Laptop prep for international travel

Software
42

I agree. We carry information with us every day that would have been kept under lock & key 30 years ago.

The FCC’s website warns travelers that they “may be especially vulnerable in locations with public Wi-Fi, including internet cafes, coffee shops, bookstores, travel agencies, clinics, libraries, airports and hotels.” They don’t even mention border crossings but they do recommend:

Do not use the same passwords or PIN numbers abroad that you use in the United States. . . . and to change all your passwords on all devices when you get home.

Try purposely logging onto the public Wi-Fi using the wrong password. If you can get on anyway, that’s a sign that the network is not secure.

A lot of their tips are ones many of us already know, and have recently been included in news stories, but IMO it’s worth a look.

Cybersecurity Tips for International Travelers

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43

How about someone that packs a flashlight and a compass? :grinning:

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44

Why do you think I might mean that?!

The fact is, if you have something valuable for hiding, and someone from a Government has an interest in that, it is highly likely that they will get their information, completely independent if you are traveling, or not!
And it is way easier, and more “comfortable” to get those informations without your knowledge, than thru an more or less open action at an Airport, where you will know, or at least could be suspicious, that they are now “having your data”.
It is the other way around, IF a Government Agency is shadowing you, you will rather pass the Boarder without any problems, unless they are already ready to arrest you, and open a trial.

Yes, they are checking electronic devices time by time (and still as far as I know) but they are looking for criminal activities, and not for some kind of “Secrets”. They are normally having software that is looking for special kinds of data like child porn or the latest receipts to build a bomb, or to cook Meth or something in that kind of way.
They also have a look to verify the information you gave them during the interview. If you were on vacation to Bavaria, but do not have any pictures from there on your phone, they will become suspicious about your given information, the same situation will made them suspicious, if the system shows you on frequent “leisure” trips with a 48h stay to Medellin very 3 weeks or so, and so on.
If you pass the border with an empty laptop or phone, and they check that, you can bet that they will do a deeper interview on you, because they are interested in finding out what you try to hide from them. So it is more than douptful, to show up there with empty, or obviously made up, devices.

And I absolut agree with you, that you could get into trouble, even if you did nothing wrong, just because of the often very poor selected and trained LEO´s specially in the USA, but also within other states with problems with the educational system, and the training of LawEnforcement. YT is full of videos about that problem.

But that does not mean, that the checks at the boarder are there, to get your private or company information’s.
This is not working, and everybody could easily see that only by the numbers. In FY 2019 CBP had 414 Mio. Travelers, but they conducted an electronic search only on 40.913 travelers. That is less than 0.1%!

So, I stay with my statement, that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear about crossing the boarder. IF they pick you for an interview for some reasons, it is way better to be able to present them an “normal” looking electronic device, instead of an erased one, or one where you propagate to not know the code, or some other rather stupid approaches. The later will for sure extend your visit with them, if you are lucky only for hours.

There are a lot of other way more dangerous situations for your data on travel, than the CBP, as @WayneG stated above already!

Oh, and BTW regarding customs controls, it is always a smart idea to have copies of the receipts for your valuables items with you, so you do not have to pay taxes for them, if you had them already at the beginning of your trip.

45

I can see several corporate and/or government employee reasons for higher security. The OP may indeed have cause for concern, but I think there are a large percentage of people who worry about this that seriously overestimate their risk…

46

Yup. I’ve never seen a response to a data breach that read, “we feel confident that they’re not going to use the data”. :slight_smile:

But more importantly, once info is copied, your expectations of the government to maintain the “privacy” of that info are minimal-to-nonexistent.

I read about this too, and it drives me nuts. The idea that I have to prove that my 2-year-old computer is mine or pay “import” taxes on it just feels insane to me.

47

Exactly. You’re basically talking about somebody with a government security clearance, in practice if not in fact.

Whether or not you have any legal rights, at that point they’ve taken your phone and your computer, and they can completely screw up your day - whether or not there’s any reasonable suspicion.

And that article I think highlights what keeps getting missed in this discussion. At the checkpoints, 4th amendment rights don’t exist in the form we’re used to. It’s a very grey area.

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48

Why, you do not have to proof, that it is yours, you have to proof, that you already paid your taxes for the device.
And that should be in the best interest of everybody, as those taxes are keeping a country alive.

49

Disclaimer: I do not want to trigger anybody.

There is no real solution for this as far as I am concerned. No matter what your rights are or not, you are in for trouble if you are entering a country and do not comply with authorities. No matter what country, to be honest. The easy way is to comply, no matter what. If there is nothing on your device/in your bag/your face/your ID or whatever that is an issue, there is no issue. I do not suggest anything as I am writing this and I have no agenda recommending anything.

Here is what I do: I am working as an auditor/tax consultant. I am not allowed to show anybody any information my clients provide me with unless I have the consent of the clients in question to do so (if there is a search warrant against my client, I still need written consent of my client until I am allowed to comply with this warrant). Does this mean that I am able to help my client committing crimes like tax fraud or whatever else? No, I have to abide the law. When I learn about illegal activities of my client, this is where I have to get rid of the client. It is not my client any longer after that. Without the consent of the client: no sharing with anybody, also not with authorities. I am protected by German law regarding this matter. So far, so good.

This nice story hits a road block as soon as I enter a different country. Let’s take the U.S. as an example: U.S. CBP is not interested in or bound by German law, so they do not have to honor this legal privilege I have in my country. If I was a US citizen of my profession: different story. But I am not. If they want to look into my smartphone, into WhatsApp, my emails on my iPhone or what not, I have two choices:

  1. Complying with their requests.

  2. Being denied entering the U.S. and going back home.

The U.S. is an example (again, I do not want to trigger anybody). Other countries, other issues.

So, what is it that I am doing: when I enter a different country, the devices I have with me do only contain data that is not critical. I have no issues showing them whatever they want to see on my devices I have taken with me. I might not be happy, but I do comply. My “solution” for critical data is that I access this data remotely if needed after I have entered a different country. It is not on my devices when I am entering or leaving a country.

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50

I don’t have any objection to import taxes. The thing that bothers me about it is that it’s the sort of situation that is not incredibly intuitive, and thus it’s the sort of thing that could surprise somebody. Being expected to produce a receipt for your laptop all of a sudden is not something the average person expects to have to do.

51

I agree. Fortunately there are resources available that might prevent some of those surprises.

International Travel Country Information

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52

The “average person” is normally getting a bunch of information before starting a booked trip, and the informations about the taxes are often included into this.
Also a lot of people have travel insurances, and they need the information about their valuable stuff therefore anyway.
Also you do, in most countries I know, not have to produce the receipt all of a sudden. In most cases, you could pay the taxes, if you have your receipts not handy, and get the money within a certain time frame back, if you could present the necessary documents to a later date.

53

Irrelevant anecdote about the good old days.

In the early 1980’s I tried to enter Canada from the US with my computer. The Canadian border patrol simply told me they would not permit it. Personal computers in that era were not very common, particularly ones that were reasonably portable. I had an HP-85.

I had to drive back 10 miles to a town where I could find paid storage to leave it for the week I was to be in Canada.

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54

I don’t have any solutions, but I travel internationally (to Europe) every year with a MBP and have never had a single issue. I guess it depends on where you’re traveling to but Europe has never been an issue for me.

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55

Did they give a reason why?

56

This conversation got me to thinking about having a travel computer.

Longish story short, I now have a Midnight MacBook Air on the way :laughing:

(MPU really should get a commission from Apple for all the stuff I’ve purchased)

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57

I’ve been actually thinking along similar lines, with the difference being that I do most of my work at a desk - so I’d be grabbing a desk computer and only putting essential stuff on my laptop.

58

Honestly this whole conversation has me confused. Either the original poster is going somewhere known to be dangerous at the moment (e.g. Russia) or is simply obsessive about these things. I typically travel overseas about 3 times a year. This year it will be 5 times: including England, France, Singapore, and South Korea. I’ve been to Vietnam (Hanoi) several times. There was never a time in all those trips that I had any problems.

So this whole issue does not seem to be a general issue to worry about. I would rethink things if I was going to a very specific location at a very specific point in time. That’s fair enough. But in general … I’m not understanding the high level of worry about this.

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59

It has nothing to do with where I’m going being dangerous. It has to do with the fact that the US Customs & Border Patrol maintains (and courts have held) that they have the right to compel biometric unlocks, then search, catalog, and file the contents of your laptop, phone, and other electronic devices simply because you’re exiting and re-entering the country. While they can’t technically compel that you hand over passwords, they can detain you, hassle you, and confiscate your devices for an indefinite (think weeks, not hours) period of time.

And this isn’t just about them going after known criminals. This is a “random search” sort of thing.

It’s one of those things that’s not an issue until it’s an issue. And while it’s unlikely, I don’t think it’s completely imprudent to consider it as a possibility. I don’t have tons of super-sensitive data, but I definitely have some. And I would wager that nobody on this forum would be excited about the government sifting through their laptop - especially if they disappeared with it into another room and decided to make a copy.

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60

I’m actually concerned about loss or damage while travelling, though I have had my devices searched (as mentioned) while re-entering my own country of Canada.

The longer version of the story is that I always have a backup computer; Apple repairs can take a loooong time and I can’t really be without a computer for more than a day. For reasons that have to do with the interplay between the pandemic and Apple’s move to ARM, my backup computer has been a 16" i9 MBP and my main computer is a 14" MBP. The backup is usually what I take on the road, but the 16" is just too big for that. This conversation finally prompted me to sell it and order an Air to be the backup/travel machine.

61

… honestly it seems to have everything to with where you are going IS dangerous: it’s the U.S. Government! Got it. Completley understood now.

(It seems the above statement has been mis-interpretted by some. The statements above are examples of sarcasm. If you are Canadian there’s a chance you may need to look up the word. (Oops, that’s another example of sarcasm.) It was intended as a humorous way to convey the exact opposite. Clearly I failed. Or the problem was I simply typed way too early in the morning for me.)

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