Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/02/15/ill-never-bring-my-phone.html
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yeah well sorry learned about that one from my grandfather via my mom back in the pre-internet days.
you want a book in that category you go to a bookstore and pay cash.
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[quote]You can rent phones at most international airports that include data plans.[/quote]Is that really a thing now? I did not realize. (I might not even have a phone right now if I knew about that not so long ago.)
But of course, when you rent a phone, how can you be sure the rental phone isn’t already infested with malware and sending everything back to the rental company (or some devious hacker who hacked the rental company)? If you’ve kept your browsing history clear, no one’s going to find out about that controversial book you bought on Amazon without your Amazon password – which you’re just as likely to enter on your rental phone as on your own personal phone.
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How about you have your previous (or alternate) phone, which you’ve performed factory reset (or better) wiping precaution. You move your SIM to it and then use it simply as a phone, which is quite handy when traveling.
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I’ve done that, anyway. My old phone was unlocked, which allowed me to use it abroad with a local SIM. It also didn’t have much memory, so I kept it lean as a matter of practicality.
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Just nuke the phone and set it up with a new account that has nothing.
Remember to use the secure delete function.
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Why would you rent a phone from the same airport where border agents might be rooting your phone when a useable smartphone costs less than a cheap dinner for two? And a used one from a hole-in-the-wall phone repair shop costs even less?
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Unfortunately, I don’t have this problem 
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Back in the day I used to buy 2600 magazine but would only use cash out of paranoia.
I met Emmanuel Goldstein (Eric Corley) at a party a few decades ago and I admitted to him I could never bring myself to subscribe due to the mailing list and he responded back “I totally understand.”
Due to Amazon I have probably been far less careful since.
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What about ebooks then? 
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You need your phone or at least your sim card to access your email when traveling. 2 factors authentification will sms your umber on record. So: no, renting a phone with data plan won’t be enough.
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The full story and I still don’t know every thing he did for his Army/DoD intel/troubleshooting work but my mom got a bio of Che from the library when she was pregnant with me. That was enough for them to notify him and he said next time go to the bookstore and pay cash. This was in the 60s.
I have been a little less paranoid lately as he is long dead and I doubt whatever file there was on me is kept up anymore, but there are some things I will not get from the library/online/etc.
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Neither should you."
Roger That!
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torrents? and delete them from your device before travelling.
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A simpler suggestion for the somewhat less paranoid: Set up two accounts, the one you normally use and a throwaway account. Before you begin your trip, backup your regular account to the cloud, then wipe the device and set it up as new with your secondary account. Let them search your phone all they like, there’s nothing you don’t want seen. When you arrive at your destination, wipe and restore from cloud backup, and you get back all your normal data.
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Let’s see: lab glassware, electronics components that include nichrome wire, rocketry book searches, and purchases of books on Palestinian and Israeli politics and histories and polemics on the region. Yeah. I gave up.
There’s basically no question I’m on a list, somewhere. I’m just hoping that applications to government jobs go on that same list, somewhere.
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I’m a librarian, therefore all ur bannd books are belong to me.
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Torrents works. As do Onion Libraries
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Or, you could, you know, actually pay authors for their work.
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I just spent the last 20 minutes going though every purchase I made on Amazon going back to 2004. So far all it screams is Nerd and Furry and nothing massively suspicious except for:
I totally forgot had that in my wallet.
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