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Travel under Trump 2.0: Don't cross a U.S. border without a "perfect burner phone" [1]

['Carla Sinclair']

Date: 2025-09-04

More and more people — both Americans and non-U.S. citizens — are thinking twice before traveling into the United States with their phones. And for good reason.

Under Trump 2.0, phone searches at the U.S. border have surged, and Customs and Border Protection agents are targeting everyone from liberal protestors and lawyers who represent said protestors to journalists and basically anyone else who doesn't praise Dear Leader. No matter who you are, if CBP wants to confiscate your phone, they can. This is where burner phones come in.

Earlier this summer, Mark and I posted a three-part interview with ACLU attorney Nathan Freed Wessler, who gave us tips on how to protect your privacy while entering the U.S. under the Trump regime. Besides leaving your laptop at home, keeping your lawyer's number in your back pocket, and a long list of other strong suggestions, Wessler told us he now only travels with a burner phone — or "travel-only device," as he also called it.

But it wasn't until after we hung up that we realized even burner phones can quickly give away your identity if you don't take the right precautions.

Not wanting to badger Wessler with a bunch of follow-up questions, we did our own research and stumbled across a Burner Phone 101 workshop that was conducted at the Brooklyn Public Library in July by one of his colleagues, attorney Rebecca Williams. So we decided to badger her with our questions instead.

And Williams — ACLU's Senior Strategist for Privacy and Data Governance — was kind enough to give us a condensed version of her phone privacy primer, which focused not only on how to simply set up a prepaid phone, but more importantly, how to minimize your digital footprint when creating the "perfect burner phone." Here is the advice she gave us:

Stay anonymous when you buy your phone

Minimizing your digital footprint starts with the very first step — as in when you actually purchase your phone. Don't tie your identity to your burner phone before it's even yours, Williams warned. Instead, stay anonymous from the get-go by avoiding credit cards and maybe wearing a mask when buying your phone.

"The perfect burner phone would likely be a prepaid phone that you purchase in cash. Or if you don't directly purchase in cash, maybe you purchase a gift card in cash and then you use that gift card. You don't want to use a credit card, and you don't want to use a debit card," Williams explained.

"Some people wrote in after I gave the workshop and said that some of their clients were also afraid of being physically identified when buying the burner phones. So they suggested a mask or that sort of thing. I think it depends on where you buy it and what your risk model is, but you don't want to be identified when you're purchasing."

Don't give out your personal data when initiating your phone plan

Don't come out of the shadow once you've got the phone in your hands. Again, stay anonymous when deciding on a service plan. "When you're purchasing a prepaid phone, they set you up with a plan. And as part of that setup, they might ask you what's your email address, or little things like that," Williams said, before warning against it. "You should not do that either. The whole buying and setting up the burner phone should be as obscured as possible. So you buy it in cash, you make sure that your face isn't being tracked, and you don't give out your email address at checkout."

Find public Wi-Fi when setting up your phone

Williams held her workshop at a public library for a reason — as long as it has internet access, it is the perfect place to set up a burner phone. "After purchasing your phone, when you set it up, go to public Wi-Fi, not back to your home," she told us.

"And don't call from your number. If you have to call [for help setting up], call from some other number," she added. "Usually, you can "activate" a prepaid phone just with the internet (for example, the IP of the public Wi-Fi you are using), but sometimes you need to call in for help. In that case, my advice for ultimate protection would be to NOT call in from any number that can identify you, since they might keep that on their logs. Instead, call from a 'random' person's number or a masked number."

Make yourself untrackable (as best you can)

Don't make another move until you turn down (or off, if possible) anything that leaves a trail. "Once you have the phone set up, turn down any sort of tracking that exists on the phone to begin with," Williams advised. "Even these small flip phones that are prepaid often have location tracking that you can turn down. Turn everything down as secure as you can."

Stay detached from your phone

Williams repeatedly warned not to "attach" yourself — as in your identity — to your phone. I had never heard the word attach used in this way before, and loved the way it turned your identity into a tangible possession. "Don't log in to your accounts, because then you're attaching yourself to the phone," she warned. "When you're using the burner phone, you should try not to implicate any of your networks or accounts."

She then rattled off examples of just some of the things to keep off your phone. "So if you have a burner phone, you shouldn't then log into your Instagram. Don't log in to any of your accounts, because then you'll be attaching yourself to the phone. Don't text your three best friends. And don't take pictures in your home on the burner phone just because you like the lo-fi digital quality. Don't do any of these things, or know that you'll be attaching yourself to the phone."

Swap your SIM, regularly

Williams told us that one of the obstacles to creating a truly perfect burner phone is your International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), which is your unique,15-digit identifier tied to your physical SIM card or eSIM. So if you want to throw government goons off the scent, Williams suggests frequently swapping out your SIM card or eSIM. By doing that "you're removing one of those device IDs," she says.

Physical SIMs are less common nowadays, but some phones still use them, and Williams says people who have them can get together for an old-fashioned "SIM-swapping party, where they rotate SIMs through the community to create a less trackable "shadow footprint" that otherwise might start to resemble their regular footprint.

For eSim users, Williams recommends using a service called Pretty Good Phone Privacy (Android only), which allows you to randomly change your IMSI up to 30 times a month.

But no matter how much care you take in setting up a burner phone, beware: "If you ever implicate your phone in some way — it's over." Time to start again!

Extra tips on how to keep all of your phones private (from Williams' Burner 101 presentation):

Keep device & OS as updated as possible Strong PIN, not biometrics Disable cloud backups / use encrypted backups Install Signal Enforce strict app permissions (deny mic, camera, location) unless needed Radios off (GPS/Wi-Fi/Bluetooth) unless needed Store minimal sensitive data (including photos)

For Android specifically: Disable Google Location History & ad personalization, use Firefox or Brave instead of Chrome, restrict Gemini / Google Assistant, consider F-Droid for trusted apps, consider GrapheneOS or CalyxOS.

For iPhones specifically: Enable Ask App Not to Track, restrict Siri & Apple Intelligence, erase after 10 failed passcode attempts, use Lockdown Mode (iOS 16+) if high-risk.

And that's the perfect burner phone setup. Or at least it's as perfect as you can get, for now.

This post originally appeared on my Substack, It Is Happening!

Previously: Border goons detain US citizen for having an opinion





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