How to Keep ICE Agents Out of Your Devices at Airports
theintercept.comThe usual fare: log out, disable biometrics, use long pins and passwords, power off. Prefer a burner device, or clean your device and restore when you arrive.
I remember how Google's internal guidelines for travel circa 2011 required to remove any material under NDA from your laptop when traveling to China or Russia; you had to restore it over the VPN after a safe arrival. Funny that now the same precautions apply to the US :((
This has been the recommendation when traveling to the US since 2001, only that the worry was NSA rather than ICE.
The procedure that I got recommended in 2005 was to install a second fresh operative system (preferable windows) on the laptop on a separate partition/disk, make a copy of the old boot partition and disk encryption headers, encrypt the copy and store it online for later retrieval, and then overwrite the old boot with the new installation. Make sure to leave the old partitions alone.
The restore is then as simple as downloading the encrypted backup, decrypt and dd it back in place. Repeat the process before taking the trip back. It was advisable to test the processes before to familiarize yourself to it, and to use the fresh installation a bit so it wasn't completely blank.
> I remember how Google's internal guidelines for travel circa 2011 required to remove any material under NDA from your laptop when traveling to China or Russia; you had to restore it over the VPN after a safe arrival.
I made this suggestion when I served on the security team at a major cybersecurity player.
When we had our company-wide annual internal conference it was always in person. This meant that basically everyone, with basically cumulative access to everything, and all our code, would be traveling across a multitude of borders at once. Some of which were less friendly than the US (at that time).
This was rejected as impractical for developers and redundant for everyone else. So I suggested locking the accounts of everyone who was traveling between the time they left and the time they arrived. This would have the side effect of signing them out of our most sensitive systems and removing certain highly confidential data from laptops. This was also rejected as “unnecessary”.
That company now counts a healthy proportion of the Fortune 500 amongst their customer base. I hope things are not so cavalier anymore.
All solid advice.
I would like to add as a reminder to encrypt all devices as well. Leave as little plaintext data as possible.
Veracrypt has the ability to create hidden volumes, regardless of OS.
This goes without saying!
>you had to restore it over the VPN after a safe arrival
How do you restore it via VPN? Don't you first need a workable OS to connect to VPN first?
You have a working OS! But you're logged out, all sensitive data is removed (safely overwritten with random data first), and you don't have the means to connect to the VPN or anything corporate (it was before zero-trust architecture), even at gunpoint. You can check your flight status, or look up a cafe nearby to eat, etc. But you have to go to a Google office in the destination city, identity yourself, and get the trusted bits restored on your corp machine. This, together with an OTP device, finally allowed you to reconnect to the internal network (and go check fresh memegen).
I do understand why all these steps are required. And they are good. But how should zero-trust architecture solve that? You‘re still authenticated what the core problem is.
Zero-trust architecture just can work without a VPN, unless the network is blocked. Otherwise everything should be similar.
“Remove material under NDA” not format blank the computer.
Do you need to disable biometrics if you simply reboot? my Pixel 10 Pro XL wont let me in without pin after reboot. Biometrics wont work until that first unlock.
The guidelines also say that if the border agents of China or Russia ask you point blank, to give them access. It is not worth risking your personal safety for your device. That includes your PIN and password, and in China and Russia's case, whether or not that's actually allowed by law.
Ditch the phone. The liability, tracking and mental health problems created due to modern phones has made owning one unsustainable. Email works, at worst, voip providers exist. Do you need a map? Print one. Do you need directions? Ask someone. Does the restaurant only offer app or qr, ask someone, or go somewhere else.
I have never encountered a phone-related problem that could not be solved with:
1. A print out. 2. Asking someone. 3. Using your web browser on your computer. 4. Using some kind of voip if audio communication is needed.
Yes, it is not as convenient as the surveillance and privacy nightmares of today, but if your life is only about convenience, then send your money to the government, and let them just decide for you how much money you need, and you don't even have to think about that.
A minor inconvenience is a price well paid for freedom from surveillance and excellent mental health.
The ones who complain about inconvenience don't really care about privacy, democracy and freedom, so should not complain when these things are attacked.
You drive car or walk everywhere you go? Car is convenience, yes but it is the privacy nightmare (unless you gamble and drive without plates :) )
> unless you gamble and drive without plates
New cars are being fitted with cell modems to ping cell towers.
Yea, driving a modern / newer car is just as bad privacy-wise as having a mobile phone. I mentioned plate readers as I was expecting "Don't drive new cars" given the "don't use mobile phone" comment :)
Insane take, you can’t expect anyone to agree with this.
I don't agree a phone free life is an insane idea at all. It is in fact extremely reasonable, rational, and admirable. The parent makes it sound easier than it is though. You might consider that part "insane".
I have tried really really hard to break the phone addiction too. Though so far without durable success, unfortunately. :-(
(Raises hand) Ummm…
Maybe it's because I went nearly 50 years with no cell phone?
It seems reasonable to shut the phone off—check it through with your luggage.
(One of my favorite travel memories was trying to ask people in Tokyo for directions to my hotel—I speak only English.)
Don't go to America is the best alternative.
Only go to good parts. Like Mexico and South America in general.
Canada's ok, but only in May and October. The rest of the year is ice and/or black fly season.
In English, "America" means the USA specifically.
But you knew that already and decided to just post bait.
Seems too subjective. I don't think it'll take off.
Hey look judging from how this thread evolved in the last several hours, at least it turned out that the bait worked and a bunch of people were dumb enough to take it?
ha ha
or, perhaps, they are wryly pushing back against the USA capturing a generic geographic term for themselves
To be fair though, that horse bolted a couple of centuries ago. What other name would you call it by? There's another "united states" on the same continent. The country to the immediate south is formally known as the "United Mexican States".
But the whole hemisphere is not "Mexico". USA and Canada are not also "North Mexico". Their harmless little reminder is more correct than any of the attempted arguments against it.
It was the first group of united states on the continent. North America was, relative to the land that became Mexico, thinly peopled. Unlike in Mexico there was no pre-colonial, indigenous empire that had ruled and named the land which eventually became the 13 colonies. So there wasn't necessarily a better alternative to put after "United States of" at the time. Do you know of one?
>Unlike in Mexico there was no pre-colonial, indigenous empire that had ruled and named the land which eventually became the 13 colonies.
Actually, there were multiple indigenous political entities both along the Eastern Seaboard (where we find those 13 colonies) as well as across what is now the US and Canada[0].
We just took their land and killed most of them, but they were still pretty organized -- with political groupings of various types.
[0] https://scholar.flatworldknowledge.com/books/32177/ourhistor...
Where's the Tenochtitlan of the 13 colonies?
Of course colonists committed genocide against indigenous people everywhere they went. No one's denying that. I'm addressing precisely what you yourself said
> there were multiple indigenous political entities both along the Eastern Seaboard
They were fragmented and smaller than the Aztec empire. That doesn't make it right to take their land. It does explain why their names didn't apply to the entire land. Because none of them was so big and centralized. If you look at the geographical features of the Eastern seaboard - mountains, lakes, streams, rivers, cities and towns, even 2 states (Massachusetts, Connecticut) - native names abound.
The lands that became the US and Canada really did have fewer people living on them than the lands that became Mexico. [1] Again because Mexico had centralized states and large-scale agriculture capable of supporting large populations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_history_of_the_Indi...
What about all the non-western colonists?
What about Iran? Iran was conquered by muslims. So should we conquer it and kick muslims out because it wasn't ok to take that land? What about every muslim country? Muslims stole mecca from the Jews, as is extensively detailed in muslim history books. Should it be conquered and returned?
What about China? The kingdoms did most of the conquering of course, then "unification" took their land and then communists did ethnic cleansing until Han Chinese were in most places all that's left. Hell, a number of the people they cleansed aren't even gone yet. There are still Tibetans. There are plenty of original Hong Kong'ers still alive.
What about Russia? What about North Africa? What about ...
>They were fragmented and smaller than the Aztec empire.
So what? Portugal was smaller than the Aztec Empire too. As was the Netherlands. And England. Should we pooh pooh them as unimportant as well?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahokia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salish_peoples
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cree
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancestral_Puebloans
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algonquian_peoples
And many others.
Just because they had brown skin and often didn't engage in wholesale slaughter doesn't make them unimportant -- or not political entities.
You're putting words in my mouth. I don't see the point in continuing this conversation.
>You're putting words in my mouth.
Are you sure you responded to the right comment?
>don't see the point in continuing this conversation.
Works for me.
If I'm not mistaking the name "United States of Mexico" appeared in 1824, whereas "United States of America" appeared earlier in 1787.
How about its real name, the USA? Crazy idea I know
The level of arrogance some western-hemisphere Spanish speakers have, trying to tell foreigners that the name they use for their own country in their own native language is wrong, demanding that they translate the Spanish name and use that instead, is so absurdly entitled that it's just... hilarious.
> The level of arrogance some western-hemisphere Spanish speakers have
It’s almost exclusively Western Europeans doing this IME
It's so wierd to perceive that as arrogance. Actually "wierd" is being too nice.
In your world, then, is it normal to complain about other people's names, and expect them to change what they call themselves to better suit your preference?
Again, wierd. No one is doing that. But for some reason you decide that someone has done something to you, or done anything at all to anyone.
I am sure it sounds bizarre, if you have never encountered it before, but people really do this. A few quick examples - all in English:
https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/comments/a96v93/am...
https://www.reddit.com/r/asklatinamerica/comments/fwp0aj/doe...
https://www.reddit.com/r/asklatinamerica/comments/15zlo42/is...
https://www.reddit.com/r/asklatinamerica/comments/fwp0aj/doe...
Let them have it. 'America' is so loaded with horrible things that I don't really think the rest of the continent cares
This is the point: in English, it is not a generic geographic term.
It is in Spanish, though, so I get where the confusion comes from (at least when that confusion is genuine and not just boring troll shit). In Spanish, "América" refers to what in English is "the Americas", because in English we use separate terms for North, South, and (sometimes) Central America.
It's not pushback. It's just dishonest ragebait bullshit.
So was Trump being inclusive or exclusive when he renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America?
Instead, try commenting in good faith.
Times are a changing. We can change the English language on this matter too (or more accurately, it might end up changing).
It is something that needs correcting tbh. The USA does not own the Americas.
I treat all items on an international trip as disposable. Been robbed by thieves, police (Mexico lol), and brutalized by US CBP enough to know it's not worth it to try and take anything across borders besides the shirt on your back. Anything carried is a liability for them to claim you filled some customs form wrong or to fake a drug dog hit on it.
SFO has had repeated hilarious and/or high profile incidents involving the TSA / luggage handlers stealing people's stuff. They stole a pocket knife from my checked bag once.
https://abc7ny.com/archive/9192371/
This one's my favorite: If you want the police to keep ignoring complaints then don't steal service revolvers!
https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/3rd-sfo-baggage-handler...
"Immigration and Customs Enforcement have already started targeting travelers, with agents in plain clothes forcefully detaining a mother in front of her young daughter at San Francisco International Airport on Sunday after a tip from the Transportation Security Administration."
I don't think the tsa is at sfo. They use a private contractor for tsa functions. Is the quote made-up?
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/us/tsa-data-ice-deportati...
> Ms. Lopez-Jimenez, 41, a native of Guatemala, and her daughter, Wendy Godinez-Lopez, were flagged by T.S.A. officials on Friday when they showed up on a passenger list for a Sunday flight from San Francisco to Miami. The agency then tipped off Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the documents.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/us/politics/immigration-t...
> Under the previously undisclosed program, the Transportation Security Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement of travelers are sharing names and birth dates of travelers believed to have been ordered out of the country by an immigration judge. ICE can then send agents to the airport to detain and quickly deport those people.
They don't have to be at the airport to do this; airlines have to send them the manifest.
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-19/chapter-I/part-122/sub...
> Except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section, an appropriate official of each commercial aircraft (carrier) departing from the United States en route to any port or place outside the United States must transmit to the Advance Passenger Information System (APIS; referred to in this section as the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) system), the electronic data interchange system approved by CBP for such transmissions, an electronic passenger departure manifest covering all passengers checked in for the flight.
Sounds like security flagged some undocumented Guatemalan people trying to fly and ICE was called in and they were detained at the SFO airport. SFO is not specifically on the list of airports where ICE is deployed at to fill in security roles for DHS personnel while funding is shut down. So they claim it's an isolated incident. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...
TSA does more than just the security checkpoints, even at airports with privatized screening TSA does all of the back-office work, including some on-site staff. The physical screening is the only thing that can be contracted out, not the whole rest of the process like maintenance of risk databases.
What might confuse things a bit is that this incident happened hours before ICE agents started reinforcing TSA at checkpoints and seems mostly unrelated, other than establishing the general principle that ICE will arrest people at airports based on tips from TSA's flight booking records.
No, the quote is not made up, which you can confirm yourself by doing a google search.
https://www.ktvu.com/news/ice-agents-arrest-crying-woman-sfo
The part you quoted isn’t about TSA. TSA and ICE are not the same.
The quote literally contains the string "Transportation Security Administration" in it.
But the actor in the quote - the people who had to be at the airport to do the detaining - is ICE.
The TSA tip didn't have to come from someone physically sitting in the airport.
Airlines like Alaska Airlines make it very difficult to board a plane without a phone. It's still possible, but you need to prepare early and get your boarding pass printed at home, provided that you have a printer, apparently.
I remember when Alaska Airlines wasn't terrible.
Any idea what happened? New CEO? Acquisition?
A lot of otherwise good companies have found that "Can't use phone" is almost equivalent to "Annoying non-profitable Customer"
You can also print them at the numerous Alaska Airlines kiosks at most airports
> Alaska Airlines kiosks
Those don't exist. I guess you haven't traveled with Alaska for a while.
https://worldaviationfestival.com/blog/airlines/alaska-airli...
I fly with them all the time. You can print your tickets at the ones that do bag check in where bag drop-off is, or the attendant that checks your ID and takes your bags can print them for you.
I can’t think of a single airline that can’t or won’t print a boarding pass. At least not based in North America.
It's an interesting state that you can force someone to unlock their phone with biometrics, but you can't force them to reveal a pin.
Anecdotally, I have been to the US a few times in the past year, and seen no change myself - where are you going and why? Thanks have a good trip. It was for short business trips, and I'm white with a number of documented entries/departures, so my experience might be very different from the next person though.
"Unlock your phone."
"No, I don't have to."
Detained in a room for twelve hours.
"Okay, okay, here's my phone."
So you missed your flight, probably not getting a refund on that ticket, missed the people/plans that were setup around you arriving 12 hours ago?
I'd rather wipe my phone and then restore it when I arrive.
"Why are you travelling with a blank phone?"
Detained in a room for twelve hours.
Burner phones for all! Defund, disband, destroy DHS, ICE, CBP, TSA.
Apple devices allow biometrics to be disabled for unlocking the phone.
They are still active for accessing anything in the wallet, however.
You can completely disable biometry if you wish to do so. Apple Pay without biometrics is somewhat annoying.
For Linux users, you could try disabling the desktop environment when going through the airport (or using termux-launcher on your phone).
It'd be fun to see how they'd handle a CLI. Might result in getting detained, though.
You're an hacker, detained.
insert "wrench" xkcd here
Don't carry them with you. I'm old and I can tell you from experience... you can live life without holding a cellphone all the time. It's not as hard as you think.
> ... I'm old ... you can live life without holding a cellphone all the time. It's not as hard as you think.
I'm in my 50s and I don't know where this stance comes from. Sure, you physically can in the same sense that anywhere can be walked to if you're willing to walk long enough. But so many businesses and services have gone "mobile-first" or "mobile-only" to the point that if you're traveling for leisure you're doing extra work on your vacation, and if you're traveling for business you're wasting time that could be used doing your job. Just as a first order, the denizens of every airline subreddit will tell you that the most useful tool during a trip is the airline's mobile app and that's either tied with or just above or below the Flighty app if anything goes wrong.
Combine that with QR codes for everything from menus to parking, public transit tickets and fare cards that can be easily loaded into a phone instead of using a ticket machine made when we were kids, or paper maps increasingly hard to find if they're available at all, and you're looking at a real challenge. How are you going to talk to and plan with your travel partner or colleagues with payphones removed?
It's also not incumbent upon us to make the government's life easier by making our lives harder. "Just leave your phone at home" is ludicrous behavior to expect when it's the government being the intrusive jerks.
And google translate or google maps if you are traveling are very nice to have.
Sure, you can do without them, but it will be much more difficult.
I don’t have a phone
Sure it’s inconvenient sometimes, but on the whole I’d say my life is better than those I see glued to their phones.
This belief is reinforced whenever people ask for my number (dentist, doctor, whatever) The gusto which they invariably reply “OMG I WISH I could get rid of my phone!”
Because only those two extremes exist: you either don't have a phone, or your are glued to it?
Of course not, I said nothing of the sort.
I said I’d prefer to not have a phone than be like people who are glued to their phones. I said nothing about all the people in the middle.
So do you give to your doctor your landline's nuber, and this is why they're surprised, or you don't even have that?
They're probably being nice and think you're a weirdo.
I don't btw. I admire you sticking to your principles.
In all fairness, I am a weirdo and wouldn’t have it any other way.
How often do you travel outside of the country or even outside of your state?
I’m not American. I travel a lot. It’s how I make money.
Then tge question still remains - how do you catch an Uber or communicate with people when you don’t speak their language?
Smiles, hand signals, learn basic words.
Exactly the same way I did when I drove across dozens of countries before the iPhone was invented.
I assure you your experience was a lot less deep than mine now that I’m in a country where I don’t speak the language well for six weeks.
And how are you getting around without Uber now that taxis are basically dead.
And why be a Luddite when it comes to phones and not computers? Cars?
What kind of phone does your grownup have?
Zing.
We’ve both been exploring the world since long before smartphones were invented. So we still do everything we want the same as always.
Do you really recommend people travel internationally in 2026 without a cellphone? I’m kind of bewildered by this suggestion. As someone who has to go between LATAM and US frequently, I have no choice but to bring my cellphone.
I went to Thailand for three weeks in November. I didn’t bring a phone or a laptop. I printed my maps, reservations, and emergency numbers. It was awesome. Don’t lock yourself into imaginary prisons.
I don't bring phones either. I go straight to the nearest mall/bazaar/market and buy one. Anyplace developed enough that you need a phone has them for sale. Anyplace where you can't find a phone has enough other people without them you can still get around. The phone gets trashed before I go through the next international border.
IMHO today is difficult to do anything without a smartphone. I hate the state of affairs, but it is just so. Anything needs an app to work. Public services in some countries requiere it. Paying, etc.
But in traveling is almost essential. GPS to navigate, search for hotels, places to eat, take fotos… yes, you could carry many devices… but seriously?! Ah btw… what about being in touch with family?
Do you remember a time people did all those things without a phone?
I’ve driven across multiple continents and many dozens of countries without a phone or gps.
Talking to locals to ask directions is half the fun, especially when I don’t speak the language. I’ve been invited to parties, weddings and more because of it.
> Talking to locals to ask directions is half the fun, especially when I don’t speak the language.
I can absolutely understand that you and many people love that. But maybe you can understand other people prefer to never feel lost, be able to translate signs, find places to eat easily, discover “must see”[1] things, take fotos, be in contact with family, all in a device which weighs 200g in my pocket. Even having it can I eventually forget it, and talk with locals… but when I want to go back to the hotel, is nice to know exactly how[2]
I am old enough that I did travel without cell:
[1] it happened to my many times (at least 3 out of the top of my head) that locals have bo idea where a museum is, or the house of X, or other things that tourists may find interesting, but locals don’t give a shit
[2] if you have been in places like Turkey or South America, you may know that taking a taxi is an interesting exercise. Sometimes they charge you wrong, sometimes they take you for a 20km ride. Having (a) gps, (b) a mean to call the police and (c) a mean to check online what should the travel cost, (d) a translator in your pocket, seems very convenient for me.
Or in other words: do you understand that now having the phone you can still do everything as you used to, asking for directions without understanding, talking with people, all, but now when you want you have a super tool? The best is: is smaller that a foto camera from those days, can take 100000 more fotos, and has 20 more functions!
People used to live without electricity, fride, email… so? Why should I not use what is avaible today?
By no means was I suggesting that everyone should live without a phone. Merely that I prefer life without one. Yes, it's inconvenient sometimes, but I decided a long time ago that convenience was not the goal of my life, experiences are.
To have the experiences I want, I need more time. To have more time, I need to go to work less. So spending less money means I get to spend time with my daughter, go snowboarding have adventures around the globe.
It turns out not having a phone is another great way to save money, and go to work less.
>It's not as hard as you think.
You're probably right, still...
I often wonder how I survived going for a random drive or even simply leaving the house from 1980 through to the advent of smart phones. Was I simply more brave and self-sufficient back then?
But then I note that there was some infrastructure and also some attitude differences back then that don't exist now.
When my car would break down in the 1980s or 1990s, typically there would be a pay phone nearby. One time in the early 90s, I just knocked on a random door and the resident let me use their land line to call a tow truck (I'm not sure anyone would let a random stranger into their home now, but maybe they still do). Breaking down in the boonies was no fun, but likely someone would come by eventually and help (or murder you, but probably help).
I was reminded recently of this when I went to park in the city in a garage that I frequently patronize only to find they had removed the payment terminal, which was replaced by a sign that said "use our app!". I have a low-data phone plan, so if I had to install their app, I would probably blow past my limit for the month. Also, there was no signal in the garage. So I just left and found another place to park (and was almost late for my appointment).
Also I don't like having to pay just to print my boarding pass at the check-in kiosk. Maybe I am not less brave but just more cheap.
> Was I simply more brave and self-sufficient back then?
Probably! A good reason to exercise those skills again
> (I'm not sure anyone would let a random stranger into their home now, but maybe they still do).
Curious what makes you think that. Perhaps as an exercise, do something that requires asking a favour of someone. You might be pleasantly surprised. Despite all the ills in society, faith can be restored be some amazing interactions with people offline
> So I just left and found another place to park
That's exactly the right response. Being late sucked but hopefully just a once off .
> Maybe I am not less brave but just more cheap.
This is honestly unsaid in a lot of these discussions! The non phone methods can be a bit more expensive. It's a good point but sometimes the difference isn't huge
The problem is that it actually gets harder. I was a holdout against cell phones when I was young. Eventually payphones started disappearing. Pre-cellphone they were everywhere. By the time I finally caved and got a cellphone I knew where there still were some in important spots around Chicago. Plus you ran into changing norms. Before cell phones people would schedule a meetup (let's meet at noon in this square then go do what we were going to do) but after cell phones it became, "just call me when you get close."
I then tried to resist smart phones and stick with my nokia. But then you start to get into things like, the kiosk where they would print your boarding pass doesn't do that anymore. You need a QR code on your phone. You can't call places anymore, you need to do it on their website, etc.
Now the government is starting to treat a lack of social media or technology as a reason for suspicion. In the not-too-distant future I imagine it will not be possible to go to an airport without a smart phone and a digital history known to Palentir.
I've done a fair bit of domestic (USA) flying over the last six months and when flights are spontaneously cancelled for weather/staffing/crew timeouts/random apocalyptic actions, a phone has been priceless in getting quickly rebooked and out of the trouble zone. Even if that means cancelling the flight and buying a ticket on a different airline (looking at you, AA)
You do not want to spend an hour in the customer service line to find out that all open seats on the next flight out were scooped up 59 minutes ago.
I'm sad we've just accepted that no useful staff at the airport is an acceptable state of affairs.
They're full of outsourced agents whose contracts are very specific and don't include things like assisting customers during IRROPS, as I understand it. Or they have their hands tied by the airlines
I'd like government intervention now that the free market has failed - there is almost no choice you can make that offers real customer service
There are physical staff at airports, but you can't have 40 agents standing around at each counter waiting for the next disaster to arrive and help with rebooking. So you hire two per counter. But that means when something comes up, everyone is stuck in line for hours to get help face-to-face.
I didn't say there is no staff. I said "useful staff" and then clarified I meant staff empowered to help during IRROPS. But I appreciate this is about the US and most of my experience is in Europe. I guess things aren't so bad in the US?
In my experience in Europe, there are very very few staff who can help, except at major hubs. Even then, if you've not got high status, you won't get much help.
> but you can't have 40 agents standing around at each counter waiting for the next disaster to arrive and help with rebooking
That is the exact excuse they used to reduce the empowered agents to 0
Or, if you want to have one with you, leave your regular cell phone at home (or ship it ahead to your destination via parcel carrier) and carry a burner/travel-only phone instead. Don't put any personal data on that phone. Not even contact numbers. Carry those in printed form separately.
We really need some straightforward way to carry a mostly-wiped phone, and then download an app, input credentials [0] (stored in your head), and have everything [1] downloaded from a cloud server and ready to go.
[0] since I'm spelling this out, one of those credentials should be a passphrase such that the server doesn't have access to your data
[1] modulo data/apps you actually want on a phone in a foreign country, of course
Interesting idea. But, in your vision, what would be the main difference between this approach and actually wiping your device, install just some basic apps you need during the travel (e.g. airline's app for the boarding pass and flight info) and then restore from your cloud backup at the end of the flight? Main difference I see is that Apple/Google wouldn't have access to your data, but this only makes sense if you're not using their services to start with.
You just reinvented iCloud - welcome to 2011.
Does iCloud not blast you with a bunch of "2FA" hassles the way Google does? That passwords are no longer complete account credentials makes this approach a non-starter, unless you want to come up with some protocol with a trusted person who stays home (with access to your account) and can perform those verification steps for you.
Even so I would still be worried about the nonstandard behavior of activating a new device in a foreign country causing my Apple/Google account to get straight up locked by their arbitrary and capricious "security" systems.
Passkeys are stored in your Apple Keychain. I don’t think you have to go through 2FA if you use a Passkey with Google.
I can throw my iPhone in the ocean, go to the nearest cell phone store/Apple Store and log into my Apple account and you won’t be able to tell the difference between my old phone and new phone - all apps, data, icon positions, passwords, photos, settings, bookmarks, history, messages etc will be restored
I don't really know how Passkeys or Apple Keychain works. But regardless I would think there has to be some other step to go from merely knowing a password to being able to access a cloud account (which includes the Keychain), no?
Are you saying that you can throw your phone in the ocean, have access to no other devices (including a SIM card), obtain a new phone, input your email+password, and reliably have that new phone onboarded? Because it certainly doesn't work that way in Android+GApps land from everything I've experienced - rather there is always a step where at the very least you have to authenticate using another logged-in session or email challenge.
That’s exactly what I’m saying. It’s worked that way since 2011.
If you go into the Apple Store or your carrier, they hand you new phone, you log in to your iCloud account and it asks you which back up you want to use if you have multiple backups. You might these days have to enter your passcode from your old device.
You or they call your carrier or depending on your carrier you can register your e-sim directly from your phone.
Well it's certainly not that way in Android+GApps land, which is why I wrote my original comment.
> It's not as hard as you think.
International travel is infinitely more difficult without a cell phone.
When I was younger and international roaming was expensive I travelled internationally without a phone. It’s possible, but it’s so much easier to do it with a phone. Later when I finally stopped being a cheap student and bought a data plan my trips were so much more efficient because I wasn’t losing so much time trying to figure everything out without a phone.
For international business trips, devices are mandatory. This isn’t even an option.
And then you look like an undercover officer running a sting operation for Uber drivers (https://youtu.be/LqwJFuntco4?t=150).
The last time I didn’t have a cell phone with me in my pocket was 1995.
But how in 2026 when I travel am I going to get directions? Get an Uber? I am in a Spanish speaking country right now and I speak some Spanish. But it really is convenient just to take my cell phone out and translate.
What is your next piece of wisdom? That I also don’t need a computer with 16GB RAM because my first computer had 128KB?
Oh and I also don’t need the web because back in my day Gopher and Usenet were good enough
Maybe the world needs a virtual phone in the cloud which you access with a browser from a dumb device.
This is where boomer stereotypes come from.
> the government is overreaching
> "well back in my day we used to walk uphill both ways!"
Additionally: If you have adb access turned on, turn it off before travelling!
iPhone: clicking power button five times in quick succession locks down to password access only.
Another method many don't know is to have 2 synchronized phones while traveling, so if one is out of you, you still have full control.
Enable self-destruction mode caused by a special unlock PIN on each of them.