When the physicists need burner phones, that's when you know America's changed

The sad fact is that everyone needs a “burner” laptop and phone these days for travel. Not limited to the trump administration either.

*when traveling to the USA or other nations with questionable stances towards basic human rights

A scientist should not worry about having a "wrong" finding about the actual world stored on their digital devices, period.

A don't have a burner phone and within the extended European continent never have felt the need to, including things like the Balkans.

You don't need a "burner" laptop/phone for entering the European Union. There are no routine checks of electronic devices except the usual x-ray machines.

Yeah travel in and out of Europe all the time. No issues ever. Still devices are locked and encrypted though.

Encryption is great, but in general it is not really needed, as long as you are not a suspect of a crime.

It is required when you’re the victim of a crime however so it’s a good precaution.

(Had my phone swiped once)

If you have adequate physical security it is less necessary thus my home desktop is not encrypted.

I don't have either and travel everywhere. I see no need and have no need.

I don't get bothered and every one is nice to me. But I base my experience on what is in front of me and not what I read online.

>But I base my experience on what is in front of me

Problem with that approach is it makes you entirely blind to change right up until the moment you experience it personally.

It's entirely possible to have a dozen good encounters at borders and only the 13th is bad. Or maybe the situation changed in the last week and you just didn't travel in that timespan.

Casting the net a bit wider and considering other people's experience increases the sample size & liveness of data. (at the cost of some reliability ofc)

One shouldn't base their experience on what they read on the internet either. The internet, and other people, is not your reality. If I lived my life based on the internet, I would never leave my house and have all kinds of security systems all over it (I have none now and see no need for them).

I have never been robbed, never broken into, never been shot at, never had my car stolen and don't know anyone who has.

Maybe not routine, but UK law allows police and border checks, and did so when we were in the EU. There are credible accusations of this power being over used and misused.

The UK always had a very American position on those subjects. But they left the EU more than 5 years ago.

Your employer may need them, but you probably don't.

Burner devices may work when you want to protect sensitive information the adversary does not already have. But if you are more worried about authorities making your life difficult, because they don't like you, burner devices may just make your situation worse. From their perspective, it's clear evidence that you are actively trying to hide something.

>One shouldn't base their experience on what they read on the internet either.

Not saying you should, just that it is a valuable supplement

Overactive imagination. Lack of evidence is not evidence. Many people buy new devices on trips so not even out of the ordinary.

Not about “shoulds.”

Five eyes, Russia, China, etc are happy you’re comfortable.

Crossing unfriendly borders is not a normal occurrence and therefore modest precautions are warranted.

My point was being in the Eu did not preclude those laws and EU countries vary.

Some EU countries have more of a Russian position on these things!

I very much is a question of national, not EU law so you cannot generalise about the EU.

Where the EU does have laws on these things it has been very anti-privacy and pro-surveillance.