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Comment by zuzululu | Hacker News Reader

why not just have a separate device for traveling ?

Yeah, that's my position.

If you're paranoid enough to be using GrapheneOS, why would you take it to an airport in the US of all places?

I bought a second hand iPhone for overseas trips, which my daughter promptly stole because she wanted an iPhone, but then i got her old android phone, which was LineageOS-compatible, so that became my travel phone.

How do you manage data between your primary and travel-phone?

I _think_ you would need a fresh iCloud account (thus losing access to purchased apps and subscriptions). You also need to manually create fresh social media accounts, copy over contacts, etc.?

Any advice on how to automate this process or is this just a 2-4 hours exercise you do before your trip?

A couple of hour exercise setting up the minimal amount necessary for the travel beforehand. Then once you're at destination, you can set up everything else if you want.

I don't have a lot of "everything else" anyway, so my device would probably look suspiciously 'clean' even if it was my in-this-moment daily driver. (HN is my news and social media). I don't use banking apps, but the irony is that I would need to whilst overseas.

One of the funny things is, I should be able to re-setup any device with an old gmail account at any time in any place, but with all the extra security these days, you need an old device to authorise the setup of a new device. I'm going away early next year, so I'll need to have a dry-run of the setup...

Do you have separate iCloud accounts? Keychain syncing kills me...

Definitely dry-run. I didn't do that and it was a huge pain to recover everything.

I was hoping to have to setup a whole new apple account for it. I'm normally Android, but cage across a cheap second hand iphone at an auction - but my daughter wanted it, so it never happened.

It would be easier for me to just go Android, and I do have spare older devices now too.

You mostly don't sync any such data. Prepare some file (or a few files, including an .ics for itinerary or what-not) with information about your trip, a few days in advance, and copy the file(s) to the phone. That's it.

And if you use iCloud or any of that stuff - you've already lost; Apple, and the US government already have access to your files and communications before you ever came to the airport. Sure, maybe it's not the specific border guards who have the access, but still.

GrapheneOS is excellent but seems like it just brings unwanted attention at this stage.

Another plus is if you do lose the device the damage is minimal, its a bit of a hassle but nothing beats peace of mind

No, he was harrased for protesting cop city

- e-sims make it much more difficult to swap sim cards between devices.

- presumably border patrol wants to see his photos, social accounts, and email. A separate device with a copy of the information they want isn't a defense. Creating fresh travel-only accounts is tedious, b/c fresh accounts aren't connected to your friends or network (with whom you'd want to share your trip with).

you could login to your stuff after but the point is to minimize damage when you do lose your device abroad

laziness isn't an excuse and if you do want access to your phone or device at home you could setup that as well

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