Comment by hliyan
2 hours ago
I worry that at some point, the physical device won't matter. Border authorities will know your email address, and could force you to log into your account on a device they supply. Five years ago, I would have called anyone even bringing up this possibility paranoid, but a lot of things that were completely unimaginable outside of Hollywood political thrillers have already happened.
And then there's the problem that you can't just log in with name and password to your email address. You need your special "authy" style number generator, or a software version on the phone. They know you probably have it on the phone. but what if you bring your other phone that doesn't have it on there - you removed the software before you left so no one could even log in.
All these fancy tricks don't work because the doofus/poor soul at the border doesn't understand the nuances and they don't know if you are lying or not. Even if you wipe your phone and restore it once in the safe usa, that's no doubt suspicion of a crime.