[zatara]

Just bring a cheap burner smart phone with you on holiday. You can get one for a couple hundred bucks at most these days, and it'll save you all this hassle of backups and encryption etc. Well worth it for the peace of mind.

It will also have the added benefit that if you lose your phone (which is a lot more likely than you being targeted by invasive customs agents) you won't care too much.

[SlickyBoy]

(02-20-2017 10:06 PM)CleanSlate Wrote:  

If you're traveling with both a phone and computer, and you backup your phone using your computer, wipe your phone, aren't they going to want to check your computer, too?

How do you disconnect your computer from your cloud services like Google Drive, One Drive, etc? That way they won't see that I have cloud services and rummage through that stuff.

iPhones and Androids usually have some kind of native backup service. Therefore, you should not need to back it up with your laptop. As for disconnecting from a cloud storage service, not sure how to do that with Apple but with Onedrive, Dropbox and a few others, you can take any related software off of your computer - they would not know that you have a cloud provider out there unless you left traces such as apps in your browser or on the phone, search engine or desktop shortcuts on your laptop.

As for burner phones, make sure which one to get before you travel - not all US cheap phones will be compatible with every country - especially those from Verizon. I still have an old Nokia that's as reliable as a tank for wherever I want to travel and get a local SIM card. Obviously there's no data plan, but still a worthwhile commo device in a lot of developing countries (i.e., shitholes)

[Easy_C]

(02-18-2017 08:25 PM)SlickyBoy Wrote:  

It can be - depends what's on it and where you go and what you're planning to do.

Coming across borders you may be requested (required, in many cases) to allow access to your laptop, even when crossing into the US. But the reality is that as an average tourist going to a neutral destination, you've probably got nothing to worry about absent any associations you maintain with unsavory types. However, if you're traveling to, for example, Russia, China or Israel, your chances of having your stuff gone through either at the border or later at the hotel room while you're out and about are much greater - especially if you're a business or government traveler. If it ever goes out of your sight while you are detained at an airport, assume it is being rummaged through.

Best advice in the thread. If you're a tourist going to any first world country don't worry too much about it. Just back up any critical data/contacts and delete anything incriminating in case of loss or theft.

Otherwise buy a burner ahead of time.

[puckerman]

I had no issues going into Peru and no issues coming back into the USA. I just had my phone. They didn't even ask if I had one.