Hello,
I am trying to gather some information on steps, procedures, and options for increasing privacy while crossing into the US.
My girlfriend goes to school in Canada and crosses the borders frequently throughout the year for; long weekends, extended holiday breaks, semester breaks, and summer breaks.
She’ll be going back to Canada for this next year and with everything happening she’s asked me to help her find ways to limit her exposure to data being reviewed or stored as she’s studying a more Social/Liberal Arts degree which could flag her as a target because of the current political climate.
I’ve also suggested possibly limiting border crossing instead of coming back as often as she used to.
I’m working through articles and finding things from EFF and ACLU, but would happily taken suggestions, guidance, or any direction from anyone willing to share.
I’ve considered trying to find a way for her to backup her devices, maybe store those backups in the cloud, create “decoy” states of her devices (elaboration below), then restore the original state of the devices once she’s safely past the border.
Devices:
iPhone 11 [18.6]
MacBook Air 13 [Possibly Sequoia 15.5, as stated in her iCloud, she doesn’t have it with her right now]
For “decoy” device states, I mean having some apps and data on the devices, but nothing identifying/or that might otherwise give agencies data to further search (online account names/services, stored passwords, large collections of contacts/message histories, etc.)
I’ve suggested trying to switch to android/PC devices to provide alternative privacy/security options, but her family pays for the devices so it’s just the same brand as whatever they have. So, that’s not an option at this point, but any statements regarding increased effectiveness, or even lack thereof, by switching to different brand devices may help with any future transition considerations.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read through my post and any guidance you might be able to provide is highly appreciated.
Hi vimmiewimmie
My friend travels to the USA fairly often. or used to.
Before she goes, she has an old laptop that she rarely uses. I wipe the drive and re-install her favourite linux distro and do a basic set up. She has a laptop with a newly installed linux going through customs with no password. nothing to see here.
She has a spare Oneplus 6, especially for the USA, with Lineage on it, with no social media or any signed in apps. It is factory reset before she goes again with no password. she also takes usb drive with a distro already on it.
When she gets settled in the USA, she connects to wifi and installs the apps she needs. VPN, messenger etc, and emails me.
Between us we set up Signal messenger / molly. She installs it on her phone, I use her phone number from home and I send her the code/details via encrypted email.
once she is set up she only uses Signal to phone her friends, no open line calls or text messages, she only uses Signal’s camera to take any photos, so they are not stored on the phone.
she has nothing to hide, she is not a criminal, its just that we value privacy and confidentiality.
anything that she needs, she messages me and I send it to her via signal.
When she leaves the USA, she resets her phone. I have taught her how to erase her drive with the USB using dd and re-install linux from there.
She has decided that she will not go to the USA after the recent nightmares for foreign travellers.