[kwlug-disc] cell phone security and privacy

[Mikalai Birukou]

>> Mikalai: Keeping your phone on your person at all times, as a 
>> security measure, doesn't work when you are crossing a border. One of 
>> the things that can happen (if you are randomly selected for extra 
>> security screening) is that the border guard asks for your phone, 
>> goes into a back room, does something, then comes back and returns 
>> your phone. You'll be asked to unlock your phone. In Canada, refusal 
>> to unlock is a minimum $1000 fine, maximum $25,000, and up to a year 
>> in jail.
>
> In a less higher stakes scenario we may have simpler option. Carry 
> your real phone system on a micro SD card. Don't keep it in the 
> PinePhone when you are passing a border. You have an added benefit of 
> having normally looking boring android system, when you need to 
> pretend normal. Lot's of music there for your phone/player, and 
> offline maps for travel, check-in pdf/jpeg, something usefully normal, 
> trivial and boring. You'll be able to access that music when you run a 
> system on SD card.
>
> This is a plug for PinePhone :) . They say, newer chip and phone is 
> faster.
>
> Also, bonus if you find a way to break SD card with one hand, when you 
> feel so. Ya, some broken cards in a pocket of a suitcase.
Also, when you are using normally looking system, put some SD card into 
phone slot. That other card must also be for the same use :) .