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Never Fly Internationally with Your Personal Phone

I always fly internationally with a burner phone, no need to risk my personal data when I can’t even use my phone anyway.

Here is a scary story in Trump’s America.

Published

8 months ago

July 25, 2024

Brady Pearson

I always fly internationally with a burner phone, no need to risk my personal data when I can’t even use my phone anyway.

Here is a scary story in Trump’s America.

On January 30th, Sidd Bikkannavar, a US-born scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory flew back to Houston, Texas from Santiago, Chile.

On his way through the airport, Customs and Border Patrol agents pulled him aside. They searched him, then detained him in a room with a bunch of other people sleeping in cots. They eventually returned and said they’d release him if he told them the password to unlock his phone.

Bikkannavar explained that the phone belonged to NASA and had sensitive information on it, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. He eventually yielded and unlocked his phone. The agents left with his phone. Half an hour later, they returned, handed him his phone, and released him.

We’re going to discuss the legality of all of this, and what likely happened during that 30 minutes where Bikkannavar’s phone was unlocked and outside of his possession.

But before we do, take a moment to think about all the apps you have on your phone. Email? Facebook? Dropbox? Your browser? Signal? The history of everything you’ve ever done — everything you’ve ever searched, and everything you’ve ever said to anyone — is right there in those apps.

“We should treat personal electronic data with the same care and respect as weapons-grade plutonium — it is dangerous, long-lasting and once it has leaked there’s no getting it back.” — Cory Doctorow

How many potentially incriminating things do you have lying around your home? If you’re like most people, the answer is probably zero. And yet police would need to go before a judge and establish probable cause before they could get a warrant to search your home.

What we’re seeing now is that anyone can be grabbed on their way through customs and forced to hand over the full contents of their digital life.

Companies like Elcomsoft make “forensic software” that can suck down all your photos, contacts — even passwords for your email and social media accounts — in a matter of minutes. Their customers include the police forces of various countries, militaries, and private security forces. They can use these tools to permanently archive everything there is to know about you. All they need is your unlocked phone.

“If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged.” — Cardinal Richelieu in 1641

What’s the worst thing that could happen if the Customs and Border Patrol succeed in getting a hold of your unlocked phone? Well…

Think of all of the people you’ve ever called or emailed, and all the people you’re connected with on Facebook and LinkedIn. What are the chances that one of them has committed a serious crime, or will do so in the future?
Have you ever taken a photo at a protest, bought a controversial book on Amazon, or vented about an encounter with a police officer to a loved one? That information is now part of your permanent record, and could be dragged out as evidence against you if you ever end up in court.
There’s a movement within government to make all data from all departments available to all staff at a local, state, and federal level. The more places your data ends up, the larger a hacker’s “attack surface” is — that is, the more vulnerable your data is. A security breach in a single police station in the middle of nowhere could result in your data ending up in the hands of hackers — and potentially used against you from the shadows — for the rest of your life.

Wait a second. What about my fourth and fifth-amendment rights? Isn’t this illegal?

The fourth-amendment protects you against unreasonable search and seizure. The fifth-amendment protects you against self-incrimination.

If a police officer were to stop you on the street of America and ask you to unlock your phone and give it to them, these amendments would give you strong legal ground for refusing to do so.

But unfortunately, the US border isn’t technically the US, and you don’t have either of these rights at the border.

It’s totally legal for a US Customs and Border Patrol officer to ask you to unlock your phone and hand it over to them. And they can detain you indefinitely if you don’t. Even if you’re an American citizen.

The border is technically outside of US jurisdiction, in a sort of legal no-man’s-land. You have very few rights there. Barring the use of “excessive force,” agents can do whatever they want to you.

So my advice is to just do whatever they tell you, to and get through customs and on into the US as quickly as you can.

The US isn’t the only country that does this.

It’s only a matter of time before downloading the contents of people’s phones becomes a standard procedure for entering every country. This already happens in Canada. And you can bet that countries like China and Russia aren’t far behind.

“Never say anything in an electronic message that you wouldn’t want appearing, and attributed to you, in tomorrow morning’s front-page headline in the New York Times.” — Colonel David Russell, former head of DARPA’s Information Processing Techniques Office

Since it’s illegal in most countries to profile individual travelers, customs officers will soon require everyone to do this.

The companies who make the software that downloads data from your phones are about to get a huge infusion of money from governments. Their software will get much faster — maybe requiring only a few seconds to download all of your most pertinent data from your phone.

If we do nothing to resist, pretty soon everyone will have to unlock their phone and hand it over to a customs agent while they’re getting their passport swiped.

Over time, this unparalleled intrusion into your personal privacy may come to feel as routine as taking off your shoes and putting them on a conveyer belt.

And with this single new procedure, all the hard work that Apple and Google have invested in encrypting the data on your phone — and fighting for your privacy in court — will be a completely moot point.

Governments will have succeeded in utterly circumventing decades of innovation in security and privacy protection. All by demanding you hand them the skeleton key to your life — your unlocked phone.

You can’t hand over a device that you don’t have.

When you travel internationally, you should leave your mobile phone and laptop at home. You can rent phones at most international airports that include data plans.

If you have family overseas, you can buy a second phone and laptop and leave them there at their home.

If you’re an employer, you can create a policy that your employees are not to bring devices with them during international travel. You can then issue them “loaner” laptops and phones once they enter the country.

Since most of our private data is stored in the cloud — and not on individual devices — you could also reset your phone to its factory settings before boarding an international flight. This process will also delete the keys necessary to unencrypt any residual data on your phone (iOS and Android fully encrypt your data).

This way, you could bring your physical phone with you, then reinstall apps and re-authenticate with them once you’ve arrived. If you’re asked to hand over your unlocked phone at the border, there won’t be any personal data on it. All your data will be safe behind the world-class security that Facebook, Google, Apple, Signal, and all these other companies use.

Is all this inconvenient? Absolutely. But it’s the only sane course of action when you consider the gravity of your data falling into the wrong hands.

If you bother locking your doors at night, you should bother securing your phone’s data during international travel.

This may upset Customs and Border Patrol agents, who are probably smart enough to realize that 85% of Americans now have smart phones, and probably 100% of the Americans who travel internationally have smart phones. They may choose to detain you anyway, and force you to give them passwords to various accounts manually. But there’s no easy way for them to know which services you use and which services you don’t use, or whether you have multiple accounts.

We live in an era of mass surveillance, where governments around the world are passing terrifying new anti-privacy laws every year.

“Those who are willing to surrender their freedom for security have always demanded that if they give up their full freedom it should also be taken from those not prepared to do so.” — Friedrich Hayek

With a lot of hard work on our part, enlightenment will triumph. Privacy will be restored. And we will beat back the current climate of fear that’s confusing people into unnecessarily giving up their rights.

In the meantime, follow the Boy Scouts of America Motto: always be prepared. The next time you plan to cross a border, leave your phone at home.

Thank you for taking the time to reading this. If you liked this, click the below so other people will see this here on Medium.

Photos courtesy of OneIndia, USCustoms, youtube, travelskills, guardian, personal, laptopmag

Full article here

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Prescription Mistakes That Can Lead to Medical Malpractice Claims

Published

3 days ago

March 13, 2025

Adam T

Medication plays a critical role in modern healthcare, aiding in recovery, managing chronic conditions, and enhancing overall quality of life. However, prescribing or administering the wrong medication can have devastating consequences. Prescription errors are one of the most common types of medical mistakes, and they can lead to serious health complications, patient suffering, and even medical malpractice claims.

Understanding how and why these mistakes happen is essential for both healthcare providers aiming to improve their practices and patients striving to protect their well-being. Below, we explore the prescription mistakes that often result in medical malpractice claims and how they can be avoided.

Common Prescription Mistakes

Several types of prescription errors have been shown to contribute to medical malpractice claims across the healthcare system. These include:

1. Incorrect Medication

One of the most prevalent mistakes is prescribing the wrong medication altogether. This can occur due to miscommunication between the prescribing doctor and the pharmacist or a simple error in reading or writing the prescription. The wrong medication can lead to ineffective treatment, allergic reactions, or adverse drug interactions.

2. Wrong Dosage

Prescribing or administering the incorrect dosage is another common error. Too high of a dosage can cause an overdose, while too low of a dosage may render the medication ineffective. These errors may stem from unclear instructions, a miscalculation, or a failure to consider patient-specific factors like age, kidney function, or weight.

3. Failure to Review Patient Medical History

Medications can interact negatively with pre-existing conditions or other prescribed medications. Failing to thoroughly review a patient’s medical history, including allergies, ongoing treatments, and current prescriptions, could result in significant harm to the patient. Taking a comprehensive medical history is a crucial step in preventing these issues.

4. Illegible Handwriting or Poor Communication

While electronic prescriptions have reduced errors from hard-to-read handwriting, miscommunication between healthcare professionals remains a risk. A misunderstood verbal order or a pharmacist misinterpreting unclear instructions can lead to patients receiving the wrong medication or dosage.

5. Overlooking Drug Interactions

With patients often taking multiple medications, the risk of drug interactions increases significantly. Certain combinations of medications can lead to severe side effects or negate their efficacy. Healthcare providers must carefully review the full spectrum of a patient’s prescriptions to avoid dangerous combinations.

6. Lack of Patient Instructions

Even when patients receive the correct medication, unclear or absent instructions about how and when to take it can lead to misuse. For example, failing to warn a patient to take a medication with food can increase the risk of adverse effects.

7. Administering Medication to the Wrong Patient

Particularly in hospital settings, administering medication intended for one patient to another is a critical yet avoidable error. Proper labeling and thorough patient identification protocols are essential to prevent this mistake.

Consequences of Prescription Mistakes

The consequences of prescription errors extend far beyond the physical harm to the patient. They can include:

Severe Health Complications: Adverse drug reactions, hospitalizations, or irreversible damage.
Loss of Trust in Healthcare Providers: Patients and their families often lose faith in the system after experiencing harm caused by a medication error.
Legal and Financial Repercussions: Healthcare providers may face malpractice claims, leading to lawsuits, hefty settlements, and reputational damage.

How Healthcare Providers Can Prevent Prescription Errors

Reducing prescription mistakes is critical for improving patient safety and minimizing the risk of malpractice claims. Here are some steps healthcare providers can take:

Implement Advanced E-Prescribing Systems: Electronic prescribing systems with built-in safety features can alert providers to potential dosage errors, drug interactions, and allergies.
Thoroughly Review Medical Histories: Never skip a detailed review of patient medical records, including current medications, allergies, and past reactions.
Provide Clear Instructions: Patients should receive detailed explanations of how and when to take their medications, including any potential side effects to watch for.
Enhance Communication: Foster open lines of communication between healthcare providers, pharmacies, and patients. Encourage double-checking and verification to catch any potential errors.
Label and Verify Medications: Implement strict patient identification procedures in clinical settings to ensure medication is administered to the correct individual.

Final Thoughts

Prescription errors can have far-reaching consequences for patients, their families, and the healthcare providers involved. Whether caused by miscommunication, oversight, or system failures, these mistakes underscore the importance of vigilance and continuous improvement in the prescribing process.

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How Personal Branding Supports Online Reputation Management

Discover how personal branding supports online reputation management and how Dignified Online helps protect your digital presence.

Published

2 weeks ago

March 3, 2025

Adam T

In today’s digital world, a strong online presence is essential, whether you’re an entrepreneur, professional, or public figure. Personal branding plays a pivotal role in shaping how you are perceived on the internet. And as the lines between our personal and professional lives blur online, maintaining a positive reputation is critical. This is where online reputation management (ORM) comes in — and companies like Dignified Online are leading the way in helping individuals and businesses safeguard their online image.

In this blog post, we’ll explore how personal branding directly supports personal online reputation management and how partnering with ORM experts like Dignified Online can help you navigate the complexities of online image control.

What is Personal Branding?

Personal branding is the process of crafting and promoting your unique identity, values, expertise, and personality in the digital space. It encompasses everything from the way you present yourself on social media to the content you share and the conversations you engage in. Personal branding is an ongoing effort to define who you are, what you stand for, and what makes you distinct from others.

A well-established personal brand helps you build trust, credibility, and influence within your industry or community. It makes you more visible, easier to find, and more likely to be trusted by potential clients, customers, employers, or followers.

The Role of Online Reputation Management (ORM)

Online reputation management is the practice of monitoring, influencing, and improving your online presence to reflect your desired image. In a digital age where reviews, social media posts, and news articles can instantly reach millions, ORM helps individuals and businesses manage negative content, repair damage caused by online trolls or critics, and ensure that the right narrative is shared.

ORM involves:

Monitoring Your Digital Footprint: Regularly scanning online mentions of your name or brand.
Addressing Negative Content: Responding to or mitigating negative reviews or posts.
Building Positive Content: Promoting content that reflects your brand values and expertise.
Crisis Management: Handling and resolving PR issues that could tarnish your reputation.

For both individuals and businesses, a proactive approach to ORM is crucial, and personal branding plays a key role in this process.

How Personal Branding Supports ORM

1. Establishing a Clear and Positive Image

A strong personal brand allows you to control the narrative about who you are and what you represent. When your online presence is aligned with your values and professional expertise, it becomes easier to steer your reputation in the direction you want. With a clearly defined personal brand, it’s easier to highlight your accomplishments, values, and unique selling points.

For example, if you’re a business leader, showcasing your industry knowledge, leadership skills, and commitment to social responsibility through well-crafted content will help others view you as a credible, trustworthy authority. By establishing these positive attributes in advance, Dignified Online can help protect your reputation by ensuring that negative comments or false claims don’t drown out your positive message.

2. Creating and Sharing Valuable Content

Personal branding is not just about showcasing your image; it’s about sharing value with your audience. High-quality, informative, and engaging content helps you build a reputation for knowledge and expertise. This can range from blog posts and videos to webinars, podcasts, and social media updates.

The more content you produce that aligns with your brand values, the better your reputation will become. By consistently putting out content that showcases your strengths and adds value to your audience, you strengthen your reputation online. ORM firms like Dignified Online understand the significance of content creation and can guide you in ensuring that your positive content appears prominently on search engines, minimizing the impact of negative information.

3. Boosting Trust and Credibility

A well-established personal brand fosters trust and credibility. People are more likely to trust a person or business they know, and your brand communicates who you are and what you stand for. If negative information or fake reviews arise, a strong personal brand works as a countermeasure, providing your audience with a foundation of trust in your character and capabilities.

By building a reputation that stands for integrity and excellence, you are creating a defense against the impact of negative online content. ORM services like Dignified Online help enhance this process by ensuring that your personal brand is presented consistently across various platforms, mitigating the damage of false information or negative narratives.

4. Active Engagement with Your Audience

One of the keys to effective personal branding is engagement. When you actively interact with your audience on social media or in professional forums, it humanizes your brand and creates deeper connections. This engagement reinforces your positive reputation by allowing others to see your authenticity, responsiveness, and willingness to help.

An ORM firm like Dignified Online can assist in managing your online conversations, ensuring that any negative interactions are handled diplomatically. They can also help you proactively address issues before they escalate, keeping your reputation intact.

5. Crisis Management and Brand Repair

Even with the best personal branding efforts, crises can arise. Whether it’s a negative review, an inaccurate media story, or a social media backlash, the way you handle these situations can determine whether they harm or strengthen your reputation. ORM firms like Dignified Online are experts in crisis management, ensuring that negative situations are swiftly and effectively dealt with, while your personal brand remains intact.

Dignified Online provides personalized ORM strategies, including creating positive press, managing social media accounts, and promoting positive content, all of which help repair and maintain your online reputation during a crisis.

Why Dignified Online?

Dignified Online is a leading online reputation management firm with a track record of helping individuals and businesses protect and enhance their online image. Whether you’re managing a personal brand or a corporate reputation, Dignified Online offers tailored services designed to meet your needs. From content creation and social media monitoring to review management and reputation repair, Dignified Online ensures that your personal brand is well-represented and protected online.

By combining the power of personal branding with professional ORM services, you can maintain a positive online presence and safeguard your reputation for the long term.

Final Thoughts

Personal branding is more than just a marketing tool; it’s an essential component of online reputation management. When your personal brand is aligned with your professional values and goals, it becomes a powerful asset in managing and protecting your reputation. ORM firms like Dignified Online help you navigate this complex landscape, ensuring that your online image is consistently positive and credible.

By proactively managing both your personal brand and online reputation, you can confidently shape how the world sees you — and protect the image you’ve worked so hard to build.

For anyone looking to bolster their online reputation, partnering with an expert ORM firm like Dignified Online is a smart investment that can make a significant difference in maintaining your digital presence.

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Optimizing IT Budgets: Where to Invest for the Best ROI in 2025

Published

2 weeks ago

February 28, 2025

Adam T

Businesses across industries are currently grappling with a significant challenge—how to make the most of their IT budgets in an era defined by rapid technological advancement and economic uncertainty. Deciding where to focus IT investments can feel overwhelming, but prioritizing areas with the highest potential for ROI can drive growth and create a competitive edge. Investing in things such as cloud computing and managed IT services can help boost productivity and revenue overall.

This article outlines practical areas where smart IT investments can deliver impressive returns, empowering your organization to thrive in the digital future.

1. Cloud Infrastructure

The migration to cloud computing continues to provide one of the highest ROIs for IT spending. Modern cloud solutions offer scalability and flexibility, allowing businesses to pay only for the resources they use, while also enabling effortless collaboration across teams and locations. To maximize ROI, focus on hybrid or multi-cloud environments that merge flexibility with operational continuity.

Quick Tip:

Start small. Transition non-critical operations to the cloud first, assess the impact, and scale gradually.

2. AI-Driven Analytics Tools

Data is the lifeblood of modern enterprises, but having large amounts of data isn’t enough—it’s how you leverage it that counts. Investing in AI-powered analytics tools can uncover actionable business insights, improve decision-making, and identify patterns faster than traditional data analysis methods. These tools help organizations predict market trends, understand customer behavior, and optimize supply chain operations.

Quick Tip:

Adopt tools that integrate seamlessly with your existing systems, reducing the learning curve for employees and ensuring faster results.

3. Cybersecurity Enhancements

With cybersecurity threats such as ransomware attacks on the rise, protecting your organization’s digital assets has never been more critical. A data breach can cost companies millions and damage their reputations. Investing in robust cybersecurity frameworks, such as zero-trust security models and advanced threat detection systems, can safeguard your business operations and prevent disruptions.

Quick Tip:

Prioritize employee training to fight phishing and human factor vulnerabilities—still the leading cause of data breaches.

4. Automation Technologies

Automation is key to driving efficiency and reducing reliance on manual processes. From robotic process automation (RPA) to workflow management platforms, automation enables businesses to streamline routine tasks, minimize human errors, and save valuable time.

Quick Tip:

Focus on automating repetitive, low-impact processes first. Gradually scale automation efforts as you see results.

5. Employee Skill Development in Tech

An often-overlooked area of IT budgeting is employee development. Tools and technologies are only as valuable as the people managing them. Upskilling your workforce in critical areas such as AI, cloud computing, and data analytics ensures your team can make the most of your technology investments. Allocating resources toward specialized training programs delivers productivity benefits while future-proofing your workforce.

Quick Tip:

Partner with online education platforms or professional organizations to create tailored training programs for your team.

6. Customer Experience Technologies

With customer satisfaction driving long-term profitability, investing in CX (customer experience) tools like CRM systems, chatbots, and omnichannel communication platforms is a smart way to capture ROI. These technologies not only enhance customer interactions but also enable data collection that fuels personalized experiences.

Quick Tip:

Focus on technologies that improve customer engagement without overcomplicating existing operations.

Make Every Dollar Count in 2025

Optimizing your IT budget for ROI isn’t just about spending—it’s about making smarter strategic choices. By investing in cloud infrastructure, AI tools, cybersecurity, automation, employee skill development, and CX technologies, your organization can ensure every dollar works harder in 2025 and beyond.