP service (Traveler Redress Inquiry Program) to get removed. Not that I was myself on the watch list but I kept coming up due to a name / DOB match.

A friend used to work as a supply teacher. One month his pay didn’t arrive, on chasing it up it turned out that it had been stopped because there was another supply teacher with the same name and DOB who’d been convicted that month of child sex abuse. Took him a couple of months to sort it out – though the fact that he wasn’t in jail should have been a clue.

So, fine as the systems are, they can be a bit of a blunt instrument.

A friend of ours got detained last weekend at the US border apparently. Her finger prints wouldn’t scan because she was dehydrated from the flight over.

They said she may have removed her prints because she was in league with terrorists.

She’s a doctor of history and literature specialising in homosexuality throughout history and a lecturer at a Uni in London 🙄

from my point of view i don’t worry about it…i have the wrong skin colour, have a beard and am a muslamic sort…they’ll never let me in anyway so my phone and laptop are the least of my worries should i ever decide to visit Trumpland