Cell Phone OPSEC for Border Crossings

I have heard stories of more aggressive interrogation of electronic devices at US border crossings. I know a lot about securing computers, but very little about securing phones. Are there easy ways to delete data--files, photos, etc.--on phones so it can't be recovered? Does resetting a phone to...

Use the Cloud

When it comes to search and seizure by customs agents, the cloud is your friend. A plethora of online services today make it easy to simply copy your sensitive data – or your entire drive’s contents – up to a hosted storage server. Once again, you’ll want to make sure that the connection to...

Snail mail the data

Another way to avoid having your digital privacy intruded upon is to backup all the data onto an external hard drive, USB drive or SD card making sure the content of your backup is encrypted, of course. You can then ship the data to your destination. With your data copied off the device, you can...

Snail mail the device

Don’t want to have your device seized when you cross the border? Why not just stick it in the mail? True: there are no privacy protections afforded to data sent by post. But you can avoid awkward confrontations with border agents if you mailed it and you won’t be questioned about your devices or...

Don't just 'delete,' – DELETE!

Many of EFF’s recommendations involve copying data onto an external device and then removing it from the device you’ll be carrying across the border. When doing this, you will want to make sure that the data you delete is actually gone. Simply pressing the ‘delete’ key or emptying the desktop was...