Who do you think customs are? All they care about is import duty and illegal substances.
this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2025
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You need to touch some grass if you think the CIA is bugging your devices.
CIA isn't targeting me, but ICE certainly is.
Unless you're actively being targeted for some specific reason (NSA kind of reason) in practical terms it's unheard of.
Yes. If you're a rando, sorry you're just not that interesting.
If you're someone the US considers an actual threat, then yeah don't buy anything from the US (use a 3rd party). But if you're that big of a threat you already know that.
Their question seems to be about buying from outside the US rather than from. They're asking about risks involved with importing stuff there.
This is a very good point. I misunderstood the post.
if you are not white, are you closer to being a rando, or to being (perceived as) an actual threat?
You're dramatically overplaying how much skin color matters when it comes to this stuff.
We're talking about "I am a prominent member of an organization designated by the US as a terrorist organization."
Either way I misunderstood OP's question and my post wasn't on-topic.
Customs isn't the organization that does that. If you're a target for espionage, someone at the NSA or CIA or somesuch organization will find ways to tap your devices, but they don't do this to every phone imported to the country. Just consider the sheer volume of data that would produce, and the number of analysts who would need to review it. I wouldn't assume privacy, though. Act like they are watching everything.
If the CIA wanted to put a keylogger on your phone, it would be customs, the CIA would intercept it at some point, possibly in customs, then put it in the boot loader or on the SSD firmware or something so you'd never know it was there and wouldn't reasonably be able to overwrite it no matter what.
That probably doesn't help you though. If you want to be sure you'd have to reflash every bit of the phone, not just the OS.
Your threat assessment is way off.
So, you import a phone. What sim do you use? Where do you use it? When do you use it? Who do you contact with it?
All of that is more valuable and easier to get for the police than some sort of modification of firmware or platform as it passes through customs.
If in doubt, flash your own firmware.
If this is actually a threat assessment to you, asking on Lemmy is the wrong place. You need people with the same experience that an entire country has at their disposal.
If it's a concern as opposed to an actual threat, buy some 2nd hand phones from random places and buy some prepaid sims (ideally via smurfs or black market means). And be aware of how you use them
You'll be fine for now so long as you're not already a Person of Interest of a three letter agency.
MRW I'm on a list with the CIA and the NRA but it's the Culinary Institute of America and the National Restaurant Association.
Now that you mention it I may be on the same CIA list (eaten there several times).
If you're importing a FP5, just wipe it and put Murena /e/os on it. Then it won't matter
Pretty sure all your electronics are imported from another country. That what the carrot is complaining about though, isn't he?
There is a difference between customs and immigration. Customs cares about things (and import duties on those things), Immigration cares about people.
As a US citizen, you should be able to just enter as long as your paperwork is in order. (And if Immigration is interested in you beyond the formalities, it means you are probably on some sort of list, and good luck to you!)
Customs will care mainly that you are only bringing in personal goods, and not commercial goods you intend to sell. They will also care if you buy any goods abroad to take back, because you may owe import duties. So they will not care about your Fairphone unless you bought it while in your trip abroad. In normal times you will have an exemption that allows you to bring in some amount of goods duty-free but the world is all topsy turvy now so I would check what the duty-free allowance is before coming back.
They are used to people bringing phones, laptops, camera equipment, and other expensive personal effects with them on trips. They won't care unless you have a lot of things, and they think you are not being truthful when you say none of it was purchased abroad in that trip. Having five phones for one person would be a red flag, for instance.
If you're very paranoid, try flashing a custom ROM to it.
I bought my Xperia from German Amazon since it's not sold in the US. Had 0 problems.
trump gonna thump you
Who cares if you can flash the firmware (which will remove any thing that they might be able to do)
"remove any thing that they might be able to do" is a hilariously broad brush to apply to three letter agencies in this day and age that were doing things like this 50 years ago.
I'm not saying it's realistic that OP is being targeted for such surveillance. But if they are, good fucking luck! Flashing your firmware ain't going to do shit when they've just gone ahead and replaced the chips on your board with their own that act exactly like a normal chip but have extra code that doesn't get flashed when they don't want it to.
Well it is true hardware implants and hardware replacements can’t be fixed by flashing but they are detectable and they can only deploy so many of those before everything is a major news story and if you feel that the odds are that high, making one’s own hardware is an option but generally not a good one.
Is this not true? Why the downvoters?
Phones' modems have their own firmware that gets flashed by the cell provider, so I think spies would target that.