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Comment by mholt | Hacker News Reader

How do you turn a travel mode off? Once border patrol knows this feature exists and how it works, the jig is up. Any expiration/timeout would just cause you to be detained for the duration the travel mode is enabled. A second password to turn it off would just cause that second password to be coerced out of you. Location-based deactivation can be spoofed.

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From the fine article:

> To work effectively, a trip mode feature would need to be... irrevocable for an amount of time chosen by the user once it’s set. There’s no sense in having a ‘trip mode’ if the person demanding your password can simply switch it off, or coerce you into switching it off.

US citizens can't be detained indefinitely at the border. The limit is a few hours.

That's fine for US citizens entering the US, but any 'travel mode' needs to work for the outbound trip too. If the country you're visiting has adopted a US-style border stance, then you're in no better a position than a non-US citizen visiting the US: the border forces of that other country can detain you until travel mode expires if they want. It seems like "They can't hold me for days while they wait for the mode to expire" only works for citizens returning to their own countries.

More likely they'd just send you home. Either way, denying people entry is bad for business and tourism. If enough people want to protect their accounts when they travel, countries will have to weigh the trade-offs.

Sure, it is bad for business. It will likely be used disproportionately on brown people and minorities, just like "random" screenings at the airport. Yes, bad for tourism, but only consistently bad for a minority of the population and most others just have to take of their shoes etc.

So you keep stating but there is no codified limit short of 'indefinite'.

Imagine I am a CBP agent. State your argument that I must release you after, say, 23 hours

US Marshal arriving with a court order compelling my release.

That worked so well when this exact situation happened weeks ago.

You have to fight for the rights you want to keep.

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