Thread

1. gblargg · 1790856581 · focus · HN ↗

   Too bad phones aren't easy to do a full back up of, wipe, then restore after you are past the border agents. Or can keep all user data on a microSD card that you remove and secure before the search.

   1. duskdozer · 1790857701 · focus · HN ↗

      Explain how? I've yet to find something reliable like this. At best you can have a decent number of apps automatically reinstalled to the original state, but not all, and most settings don't transfer, etc. And that requires root access, which most people don't have afaik.

      1. __MatrixMan__ · 1790864751 · focus · HN ↗

         You can declaratively manage your phone with something like github.com/devindudeman/nix-android so you'd point at a decoy config file and rebuild before crossing the border and then point at the up-to-no-good config file once across.

         Of course you do have to be able to reference those files somehow, so they have to be online, but if there are no references to them on the device then the border folks would have to somehow know about them and be able to access them in order to link you and your device to the declared configs. There are a lot of ways to hide such a thing.

         Presumably the most sensitive thing here is your social graph and messages. I haven't verified if nix-android handles them in a way that would make sense here, but it's at least plausible that it might.

         1. vixen99 · 1790883464 · focus · HN ↗

            Exactly. Isn't this the most obvious thing to do?

            1. duskdozer · 1790921704 · focus · HN ↗

               It is really intriguing, though my small attempt at using nix with home manager on pc failed, so I'm not so confident on getting it working well on android. Especially considering that I do a decent number of apk mods

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.