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I was attending a conference last week with a mix of journalists and those adjacent to that space (editors, foundations, product, etc). Everyone is concerned about data security, but they are also concerned about the increase in device searches that has been reported (and often not reported).

Yes, this is nothing new. But the increase is new.

Anyone a visa is not in a strong position to decline. US citizens are expecting more scrutiny too.

The use of a loaner, burner, or second device means you can now decline with confidence (and just be delayed by several hours in a interview room and have your devices confiscated) OR you can allow the search and protect your privacy (the most likely best use-case for visitors).

> The use of a loaner, burner, or second device means you can now decline with confidence

Confidence?

Here is are some quotes from a story posted here just 3 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43654661

> They said, ‘We know you have two mobile phones. We’ve been tracking your calls. We know you’ve been selling drugs’.” He says he told the border officer he did not drink, smoke or take drugs and owned just one phone. He was asked for his passcode.

> Jonathan says: “Then he told me I didn’t have the right visa – apparently saying I lived there showed that I had intent to stay and not leave.” He says his visa was still valid for more than 12 months and he had left and re-entered the US without any problems about 20 times holding the same class of visa.

> He says the official then told him: “Trump is back in town; we’re doing things the way we should have always been doing them.”

https://archive.md/VcBLY
Healthy security practices that should’ve been followed all along.

The first-order effects of the world changing in 2025 are what we mostly notice - but some of the second and third order effects are really positive.

I believe people being educated on how to protect their privacy is a plus, but I'd rather live on a planet that didn't require such extreme measures.
What does this mean in plain English? > Commission officials have been told to ensure their visa is in their diplomatic laissez-passez rather than national ones.
Diplomats have a diplomatic passport. Or they can have a "laissez-passer" instead.

They are asked to have the visa linked (and attached) to their diplomatic document, instead of their personal passport.

I put the term into this new invention called a search engine, and it responded with something for the United Nations. Adding "EU" to it, it replied:

> European Union laissez-passer: Travel document issued to civil servants and members of the institutions of the European Union

> A European Union laissez-passer is a travel document issued to civil servants and members of the institutions of the European Union. It is proof of privileges and immunities the holders enjoy.

that they have two passports, one diplomatic and one "normal", and to remember to put the visa in the correct one.
should use Huawei for US trips
So subject yourself to CCP spying to own the Americans? More practically though, it's going to be a pain because it doesn't support google play services, which most apps in the EU use.
Spy devices spy on everyone around them, not just the person in possession of the device.
It was probably a joke, because this site is quickly turning into reddit 2.
We can all appreciate good jokes from time to time.

Now, on a more serious note, I bet those devices are more likely to be confiscated than, say, an uninteresting Motorola or Nokia smartphone (which would be my preference).

1. "Your Phone, Your Data: How to Safeguard Your Digital Life When Entering the U.S.": https://www.rnlawgroup.com/your-phone-your-data-how-to-safeg... (www.rnlawgroup.com/your-phone-your-data-how-to-safeguard-your-digital-life-when-entering-the-u-s/), https://web.archive.org/web/20250307234303/www.rnlawgroup.co... (web.archive.org/web/20250307234303/www.rnlawgroup.com/your-phone-your-data-how-to-safeguard-your-digital-life-when-entering-the-u-s/)

2. Is Your Password Secure? (IYPS) is a "password strength app that evaluates and rates your password's robustness, estimates crack time, and provides helpful warnings and suggestions for stronger passwords.": https://github.com/StellarSand/IYPS

3. Android KeePassDX can generate passwords and passphrases: https://github.com/Kunzisoft/KeePassDX

4. "Password Generator is a simple Android application which generates secure passwords.": https://gitlab.com/vecturagames/passwordgenerator

5. KeePassXC has a "Password Generator": https://keepassxc.org/docs/KeePassXC_UserGuide , https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc , https://keepassxc.org/download , https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/tree/master/x11-pa... (github.com/termux/termux-packages/tree/master/x11-packages/keepassxc)

6. "keepassxc-cli is the command line interface for the KeePassXC password manager.": https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc/blob/latest/docs... (github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc/blob/latest/docs/man/keepassxc-cli.1.adoc), https://keepassxc.org/docs/KeePassXC_UserGuide#_command_line... (keepassxc.org/docs/KeePassXC_UserGuide#_command_line_tool), https://keepassxc.org

7. "Motorola moto g play 2024 Smartphone, Android 14 Operating System, Termux, And cryptsetup: Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS) Encryption/Decryption And The ext4 Filesystem Without Using root Access, Without Using proot-distro, And Without Using QEMU": https://old.reddit.com/r/MotoG/comments/1jkl0f8/motorola_mot... (old.reddit.com/r/MotoG/comments/1jkl0f8/motorola_moto_g_play_2024_smartphone_android_14/)

8. "Avoid US or Take Burner Devices, Canadian Executives Tell Staff": https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-15/avoid-us-... (www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-15/avoid-us-or-take-burner-devices-canadian-executives-tell-staff), https://archive.is/GvBLF

The fact is that spying on trade negotiations has been commonly done between the Western states, well before Trump. They should have been doing this already.
It's been public knowledge since the 2013 Snowden leaks that the US spied on EU allies, even though this was probably an open secret in the gov circles way before that since all allies spy on each other constantly to keep themselves accountable("trust but verify").

Why are they pretending like this is something new for them when they knew about this way before? Burner phones at this point in time feels like trying birth control when your kid is already 13 years old.

Before you might have at least expected officials to not have the same appreciation for Russia that this administration has. The less data they can lawfully or unlawfully get from eu politicians, the better for every european citizen

i would also just be happy for something being done now even if it could have been done earlier

Last time I checked gas pipelines went form Russia to Germany, not to the US, and gas money was flowing from EU to Russia not from the US. And Vladimir Putin attended weddings of Austrian politicians, not American ones. And Austrian and German politicians, not American politicians, received high ranking jobs in Russian oil & gas companies at the end of their political mandates.

So who's the one doing the Russian appreciation here, in practice I mean, not in virtue signaling?

The EU is at least officially positioned against the russian invasion of Ukraine, although some politicians have a weird ex soviet fetish. The USA administration has taken a more nuanced approach than biden, on top of not imposing tariffs on Russia
That's a really American view, and that it's fine or some kind of trust-but-verify thing is really not correct.

You can see this from the Spanish reaction to US spies recruiting people in Spanish intelligence, to France's desire to join Five Eyes provided that a mutual no-spying agreement were signed, etc.

The reason you don't see stronger reactions is probably because countries were afraid of upsetting the US leadership, but being spied on is bad.

Cause escalations are worth reporting. That is why. And no, it is not the same.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-24690055

Both US political parties were doing this decades ago to the German Chancellor. There is no escalation beyond her. If you're willing to tap her, you're willing to tap anyone.

The checking of phones and their content on the border is an escalation for both diplomats and non diplomats. It is simply not true that this was normal and NOT an escalation.
Why isn't it "the same"? Was it somehow better when NSA under Clinton, Bush or Obama were wire tapping Germany and France?

Here's why wiretapping allies is important: if the US agencies can wiretap you, then so can Russia, China, Israel, North Korea, etc. So if you notice your allies being sloppy with their InfoSec, you can also let them know about it before the enemies find out and exploit them.

So it's your job to implement security that nobody else can tap. That's why citizens pay taxes to the defense sector, that's why you have intelligence and counter intelligence agencies, etc. they just need to do their fucking job instead of going after citizens who buy weed online or who call politicians dicks on Xitter.

Seems to me that if your country is not spying on allies and enemies alike, someone is not doing their job properly. The US spies on the EU and its member countries, just like the EU and its member countries spy on the US as they can. That's what they're supposed to be doing. Every country is going to massage "the truth" when dealing with others, so it's good to know how much massaging is going on.

The big difference now is that the US (my own damn country) is not nearly as trustworthy as it was (for some value of trustworthy), nor is it nearly as competently led as it was (for some value of competence), nor is it behaving in rational and predictable ways (as compared to before). So, maybe we all just understand that it's in everyone else's best interest to keep a close eye on conditions in the US, because it's not going to get better any time soon. And we all should probably also understand that the US is just going to see enemies wherever it looks and that's not going to improve any time soon, either.

because EU and US are less and less "allies"
Can you explain why? Last time I checked we're still in NATO and my country stil hosts a US nuclear deterrent(against Russia). What part of that has changed?

Temporary internal economic disputes (these happen all the time, especially between EU members) have little to do with military alliances against external threats.

No one expects NATO to exist for much longer. if your country is Denmark then your fellow NATO member recently threatened to invade you. The organization became a farce within a couple of months.
Because USA is threatening annexation of NATO members and is allying itself with Russia.

So, that is what changed.

Trump sees it as a cost and says Europeans are not paying their fair share. He has been talking about it for ten years: https://www.factcheck.org/2016/05/whats-trumps-position-on-n...

I daresay his judgment is informed by his consideration of Russia as closer to an ally than a foe.

Trump is already parroting the Russian disinformation/talking points on Ukraine. What makes you think he would use those nukes against Mother Russia?
Because that border officer demanding your phone so they can read your texts for anything critical of Trump is not spying.
They probably have been doing that before, but it wasn't reported as much. Usually western spying was kept quiet (both political "real" spying and also data collection on "normal people") if it was done by western governments (and companies), and only mentioned if china/russia/iran/... did it.

Now the EU-US diplomacy is not as good anymore, and media is reporting about the US spying too... sadly EU is incapable of creating a facebook-like social network, or else we'd be reusing the "tiktok is a chinese spying app" playbook on facebook(/google/...) over here too.

> creating a facebook-like social network

They also haven't created a fun loving machine that rips peoples limbs off and reattaches them facing a different direction and in a different order.

Creating these things really isn't something to be proud of.

Torment Nexus or Orphan Crushing Machine?
Americans are very proud of the innovations in the latest model of the Orphan Crushing Machine.
Pookleblinky (PBUH) was prophetic about the lack of an American trickster archetype. So prescient that the populace ended up electing some f***ed up Protestant version of one.
Yes. The US strongarmed Alstom into a merger with General electric for an insulting price (and with GE overly valued, even for people who actually believed in their cooked books). An Alstom's top executive was also inprisonned in the US during the talk.

Trump only makes US corruption more visible. He did not make your country corrupt all of the sudden, he just put a shine on it.

>An Alstom's top executive was also inprisonned in the US during the talk.

Source? Are you talking about this?

>On April 13, 2013, Alstom senior executive Frédéric Pierucci was arrested at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. He was accused of willful blindness of his company's suspected corruption and was imprisoned in a high security facility for 14 months and denied release on bail until the week of Alstom's acquisition by the US conglomerate General Electric.[54][55] In late 2014, Alstom was fined $772 million by the DOJ, and admitted guilt under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in relation to bribes paid to obtain contracts in various countries.[56][57]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alstom#Judicial_investigations

The paragraph after also mentions their executives were prosecuted in the UK for other corruption charges, which certainly puts a dent in your implication that the US was somehow locking up Alstom's executives on trumped up charges to get leverage.

Yes.

I'm not saying the charges were fake, I said they imprisoned him specifically to have the other executives agreed to a signature on the contract (in my opinion , he deserves more than 14th month, but usually, executive don't get imprisonned for corruption, and suddenly get freed exactly at the moment of the signing).

The signing, the french government agreement, the GE valuation, all that reeks of political corruption, but well :/

> He did not make your country corrupt all of the sudden,

So true, but I also think they are vastly increasing the destruction. It really feels like the country was taken over by corporate raiders stripping it for parts.