I volunteer in my local library as an IT tutor. I provide free one-hour sessions for my students to help them with anything IT. This may be just using a new phone; booking hospital appointments; understanding a new app their family wants them to use to keep in touch; showing them how to use their tablet or laptop for more than just browsing the internet; all the way through to going full SysAdmin and bringing a laptop back from the brink of death so they don’t have to buy a new one when budgets are already squeezed tight.
If they have a software issue, or just need help using their devices in better or more efficient ways, I’m here to help.
One of my recent students came to me for help with a particularly topical issue, which brought up a far more in-depth discussion than they had expected.
Applying for a US visa: complicated and intrusive
For the sake of this article, and my student’s privacy, I’ll call them John. Here in Calderdale, it seems about 50% of the population is called John, so I’m pretty sure we can use this for anonymisation.
John needed to apply for a US visa, ready for his latest trip to visit family who live in New York. He previously lived and worked in the USA, and has children and grandchildren living there, as well as many friends. He’s been a regular visitor for more years than he cares to count, and has filled out applications for both work and visit visas more times than he cares to remember.
This time it was, in his words, “very complicated and very intrusive”. It was a long, online, multi-page application. It needed his details, passport number, the same details for his wife (this is for his visa, not hers), his children’s details, his parents, her parents, details of when and why he’d been in the USA before, where he lived, what he did while he was there, why he’d left, where he’d stay while he was there this time … and on and on.
More, it wanted details of all his social media accounts and what messaging apps he uses, so they could be reviewed as part of his visa application. He didn’t have all the details he needed with him, so we completed as much as we could (or perhaps should is a better word), and saved the application progress.
‘Guilty’ of social media ‘thought crime’?
While we worked through his application, we just chatted generally about the state of the USA right now – and it came out that he has been less than complimentary about a certain 45th/47th President, in writing, in messages to his friends and family. My advice to him was to not take his phone or his tablet on this planned trip. “Get a burner phone,” I said, “and your wife should do the same”. Only for the duration of their visit, but I suggested they carry nothing that could tie them to their social media and messaging accounts. Nothing that can be checked at the border.
To me this feels slightly crazy. I’m a volunteer IT tutor in a small-town library, talking to people who just want help using their devices for day-to-day life. In my experience burner phones always used to be referred to in books and films involving drug gangs and other criminals, where they were used to evade the long arm of the law. And now I’m recommending that normal, everyday folk use these tools for exactly the same reason. The USA appears to be legislating for ideological purity, ‘thought crimes’ are becoming a thing, and soon we may all be criminals if we don’t agree with their current Administration.
Social media ‘evidence’ is very hard to remove
During a follow-up session with me, he brought the rest of the details he needed for the application and we completed and submitted the form. It turned out he’d also been talking with his family, the ones he is going to visit. The outcome of this is that, although he still didn’t want to buy a disposable phone for the trip, he did want to remove all of his social media and messaging apps from his phone and tablet.
But it’s not quite as easy as that. If you use WhatsApp (for instance), and you received photos, videos or documents through this, these are automatically saved (on both iOS and Android ) into a folder labelled ‘WhatsApp’ – this includes the AI-generated videos John had on his phone which showed a certain Mr Trump in a less than flattering light.
Removing the app doesn’t remove the downloaded files. iOS does remove configuration files (so you should do a backup if you want to restore this in the future), but Android doesn’t, and these files are still in your phone and accessible if searched. Your Apple or Google account also lists (in the App or Play Store respectively) apps that are still on your phone and those that have been removed (‘Not on this device’). You can hide these, but you cannot remove the record. So, if you have ever had these apps on your account, the record of these is permanent.
The same applies to other social media and messaging apps. To have your phone clean of anything incriminating (a definition which has changed radically in the last 3 months) is difficult, and if you’re not sure how to do so then you should get a professional to help you do this – by which I don’t mean someone from the profusion of mobile phone shops littering our high streets; I mean someone who actually understands phone, tablet and laptop security, file structures, application configuration and storage, and more.
Use a burner phone
The best answer, I still say, is to buy a burner phone. It’s just simpler all round. Only add the contacts you need for your trip; if it’s a smart phone don’t set it up using the same account you used for your primary device, and don’t add your apps back on to the new phone.
You’ll also need the following: a new disposable email account, as all current and previously installed apps are listed against your OS provider account, usually linked to your email; a new phone number (WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal etc are linked to your mobile phone number); and, similarly, a new, also disposable, account with Apple or Google. You can’t use your existing account to do this, else you’re back where you started.
None of this should be necessary when travelling to an allied, democratic nation with proper protection in law but right now I’m not convinced the USA falls into that category. And it’s not just well-known opponents of the US Administration, activists, pro or anti-protesters of whatever. Everyone is at risk. If they come for one person you’d never heard of before, why won’t they come for you too.
No secrets from the US even 20 years ago
To lighten the tone, I’ll relate one of John’s anecdotes about obtaining a visa:
Roughly 20 years ago he needed to get a visa in a hurry and decided the quickest way was to apply at the Consulate General of the United States in Belfast. While he was waiting in line he overheard a conversation at another window.
The young lad there was asked, “Have you completed this form honestly?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure? Is there anything you’d like to change?”
“No, it’s all good.”
“I’ll ask you one last time, is there anything you’d like to add?”
“No.”
“So what about your drink-driving charge?”
He was denied a visa.
Maybe that didn’t lighten the tone, after all? And, as John said, “This was 20-odd years ago and they had all this information before the lad went in for his visa appointment. What information do they hold on us these days?”
Restrictions, detentions, and fewer tourists
John and his wife got their visas this time around. But back to the subject of a burner phone, John was loath to go down this route. As he said, “I’m not a criminal.” And he’s optimistic that he’ll be fine at Border Control. I hope he’s right.
Interestingly—for me at least—I’d been considering writing something on this subject for a few weeks now, ever since John first came to see me, and I’m clearly not the only one considering this topic. John Naughton covered it in a recent Memex 1.1 article, as well as in his article in the Observer, and also referred to another piece by Christina Pagel, which I’d come across only two days earlier.
Both of these writers reference multiple, already well-publicised detentions and attacks on those who disagree with or denigrate the current US administration or president, as well as anyone who is not ideologically aligned with them. For further reading see this article on the effect of current policies on tourism to the US.
Which means I probably shouldn’t travel there now either. Fortunately, like a lot of other people at the moment, I have no desire to do so.
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