Consider a Burner Phone for Your Holiday Travel This Year

cnet.com

10 pointsColinWright6 comments

Tech people have done this for years ... now it's hitting the "mainstream".

Who does it really fool?

If you enter the USA with a candybar phone and the agent asks you to show them your social media feeds (because they know your name and have already cross-referenced that)... what do you do then?

Nobody is fooled.

If you had reason to suspect an unfriendly reception, then you should have avoided the USA entirely.

The use case is discouraging low-effort/low-priority digging for information. Asking to see your feeds costs them zero. Digging in deeper or detaining you would consume actual time & effort.

The default case, as I see it, is that you're refused entry and it's up to you and your airline to get you back home. Takes almost no effort on their part.

Perhaps. But giving 'em your real phone & socials gives 'em 100X the easy excuses to do that.

If I'm ever asked to do this I physically can't nor would I subject myself to that search. I don't know the password, I don't travel with my yubikey, and my mobile devices don't have 1password installed. So there is no getting into my accounts.

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