One solution is for all other countries' border control started to demand passwords to unlock phone/all social apps for UK citizens, SPECIALLY target UK politicians and government workers.
Love to see any/all the interesting info one can find from the politicians.
Sounds like a good way to fight back. The US is doing this too sometimes. I don't really see a reason to search everyone's phone unless there's a reasonable suspicion and be allowed to watch them as they go through it. Just check if they have a weapon or not. If no weapon, don't see why further searching is needed. I saw another article about them wanting to scan people's papers they take with them. If they keep this stuff up, I think they will destroy the tourism industry and maybe more people will care.
I have sadly seen people commenting on similar articles on HN about how they don't ever plan to visit the US over these searches. Even a NASA engineer got searched.
Plus TSA has been known to steal also. I hope private jets become cheaper some day to avoid all this, well there are jet sharing programs. Drive straight to the runway and take off :) I guess if you have a huge company like Google or Apple, a private jet is basically free with all the write offs. Probably boosts productivity without all the waiting in lines.
I'm a US born citizen and I don't even look forward to flying. I haven't yet in my life but do want to fly and travel more someday. Every single day lately there's aways some news story about some major airline messing with people, or some story is talked about back to back on every news program involving the TSA.
I recently flew to the U.S. - I did consider wiping my iPhone in advance and then restoring it from iCloud backup once safely in the hotel, but in the end just left it at home. It was very nice taking a break too.
Of course, as a fairly unremarkable middle-aged white guy, I didn't get stopped at all.
This makes me wonder what the statistical likelihood of 'getting into trouble' is for 'unremarkable' people entering the US (by flight).
If I'd fly to the US (unlikely), I'd definitely wipe my phone or leave it at home. But since I'm also 'unremarkable', I'm now wondering if perhaps the chance of getting into trouble is ridiculously small for me, and that perhaps I'm in a bit of a bubble of my own going through all this (pointless) trouble to be 'safe'.
Surprised more app developers are not creating solutions to this kind of thing - e.g. some form of multisig authorisation to access certain files or 2FA that relies on the second factor only being available at times access is genuinely needed.
If the governments claim they have authority to search your phone, then the only solution is not to store things on your phone during those border activities. Any system for denial of access will simply be considered obstruction.
So technical solutions would simply be to have a backup somewhere, with no trace of the backup software on the device itself. Get to where you're going, go to the website, or download the app, or plug it into another computer, and restore your data from the internet via access codes you have memorized. Or simply travel with a device dedicated for travel, and not your personal goings on.
But obviously, technical solutions don't solve the root poison, which is government destruction of rights and social health in the name of "protecting our rights and society from terrorists".
I'm not a lawyer, but I very strongly doubt deliberately making yourself unavailable to give the password on demand is going to be perceived by a court as as cute a way around this law as you believe it to be.
There's no technological solutions to things like this, only political ones.
I guess the challenge is one of UX; if you're hiding features behind specific sign-in patterns (to avoid security services) then you're also hiding them from a proportion of your users
srcmap|8 years ago
Love to see any/all the interesting info one can find from the politicians.
Keverw|8 years ago
I have sadly seen people commenting on similar articles on HN about how they don't ever plan to visit the US over these searches. Even a NASA engineer got searched.
Plus TSA has been known to steal also. I hope private jets become cheaper some day to avoid all this, well there are jet sharing programs. Drive straight to the runway and take off :) I guess if you have a huge company like Google or Apple, a private jet is basically free with all the write offs. Probably boosts productivity without all the waiting in lines.
I'm a US born citizen and I don't even look forward to flying. I haven't yet in my life but do want to fly and travel more someday. Every single day lately there's aways some news story about some major airline messing with people, or some story is talked about back to back on every news program involving the TSA.
msmm|8 years ago
uncle_d|8 years ago
Of course, as a fairly unremarkable middle-aged white guy, I didn't get stopped at all.
mercer|8 years ago
If I'd fly to the US (unlikely), I'd definitely wipe my phone or leave it at home. But since I'm also 'unremarkable', I'm now wondering if perhaps the chance of getting into trouble is ridiculously small for me, and that perhaps I'm in a bit of a bubble of my own going through all this (pointless) trouble to be 'safe'.
vjvj|8 years ago
Surprised more app developers are not creating solutions to this kind of thing - e.g. some form of multisig authorisation to access certain files or 2FA that relies on the second factor only being available at times access is genuinely needed.
white-flame|8 years ago
So technical solutions would simply be to have a backup somewhere, with no trace of the backup software on the device itself. Get to where you're going, go to the website, or download the app, or plug it into another computer, and restore your data from the internet via access codes you have memorized. Or simply travel with a device dedicated for travel, and not your personal goings on.
But obviously, technical solutions don't solve the root poison, which is government destruction of rights and social health in the name of "protecting our rights and society from terrorists".
x0x0|8 years ago
There's no technological solutions to things like this, only political ones.
richmarr|8 years ago