Cross-Border Digital Security for researchers and journalists

International travel increasingly poses challenges for researchers and journalists trying to keep their data secure during border crossings. This infographic offers practical, step-by-step guidance aimed at reducing data security risks when traveling across international borders. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (C.B.P) agents have broad authority to look through travelers’ phones, laptops and other electronic devices for both citizens and non-citizens. Use this infographic to prepare before travel, at the border and during secondary screening.

A vertically oriented infographic titled “Cross‑Border Digital Security for researchers & journalists.” It is divided into four sections: What to Expect, Before Traveling, At the Border, and Secondary Screening. The design uses teal, purple, black, and grey accents, with icons for search, devices, and borders. Section 1: What to Expect A box with two subsections: Basic search: Manual search of information on your devices. Advanced search: Use of external equipment to forensically analyze and copy data. A dotted line surrounds a grey bubble stating: “Information solely stored in the cloud cannot legally be searched.” Section 2: Before Traveling A bulleted list: Update software Create strong passwords Deactivate TouchID & FaceID Backup devices to the cloud Log out of email & social media accounts Delete sensitive content Clear “Recently Deleted” Put sensitive apps in a password‑protected folder Encrypt laptop using BitLocker or FileVault Print travel documents Delete sensitive public posts on social media Bring a travel phone instead of your usual device Ensure someone knows your port‑of‑entry location Consider temporarily suspending work accounts Print out your attorney’s contact details Section 3: At the Border Guidance for device handling: Disable cellular and Wi‑Fi network access Keep your device in airplane mode Turn off device before going through customs To the right is an illustration of a smartphone and a note saying: “Decide in advance whether you will unlock your device or provide the passcode for a search.” Section 4: Secondary Screening A bulleted list: Be polite and try not to escalate the situation Do not lie, but do not offer unrequested information If you choose to unlock your device, ask to type the passcode yourself If your device is seized, ask for a custody receipt with name and contact for the supervising officer In an advanced search, document all details for potential legal action (names, badge numbers, equipment used, changes to your device or data)

Ran Wang is a Center for Media at Risk steering committee member and a joint doctoral student at the Annenberg School for Communication and the Department of Sociology. Her research focuses on the interaction between censorship and digital culture, particularly cultural production.

A two-page layout combines quotations about abolition, incarceration, and survival with historical text and a contemporary photograph. Left side: At the top left, the sentence “Abolition is not absence, it is presence.” appears in plain black text. Below it, another quote reads: “Being in here, death always feels imminent. I have to manufacture hope. And the way I manufacture hope is by writing music.” attributed to James “JJ88” Jacobs, Songs from the Hole. Further down is a quote from Ruth Wilson Gilmore: “What the world will become already exists in fragments and pieces, experiments and possibilities.” At the bottom left is a large photograph of a young person outdoors in a prison yard. They wear a white T-shirt and have short twisted braids that extend upward. Their arms are outstretched as they move, with a chain-link fence topped with razor wire and prison watchtowers visible in the background. Right side: At the top is a passage printed in an old book layout with the heading “XXI. The Loophole of Retreat.” Next to it is a quote from Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: “But I was not comfortless. I heard the voices of my children. There was joy and there was sadness in the sound. It made my tears flow.” Below, additional text from Jacobs describes being confined in a tiny, airless garret and hearing the noises of her children while suffering through total darkness. The stacked quotations emphasize enclosure, survival, and the emotional experience of confinement.
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Hemmed in, but not quite: An interview with Songs from the Hole Documentary Team