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mettamage • today at 2:52 PM • 1 reply • view on HN

I did something like this, though not as an app. It was pretty cumbersome to do. Next time I'll just bring a travel phone.


Replies

xethos • today at 4:07 PM

This is actually exactly why I avoid this advice: wiping your phone, and setting it back up later, is a pain in the ass. Especially when you're meant to be on vacation, or exhausted from returning from one. And if it's a pain in the ass, it likely won't get done. The below isn't perfect, but minimizing legal things that CBP can make a case of doesn't have to be all-or-nothing

At this point recommending the minimum that normal people will actually follow feels more effective: photos, main messaging app, and password database.

Photos are backed up; normal people use Google photos, my partner and I use a NAS, but everyone should have a "Free up space" / "Delete photos that are backed-up from device" option. This makes it easy and gets you space for more vacation photos

Main messaging app can be Telegram, Whatsapp, or (in my case) Element. Deleting it from your phone won't cost you your messaging history, but gets your most sensitive chats out of any potential spotlight

I can handle a password database, but "Chrome saves my passwords" means signing out of Chrome is all normal people have to do