Re: IAOC requesting input on (potential) meeting cities

[Nico Williams <[e-mail]>]

On Tue, Apr 04, 2017 at 05:15:26PM -0400, Rich Kulawiec wrote:
> However, any number of organizations, e.g., the EFF, the ACLU, etc.,
> have independently noted the recent sharp uptick.  In addition, the Wall
> Street Journal is reporting today that a new set of procedures under
> consideration will include demanding the phone passwords from *all*
> foreigners entering the US.

*That* would be a huge deal.  I don't quite believe it likely to happen
though: it would require lots of new hardware and staffing to do
anything useful with every visitor's devices and password _and_ keep
entry bandwidth as high as today (_and_ keep tourism and business travel
to the U.S. from collapsing).

(I wouldn't necessarily mind traveling with a clean phone everywhere,
but the problem with that is that there have been reports where having a
clean phone has been used as rationale for sending the visitor back.)

If a country starts demanding access to and passwords for every
visitor's every device (and then making use of said access and
credentials) then certainly the IETF must avoid holding meetings in that
country -- not so much (or only) as a political statement, but (also) to
protect its participants.  Especially so if having a clean phone is then
considered suspicious enough to send participants back.

Nico
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