Enter your name into any search engine and you’ll quickly find dozens of results. In the online era, our social media handles, place of work, even family members and addresses can easily be uncovered within a couple of clicks. A few minutes of digging and the jigsaw puzzle of your life is pieced together and laid bare for all to see.
Digital footprints have become a bigger-than-ever talking point for those looking to visit the US. Recent developments allow for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents to carry out searches of mobile phones at checkpoints. It was announced today that students will be asked to unlock social media profiles to allow officials to review their online activity before being granted educational and exchange visas.
Failing to do so means being suspected of hiding activity from US officials. Among the reasons for checks being carried out are “any indications of hostility toward the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States”.
Online forums are blowing up with questions about how to sanitise devices and digital footprints in advance of visa requests or before entering the country. Here are a few steps you can take to reduce the risk of being turned away.
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Now that you’ve hopefully taken a few deep breaths, assess your surface-level online presence. Consider deleting any social media posts that raise red flags.
A simple principle to go by with your device is ‘out of sight out of mind’. Don’t underestimate the power of a printed boarding pass, and carrying travel documents with you in paper format. Turn your phone off and stow it away in your bag or pocket before approaching a CBP agent, cross your fingers and hope to fly under the radar.
However, it’s advisable to be more thorough with your methods. Expert suggestions range from pre-screening and making modifications to your personal smartphone before travelling – including deleting incriminating photos, messages and inessential apps – to investing in a clean travel device.
When it comes to modifying your current phone, Apple and Google have recently made it possible to add an extra shield of authentication to apps you may want to hide by placing them in a separate folder.
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Android’s ‘private spaces’ can also be turned on in the security and privacy settings menu of your phone, while prolonged pressing of an app on iOS will present the option to place it in a hidden folder. Do with that information what you like.
Now it might sound extreme, but privacy and digital rights advocates largely favour building a travel device from scratch. In saying that, it’s important to beware that a phone that is too squeaky clean can arouse suspicion, doing more harm than good.
Starting off with a clean slate is one way to practise “data minimisation”, reducing the data available to another person. Put just what you’ll need for a trip on the phone; maybe you want to include alternate social media accounts [ie a ‘finsta’ – a fake Insta(gram) account where you haven’t posted anything that could be deemed controversial] and a separate account for end-to-end encrypted communications using an app like WhatsApp.
By building from the ground up, you’re able to be selective with what can potentially turn up during a manual search.
In cases where CBP deems “reasonable suspicion” of a crime, it may say a more thorough “advanced search” could be carried out. This is where a device is connected to external equipment and its contents can be reviewed, copied, or analysed.
Digital rights groups like San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation have developed a range of in-depth tool kits dedicated to promoting “surveillance self-defence”.
While it is yet to be seen how hard US border control will be clamping down, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
