I would suggest to not cross the US border as a very fine way to protect from them. That's what I do but I may be too extreme?
this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2025
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Its a great choice for those who can, but some people have to travel for work.
Its a great choice for those who can, but some people have to travel for work.
We (my spouse and I) decided to stop using planes the day we realized the environmental crisis we were heading to. That was in the early 00s, some 25 years ago. And be it for work or for personal reasons we have not used a plane since then.
Work was the easiest to solve for us: video + phone are often enough and when they're not a local correspondent we can mandate is more than able to deal with whatever needs a human presence (edit: it was a little more difficult for personal travels, but nothing impossible either). I have no doubt it's not always possible, but I'm also pretty confident it's often possible, it's just... not the usual way people think about it ;)
Generally speaking, I'm the same. I needed to be in person a few years ago for something, and that was my last flight I'e taken. Before that it was about 8 or 9 years. I'm in the "avoid where possible" camp, and take mass transit wherever I can that I need to go, but I don't rule out flying if I'm going overseas.
That said - some people will have to travel for their work, it isn't their choice or they don't have a job. Being able to take care of themselves and their family is important.
So its good for them to know the ways to be prepared to travel to this absolute clusterfuck that the USA gas become.
I 100% agree on that, no discussion. I was just pointing out the fact that quite often a 'I have to' should be written as 'I'm used to' ;)
How about don’t go there in the first place?
If you must cross the border, you can always wipe your phone beforehand. Both androids and iPhones can be restored from backups, and it takes an hour at most. They can’t look at your messages if there’s nothing to look at. Likewise, for laptops it’s very simple to store everything either in the cloud, or on a NAS at home, and log out of the VPN before you get on a plane.
Alternatively, you can buy a burner phone for the country you are going to, and have it shipped to you in the US before you leave. This might also be the cheaper option, given that some cell providers can get expensive when you travel abroad.
According to EFF in the article
Do not wipe your phone
You might think the most protective options are to completely wipe your phone before traveling, use a burner or travel without a phone. But the EFF’s Cope said that could actually raise suspicions.
“People are damned if they do and damned if they don’t,” Cope said. “If you cross the border with no data on your device, that itself can be seen as suspicious.”
Instead, if you want to seem cooperative but do have data or texts stored on your phone that you wouldn’t want to be accessed, Cope suggests deleting that information selectively rather than wiping your whole device.