Comment by everdrive | Hacker News Reader

Comment by everdrive | Hacker News Reader

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Mobile phones are baffling to me. I heard a story recently that the Venezuelan government is stopping people on the street and inspecting mobile phones for dissident content. In such an environment, why are people relying on phones for anything? Why trust it at all? This stupid device _could_ get you taken to prison for merely having the wrong ideas, but you've still _just got to_ use it! I'm starting to think that if mobile phones gave parents' children rapid, aggressive brain cancer, all anyone would be talking about is "regulation" and "minimizing usage."

And I know someone's going to say "not using a phone might look _more_ suspicious!" I suppose but the needle does need to turn at some point, right? This risk was pretty easily foreseeable. If you got arrested for what was found on your phone during an arrest would you ever look at the device the same way again? In 5 years, would you be using it for meaningful or private communication whatsoever?

Venezuela you say? The US would be checking my entire social media history, not only what is on the phone, if I ever plan to enter the US.

I'm entering the US for work in a few weeks and I plan on taking burner devices.

Isn't that highly suspicious? Or are you preparing burners with years of alternate social profiles activity? Because blatantly lying to the authorities is not something I'd take easily...

Why lie? If they ask you why there isn’t anything on there, just say you brought a cheap replacement phone because you didn’t want to lose or break your expensive daily device while traveling. Or because you don’t want it stolen or hacked when you’re in a foreign country. All valid reasons. Pick and choose whatever is most accurate for you.

Fortunately you can still tell the US border authorities you have a new phone, without consequences.

A new phone yes all fine. But new number, new whatsapp, new signal, new facebook, new xtter, new linkedin, new instagram, new tumblr, new...?

You might need to disclose social media accounts, phone numbers, email accounts, and a lot of other information, regardless of your burner: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1dz0g2ykpeo

Depends on when that goes into effect and how thoroughly it's actually implemented.

Yeah I do think if your trust in state institutions is gone for whatever reason (such as living in a dictatorship), it'd be absolute madness to carry around an electronic snitch with you. I'm not sure what I would rely on in those circumstances, but it certainly wouldn't be smartphones. Personally I'd want to rely on in-person communication as much as possible.

I'd go even further. Even if you trust it now, can you trust it in 5 years? How much of your data do apps, companies, and mobile providers hold onto? The real answer is that you don't know. So if your phone is a super precise GPS that you can't turn off (eg: Android) -- were you near a crime scene by chance? How about a big protest 2 years before the political winds shifted. Who knows you were there? You can't know for sure.

Phones are just an easy target. Dumb phones still have address books, these are social networks too that can be exploited. In fact, that's how Chechnya prosecutes and kills unwanted people, like gays or regime opponents - by unraveling phone contacts.

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