Bringing an iPad with x-rated photos

[Guest ryanasia]

I read this thread before I returned home and I decided to delete a lot of photos (screenshots from hornet) and store my stuff in a true crypt partition to avoid any problems.

 

I arrived yesterday from TL at washington and and was met at customs by 2 DHS agents who drove from Pennsylvania to follow up on a flagged kiddy porn person (me).  they said my travel pattern, single male in thailand (and other places) met the profile.  long story short, they have my phone, computer, camera, sd drives.  they said (if I gave them passwords and nothing was found) I would have them back in a week.

 

to my knowledge I have no illegal material, but I cannot prove against the court standard described which is "what a jury thinks".  I was not in TL to find sex with underage people.  my best time was with a 44 year old.  now all my memories of this trip will be destroyed by this event and the coming entanglements.  regardless of the outcome, entanglement with our bureaucracy is never fun or good for your life.  I will doubtless be subject to future searches and be on the watchlist forever.

 

Did they say what would happen if you didn't give them your password? Also did you give them your password? 

[abidismaili]

I they said my travel pattern, single male in thailand (and other places) met the profile.  

 

How do they know where you go?

 

I live in the Netherlands and when I leave the country I show my passport at passport control, but it isnt scanned or registered. Only sometimes they do that, but never with the boarding card. I just hold up my passport and show it and I can continue. Same when I return. So the Dutch government has no idea where Dutch citizens travel to. Unless airlines inform them? But never heard of that.

 

Besides many people travel to Thailand alone, it is pretty common. Certainly if you have a girlfriend or boyfriend there. American law enforcement has a busy time if they check on everyone returning alone from Thailand. How do they know you are not a business traveller and need to go 2, 3 times for business each year?

 

I think an acquitance of you informed law enforcement. Else it is very strange they just drive for you from Pennsylvania. Then they can make that trip multiple times each day for all the others returning alone. I think you have a friend who suspects you do something wrong.

[Guest ryanasia]

There are a lot of questions to this story. To the OP  not to be accused of playing lawyer but if there is an ongoing investigation you would be better off not responding at all to this thread in the future. If you gave admin passwords they will easily find your file vaults. There are many ways they can do this but most are quite simple. 

 

Discrepancy between available disk space, date of install of apps, they can also use time machine or whatever it is to go back to an earlier copy of your operating system before you installed the file crypts. If your passwords are the same or similar you have just given them enough information to see anything they want to. If I have your iPad password and computer passwords and I want to see what you are hiding I will simply restore your device one at a time from each unique back up you have.

 

If they can not crack the file vault they will demand your password for it now. Why would DHS send somebody all the way from PA to meet you? Those programs are to hide porn from your wife and kids not from law enforcement agencies. 

 

if you were signed into a Google account forget about retaining any privacy you had. You should really not say anything more here if you are being investigated whether or not you have anything to hide. A lawyer fresh out of school knows this. 

[Guest ryanasia]

How do they know where you go?

 

I live in the Netherlands and when I leave the country I show my passport at passport control, but it isnt scanned or registered. Only sometimes they do that, but never with the boarding card. I just hold up my passport and show it and I can continue. Same when I return. So the Dutch government has no idea where Dutch citizens travel to. Unless airlines inform them? But never heard of that.

 

Besides many people travel to Thailand alone, it is pretty common. Certainly if you have a girlfriend or boyfriend there. American law enforcement has a busy time if they check on everyone returning alone from Thailand. How do they know you are not a business traveller and need to go 2, 3 times for business each year?

 

I think an acquitance of you informed law enforcement. Else it is very strange they just drive for you from Pennsylvania. Then they can make that trip multiple times each day for all the others returning alone. I think you have a friend who suspects you do something wrong.

 

In the USa you do not show your passport to leave or get stamped out. It is naive to think your passport number isn't linked to the flight you are on as a condition of boarding.

[firecat69]

I think a lt depends on your entry point. In at least 50 returns the only problem I had was they gave me a hard time about some pills they could not identify and wasted an hour of my time. That was Detroit and I never went through there again.

 

A majority of my entires have been SEATTLE where they are so fast and polite and never a problem. I have come through LAX, SFO, IAD and ATL with no problems.

 

I certainly fit the profile and yet never a problem.  Once they asked me about a watch and I put 2 on the list before the changes in forms and they did mention 2 was ok but don't try 3 because then they might confiscate.

[forky123]

I think people are way too paranoid about travel to tourist destinations as a single traveller. There are something like 30 million tourists go to Thailand each year. If only 5% are single men that's 1.5 million. On top of that, do you not think you would hear much more about it on these boards if people were being stopped regularly? There is much more chance of being stopped as a potential terrorist as a single man.

 

Most of the men I go with in Thailand are in their mid twenties or older. I can't say I take photos of them unless they ask me to. The most likely source of photos on my iPad or phone would be from browsing Grindr, GR or Hornet. I do clear my browser and cache when I travel, but that's habit rather than for any concern at a border.

[vinapu]

you are right about not being paranoid but never hurts to remember that arrivals from certain countries may raise a brew so it's better  to be prepared with nothing obvious in plain view either in the bags or camera or computer

[forky123]

Common sense should always prevail and not just at customs points. Unfortunate pictures on a plane for instance could cause as many, or more problems, if opened on a plane by accident.