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Comment by pnw | Hacker News Reader

I wish this thing looked more generic so the TSA won't confiscate it.

I'm as anti-TSA as the next guy, but I don't think they confiscate Flipper Zeros.

"Steal" is more likely. That's what happened to me. Luckily it was paired and I was able to find it on the agent's person. "It fell."

There's been several reports of people getting referred to secondary screening because of them.

Uk border control has confiscated them in the past

Wasn't it designed that way so you can pass it off as a toy in situations like that? It even comes with games and a dummy mode that hides everything except the tamagotchi screen.

I wish more clone devices existed, with a variety of looks.

I fly with a flipper zero often. What are you talking about?

They are confiscated when they notice.

I need evidence. I've been through TSA lots of times with mine and taking it on transcontinental flights. No one's ever cared. Last year I flew to Def Con with a Mesthtastic radio and a Raspberry Pi server strapped to my backpack, complete with cabling, and no one batted an eye.

There's no regulation against carrying one around with you, including on flights.

Likewise, I've flown more in the last year than in the decade prior and every single leg my Flipper has been in the side pocket of my backpack. Never once has it received even a second look from the TSA, including also DEF CON.

It looks like a handheld gaming thing; not very interesting to people that see many similar devices every day.

I agree, but it's also a rather distinct device so if it were being intentionally confiscated by TSA as some of the upstream posters claim it'd be really easy for them to identify. If it were policy in any way, even the most basic object recognition systems attached to even a simple x-ray scanner could identify one with ease.

That's of course not to say some rogue agents haven't confiscated a few Flippers, especially after seeing hyperbolic media reports about them being magical evil hacker devices, but I have high confidence that there's no official policy to do so.

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