Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/09/13/cyberspace-is-everting-2.html
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So happy to hear of this. I have been wondering (as a Canadian) if I am going to have to get a special phone and special computer pared down to the minimum just to cross the US border, lest the border guards feel they can just hold on to the ones I actually need to manage my life. It is hard to believe it has come to this.
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I’m a Canadian too and I’ve been wondering what to do when I go to visit relatives in the US this Christmas. I’m a consultant with some government contracts and touchy clients. The solution may be to get a dumb phone for myself and use my wife’s iPhone for navigation. I don’t plan to do any work while on vacation so really only need voice communication.
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Is anyone still in any doubt the US is a fascist police state, I wonder?
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There are still a few people on the BBS who are 
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I went to the USA in August. I got a special phone and special computer pared down to the minimum for that exact reason, together with a server with an encrypted copy of the personal data I may need. I was not controlled at the border and generally belong to the class of people who should have nothing to hide, but did not want to take any risk.
If the customs officer would have asked why my phone had not data older than two months, I was prepared to say that I bought it for the occasion (which would have been true, actually). Smartphones are more useful on travel than at home, where I do not need maps, etc. Because of my age, that story would have been believable. A younger traveler would not have it so easy as the customs officers would probably not believe that they do not use Facebook, Whatsapp, etc… and could simply let him or her in prison till he or she gives the passwords to their social networks.
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I’m glad I don’t have any accounts on any social network. I felt like a hermit sometimes, but my gut feelings prove to have been correct more & more.
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