I'm part of an organization that engages in non-partisan lobbying and we're concerned about our employees traveling internationally and facing potential issues at Customs. With all the recent news, we want to make sure they don't have problems related to content on their devices—like having something controversial on their phones rather than issues related to citizenship. Currently, we're primarily using Microsoft products but we lack a mobile device management system, which complicates things. For instance, I've just started managing our laptops with InTune, but we haven't set similar controls for phones. I'm considering advising employees to uninstall applications like Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, etc., and also set up 1Password to use travel mode before their trips. I'm looking for thoughts on policies or tips others have put in place to help employees avoid Customs headaches. Any advice?
1 Answer
Employee awareness is key! If possible, send employees with wiped devices and have them restore everything once they’re on the other side of Customs. If that’s not an option, using a clean device to access a remote desktop is a good fallback since Customs agents can only search the device itself, not the internet. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org) has some helpful guides on this topic. Just stay safe out there!
Totally agree! I think a remote desktop setup is the most secure way to handle it. It’s wild how strict things are getting these days.