“U.S. federal law gives government agents the right to search people’s property, including their phones and laptops, at border entry points. They do not need to be suspected of wrongdoing in order to be searched,” according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

If you haven’t realized it yet, authoritarians are here. Surreal, yes, but it is what it is. A latest article from Le Monde states:

“Philippe Baptiste, French higher education and research minister, made the denial of entry public. In a statement to Agence France-Presse (AFP), he deplored the decision as having been ‘taken by the American authorities because this researcher’s phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a PERSONAL OPINION on the Trump administration’s research policy.’”

So, for those freedom-loving folks who consider surrendering their phones and laptops to be an incredibly severe violation of personal privacy, the options are limited. To really stay in the clear, the way to do it is how journalists and whistleblowers travel - by backing up their phones and wiping them clean.

Now, I wonder if #Nostr can offer a certain pathway to fight censorship. We now have notes, DMs, and posts accessible via keys. Is there a way to somehow expand the toolkit so that more data gets backed up and protected by encryption?