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Comment by walterbell | Hacker News Reader

What not to do: https://medium.com/@thegrugq/stop-fabricating-travel-securit...

So, some of this bothers me and makes me even more wary of traveling to the US.

I don't own a personal cell phone. I don't own a personal laptop (yeah, I have this weird computer box that sits under my desk, go figure). If I were traveling for personal reasons, as a tourist, I would have no digital devices with me (beyond a cheap digital camera). What we are saying here is that I would possibly be subjected to extra scrutiny and possibly be denied entry to the US because I live simply.

My wife's flip phone with no data plan? Unusual, requires scrutiny, I guess.

Guess I'm not traveling to the US any time soon.

You and hundreds of thousands of others. US tourism is experiencing the so-called "Trump slump" right now. New York city downgraded its estimate of international tourists for this year by 700,000.

I'd love to see proof it's due to Trump. Unfavorable gov'ts don't seem to hurt countries like China, Iran, etc

Check out the link below, which details fairly convincing data that both travel bookings and searches (a leading indicator of future bookings) are off sharply. Proof of causality is hard, but when travel declines sharply just after a new President takes office and starts treating foreigners very harshly ...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/travel/2017...

And don't think he'll accept the sudden 20% drop that exactly coincides with inauguration as "proof" if he doesn't accept the current 10000x larger temperature change gradient than anywhere in earth history as "manmade". It's only proof if it comes from a certified news source without liberal bias like Breitbart.

don't forget infowars

Stuff like this is making me feel that I am never going to the US on my own dime. If I'm going to be turned away for reset devices, no devices or not giving my passwords to online accounts - then I give up.

I feel like the author left out a giant caveat: there's a difference between going through CBP as a US citizen and as a non-citizen. Non-citizens can be bounced back home whereas, as I understand it, they HAVE to allow a US citizen back into the states if he has a valid passport and isn't violating any laws.

The EFF guides cover these questions; click the link.

They have to re-admit you if you are a citizen, but in the mean time, they can search your belongings, seize your devices, detain you for an arbitrary period of time without a phone call, and interrogate you. Oh, and add you to a watch list so you are detained every time you enter the country.

In addition, there IS a law on the books that says that you must give reasonable assistance to CBP in conducting a search, or be subject to a fine and jail time. CBP construes this to mean that you must give them the encryption passwords to your devices. EFF and others disagree, but the matter has never been decided in court, in part because CBP drops the cases if they are challenged.

tl;dr: "Don't even try to protect you personal data".

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