Is a reasonable work around to ship your phone to your future destination?
So, i guess, not having something with (electronics, luggage, ...) you can also cause problems.
But yeah, this is only one anectote, so travelling without a phone / a laptop might be fine...
- purge your phone
- enter the US, let them search your plain vanilla phone
- restore backup
They will search your devices. They have a process flow to follow and 'empty contact list' will likely branch to 'second-tier inspection' and laptops will be searched.
Much better to keep an old previous-generation smartphone with a minimal but genuine contact list ( immediate family, emergency contact, work & insurance numbers ) and a couple of useful non-social apps and use that when travelling. And only for travelling. No trickery, just hand it over.
I don't agree with the policy, but it's policy. I can't change it as one foreign national standing in line, I can only minimise the damage it causes me.
The US intelligence agencies are hell bent on creating a social graph of the world, and they will get to do it.
Here's the link: http://www.dailyxtra.com/canada/news-and-ideas/news/us-custo...