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by wepple 582 days ago
That’s a significantly higher bar. It’s not foolproof though.

I believe in most countries, customs can inspect your luggage. They can’t force you to reveal information that they’re not even certain you have.

Under your situation, the best idea is to simply have a wiped device. A Chromebook, for example, allows you to login with whatever credentials you choose, including a near empty profile
2 comments
bananapub 582 days ago
> I believe in most countries, customs can inspect your luggage. They can’t force you to reveal information that they’re not even certain you have.

this isn't a very useful way to think about it.

they can definitely search your luggage, obviously, but the border guards/immigration officials/random law enforcement people hanging around/etc can also just deny non-citizens entry to a country, usually for any or no reason.

there's documented cases of Australia[0] demanding to search phones of even citizens entering the country, and the US CBP explicitly states they may deny entry for non citizens if you don't give them the password and while they can't deny entry to citizens, they state they may seize the device then do whatever they want to it[1].

0: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/18/returning-trav...

1: https://www.cbp.gov/travel/cbp-search-authority/border-searc...

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golergka 581 days ago
> I believe in most countries, customs can inspect your luggage. They can’t force you to reveal information that they’re not even certain you have.

They can. And if you refuse, they can do a lot of very unpleasant things to you. It might against the local law, but it wouldn't really matter in a lot of countries.

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