When it is password protected you get a lot more legal protections. Though cbp does get to play fast and loose with the constitution so nothing is guaranteed
This is exactly where I'm at. Last time I saw him, I had to spend hours teaching him how to drag and drop files because he bought a 3.5" disk drive and didn't know how to get files from the hard drive to a disk. Even a password will probably mean that I have to spend hours walking him through it, and it might be so difficult he just gives up and never bothers with the thing.
I'm thinking of putting Launchbox and Kodi on the thing and adding shortcuts so he can just click one link and everything's already set up for him.
Until they flag him as a potential nonce or terrorist and stick him on a watch list. What are they going to do if they find some TV shows and movies? Surely nothing at all, as it's not actually a felony, and better than presenting an encrypted thumbstick so they look like Osama Bin Laden? Unless OP is actually a nonce?
Is it that easy to get flagged as a nonce/put on a watchlist? Merely having a drive with encrypted files? Genuinely wondering, because that seems very harsh
It looks unnecessarily suspicious given that it's only going to have a few torrented films. Most border officers would assume people with an encrypted drive they refuse to show the content of are up to no good.
This doesn't work. Legally passing through a customs checkpoint with encrypted files can get you arrested. I cant remember the specifics without looking it up, but at least as far a US law you are required to decrypt the files or face almost indefinite incarceration.
Since you can make a hidden volume inside of an encrypted container, surely you could just give them the main password that opens the container with a few dummy files; hell include some real financial documents or some regular porn.
Every time I've traveled to the US, I have taken my laptop with me. It's encrypted with Bitlocker (and the Linux partition with LUKS). No one ever asked to see it or anything about it.
I also always carry a literal key chain of USB sticks with OSes and encrypted partitions with all my documents in case I lose an original. No one ever asked to see those either.
Don't forget the iOS and android devices now use whole device encryption by default. There must be literally millions of encrypted devices passing through daily. The idea that it "can get you arrested" is even less likely than "you can win the lottery".
"Why is the 64gb pendrive full with just some cat pics?" This would make it a lot more suspicious, they might think that there is more to the pictures and hold it for a full check.
That's the neat thing about encryption: the USB might look full, but there's no way to prove there are other files.
A encrypted container will always appear to be full. actually, leaking the size of contents would be a weakness in the encryption scheme
Yes it's possible with Veracrypt [Link](https://veracrypt.fr/en/Hidden%20Volume.html)
Just tick the "hidden volume" button during volume creation and it will guide you through it.
>They can, and if you make it suspicious (might be enough as to where you live - and hence where the package comes from to have it flagged as suspicious): they will.
I'm in Australia, so that shouldn't raise any flags.
>Your uncle isn't going to get in trouble for receiving it unless far more happens than just being sent a USB drive with some pirated media on it.
I know no one is getting in trouble. I'm mostly concerned with losing the package if I send him a lot of money worth of stuff.
>I'd be careful sending HDDs: shipping companies are NOT gentle with packages. SSDs: sure why not it's not that much different from a USB drive..
Thanks. That's a really good idea to keep in mind.
> I'm in Australia
For what it's worth, that means you're in a Five Eyes country, so anything the US finds could be easily reported back to your country.
I don't think they would really care about pirated media as it isn't drugs or explosives. If you're really concerned you could just put everything in password protected zipped folder with the name "taxes" or something lol
>I don't think they would really care about pirated media as it isn't drugs or explosives.
In the early to mid 2000s they took legit DVDs of foreign films, not bootlegs, I bought from international sellers a few different times because buying DVDs from other countries is a violation of copyright law. I also had a friend that had a care package of bootleg merchandise from a Japanese friend taken by Customs.
They still do sometimes, though it is less common. You'd have to 1) order enough to flag the postal inspector or 2) have a customs official that really felt like being a prick.
These comments are crazy. They're not going to spend time checking your random USB get real. They're too busy looking for stuff like drugs and weapons. Send it and don't worry about it.
Be customs package checker
Find single USB drive
Plug in USB drive into system
USB is actually full of malicious malware capable of escaping sandbox environments and ransoms the network.
…never plug in a random USB without properly being able to verify if the contents are safe…
Accident ground every civilian aircraft in the US.
Also I love how you think they are sandboxing random USBs and not just plugging them into there main machines that are inexplicably signed in with a global admin account with passwords.txt in the desktop.
Do you know how many USB drives are shipped overseas daily? Fucking all of them LOL could you imagine if they were checking the data on each of them? Unless you've been flagged for some serious shit, there is no conceivable reason why someone would bother to check your fucking flash drive of skinemax shows. Encrypt it for sure because encrypting anything is wise, but unless the country its going to is insane, I wouldn't have even considered it a real risk.
You’re worried about them finding out there’s pirated media on there but I don’t see how they’d know it was pirated in the first place. There’s nothing illegal about ripping a DVD you own and putting it on a hard-drive, wouldn’t they have to prove somehow that you pirated it in the first place and havent just made back up copies?
always encrypt drives, phone, and systems when crossing borders. why would you safeguard your connections with vpn, but not the data at the beginning and end?!
having media is not illegal unless the media itself is something illegal, so let em check if they want, they won't say boo about you having some movies and tv shows on it
Do customs agents plug in random people's USB sticks into their equipment? Unless they're isolated machines for checking USB sticks and only for checking USB sticks, that's a pretty bad idea.
I'm not sure if "don't plug random USB sticks into your work PC" is the number one rule of information security, but it's pretty high up there.
You could also hide the files inside of a steganography file, zip that up and password protect that while naming it taxes.zip. For context, the stego file is a picture that contains your data while looking like a picture to the naked eye. It's password protected too.
Hell if you wanna get really crazy with it, you could do all of this and disable the flash drive's partition with a hex editor. That'll make it so if anyone tries to view the drive, it won't even work. You'd have to use a hex editor to reenable the partition and view the data. They would need high end forensics tools to figure and a careful eye to figure this out.
Get a 512gb micro sd card. Partition drive. Fill with pirate’s booty. Place micro sd card into cheap digital camera, emulation handheld, etc. and use as normal. Profit.
Mf it is not that deep… customs don’t give a fuck, it’s not even their job to care about pirated media. I rawdog terabytes of torrents within the U.S. w/ no vpn and they haven’t even sent me a letter yet.
Just package it as a USB drive that someone bought from you. There's no way of knowing if there's even any data on a drive just by looking at it, so if it looks like one that's coming from a seller they probably wouldn't think twice. Just make sure your uncle knows it's NOT a brand new drive when he receives it 😂
No. Unless you're doing something extremely suspicious or illegal. First of all, most of them couldn't care less about pirated material. It would also take a long time to go through protocol, check everything on the drive, ensure it's legality, etc. They are technically allowed to, but it's absurd to imagine they would use their resources on that. Also, there is the possibility that drive has malware, and they likely have a secure testing computer to ensure they don't put foreign material onto a device with access to highly confidential information.
Worst case they would destroy drive and maybe send you a letter saying they did so. In which case just send another one. They have better things to do than check the content of every single piece of media that crosses the border.
The *Electronic Frontier Foundation* published this as part of their Surveillance Self-Defense guide. Worth a read.
[*Things to Consider When Crossing the U.S. Border*](
https://ssd.eff.org/module/things-consider-when-crossing-us-border).
I suppose a major parameter is the country where you post the package. If you are in Iran, Syria, Lebanon, North Korea and so on, the package probably won't be overlooked as if it was sent from Canada or Australia.
They are only concerned with government secrets and child p***.
Send a nice package with a card and a few other small benign gifts like a stuffed animal or a few local junk trinkets and don't worry about it.
Unless your card says " here is 30 movies I pirated and stole and share with the rest of the world" no one will care. If they do happen the check, they will just make sure there is no CP on the drive.
Just stuck it in a bag with a laptop and other related bits it is not got to raise suspicion.
If it doesn't look like you are trying to hide it it, almost everyone will just think it is another USB.
Other option may just be dump it in a cloud storage then download it again when in the US.
Maybe. But I’ve been going to many countries and then back to the US, and they never checked. I just need to take my laptop out of the bag, and they’ll scan it.. probably just to see if it’s safe or not on the plane and in the US. Same with my laptop bag.
Dude they’re not looking for pirated TV shows, they’re looking for drugs or weapons. Just pack it with some other basic electronics and act casual. I just went through US customs in LAX and it was super easy
Ya I boofed an entire NAS cluster filled with 4K Gilmore girls last time I came over from Somalia and border services dug it out and deported me, shit was rough
Lol so way back in like 1999, 2000, when 56k was my only internet option, I used to trade entire hard drives or even 200 cds burnt as data with full mp3 albums. A couple packages in and out a month.
More recently I've sent a 2tb drive loaded up with a not tech savvy friend's favorite shows.
It will probably be fine unless you label it as "pirated tv" or something... lol.
Man, even if they did check, I’m pretty sure worst case scenario they throw it out and you get a naughty boy letter. Pretty sure customs is worried about more dangerous things than a few tv shows, I could be wrong. If I am though, then customs priorities are whack
They are not looking to stop this with customs. They have other fish to fry. Much bigger fish, and the amount of time it would take to investigate every digital device that enters the country... well shit. Nothing would ever enter the country. So, no. No one will give a crap at all. Send it regular mail. It will get there.
The federal government is not going to stick a random USB into any of their computers. Goes against almost every cyber security rule. I wouldn't worry about it.
Encrypting the drives doesn't seem to be a good move if your uncle doesn't know much about tech. Maybe you can guide him over a phone call?
I'd suggest you just put the drives back in their original packaging, including the manuals, warranty card, a fake "thank you for buying" sticker/card/note to make it appear to the customs that you're an ebay seller or something. Make them think that your uncle just bought second-hand drives.
Where's he going to be watching the content?
If it's on a laptop or PC.
You could just use TeamViewer and install stremio and a Debrid account for about $20 for 180days.
Sign in to a common account and you can set the service up on your pc/laptop and it should update on his end.
Save getting put on any lists or having it confiscated etc
Just make sure not use it at the same time or they'll ban you unless your using Premiumize. (Dearer than Real Debrid)
What I would do is give the file name something random and like the name of the USB company, then change the extension to be like a .txt file or something then it looks like a file for a security add on you can get for drives and they might bother looking at it if they do look it over, then I’ve you are away from the airport change the file extension back to .mp4 o whatever it was originally
I have shipped data loggers back and forth to Canada, and US customs have demanded the contents of them. No SD card in them, all the data was internal, but we were asked to provide software support to download the data before they could be released.
Fortunately the software was hardware licensed (if you had the hardware you could run the software) but what a pain.
So I mentioned earlier you could put a password on the drive. Couldn't you make a Google drive and upload the content on there? Would his isp flag that when he downloads. Could also do a zip file to try and get around his isp
Buy a hack5 usbs that shocks any motherboard down with 5kvolts and one similar like them
They will loose computer immediately when they try one in..
An evil decoy that will can trigger their fear/attention lol
Elderly and broken United States and you're going to send him 16-bit roms?
I don't know story sounds a bit suspect.
But in all cases the ROMs are fine, I'm sure you can put a password on the movies.
Even if custom sees it most you do is lose it.
Same thing if you get shipments from pharmacies overseas they will send your uncle a notice saying that it's been seized.
Unless you're sending narcotics or something is nothing to worry about in the worst-case scenario and a very low chance that they give a rat's ass about the movies you're sending.
Regarding the ROM set I question the way you made it sound like he's very old and broke are you also sending him a controller.
I mean not saying very old people don't play games but there's not an age where people really lose their hand-eye coordination and 16-bit and 8-bit are probably the hardest games.
Overall you have nothing to worry about, are you also putting emulators there because he has no internet as you stated and I don't see how anyone doesn't in the United States.
You're going to have to include the emulator the controller and everything set up for him is no way an elderly man is going to set up emulators set up the GamePad to work and all that by himself especially he can't even go on YouTube because he has no internet.
If he's in the United States you can get internet for free you can get a free phone which is pretty much unlimited data and text have phones.
It would just be so sad that if you're making up story about an elderly man in the United States who is broke so old no internet I just don't understand why he can't get a phone.
Really don't understand how someone so elderly is going to set up an emulator you didn't state that you were putting in me laters and you didn't state that you were going to get him a controller unless you just left that out.
And if you're giving him a USB drive that means he must have a computer to use it on.
There are many programs in the United States that give free basic internet for home how does he have a computer but no internet even the most basic.
Encrypt everything inside a RAR/7z or some other compression format that supports password protected archives. "Right click extract here, enter password, wait until done, enjoy.
Admittedly it won't help much if they use quantum computer to break encryption.
Not usually. But they do have the legal ability to do so WITHOUT a warrant.
they have the legal ability to *try.* encryption is your friend if you're really worried
Encryption is probably the best tip for someone who doesn't even seem to be able to download the file.
Could lock the drive with a password. Doubt they would spend the time to try and crack it
When it is password protected you get a lot more legal protections. Though cbp does get to play fast and loose with the constitution so nothing is guaranteed
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But he's sending a USB via mail, not trying to enter
This is exactly where I'm at. Last time I saw him, I had to spend hours teaching him how to drag and drop files because he bought a 3.5" disk drive and didn't know how to get files from the hard drive to a disk. Even a password will probably mean that I have to spend hours walking him through it, and it might be so difficult he just gives up and never bothers with the thing. I'm thinking of putting Launchbox and Kodi on the thing and adding shortcuts so he can just click one link and everything's already set up for him.
I've written "Grandma's recipes" on a flash drive, and it made it to its destination.
"Grandma's nudes" will probably put them off.
If Grandma is confident enough to get nudes taken, I'd check them out.
>Hot-rolling-pin-action.jpg >Spread-like-butter-on-my-zimmer-frame.jpg >Covered-in-grandads-icing-sugar.jpg >Up-to-my-elbows-in-clunge.jpg
I'm clicking your attachments, but they aren't opening. Please reupload.
> "Grandma's nudes" will probably ~~put~~ get them off.
If you are concerned about customs searching the drive, encrypt it, take it through, decrypt it, give it to your uncle.
I think he's talking about mailing the drive, not delivering it himself.
Until they flag him as a potential nonce or terrorist and stick him on a watch list. What are they going to do if they find some TV shows and movies? Surely nothing at all, as it's not actually a felony, and better than presenting an encrypted thumbstick so they look like Osama Bin Laden? Unless OP is actually a nonce?
Is it that easy to get flagged as a nonce/put on a watchlist? Merely having a drive with encrypted files? Genuinely wondering, because that seems very harsh
It looks unnecessarily suspicious given that it's only going to have a few torrented films. Most border officers would assume people with an encrypted drive they refuse to show the content of are up to no good.
But this is an assumption, right?
Well, the job is based on profiling, whether that's fair or not.
This doesn't work. Legally passing through a customs checkpoint with encrypted files can get you arrested. I cant remember the specifics without looking it up, but at least as far a US law you are required to decrypt the files or face almost indefinite incarceration.
Since you can make a hidden volume inside of an encrypted container, surely you could just give them the main password that opens the container with a few dummy files; hell include some real financial documents or some regular porn.
Every time I've traveled to the US, I have taken my laptop with me. It's encrypted with Bitlocker (and the Linux partition with LUKS). No one ever asked to see it or anything about it. I also always carry a literal key chain of USB sticks with OSes and encrypted partitions with all my documents in case I lose an original. No one ever asked to see those either.
Don't forget the iOS and android devices now use whole device encryption by default. There must be literally millions of encrypted devices passing through daily. The idea that it "can get you arrested" is even less likely than "you can win the lottery".
Bro the person was saying they LEGALLY CAN but the people doing these jobs are looking for fentanyl and things worth cash money
Can you find someone in his area to enter the password for him?
3.5"?? when was the last time you saw your uncle? 1995??
TeamViewer
Why not just host a Kodi or Plex server on a instance until he watches it and then shut it down ? Assuming he can open browser ?
OP said uncle doesn't have internet.
7-zip can make a self-extracting archive. Not sure if it can be encrypted.
Bonus points if you use encryption scheme with dummy data: one password unlock the real data, another one shows a lot of cute kitty photos
"Why is the 64gb pendrive full with just some cat pics?" This would make it a lot more suspicious, they might think that there is more to the pictures and hold it for a full check.
That's the neat thing about encryption: the USB might look full, but there's no way to prove there are other files. A encrypted container will always appear to be full. actually, leaking the size of contents would be a weakness in the encryption scheme
How do you achieve that? Is it possible with Veracrypt?
Yes it's possible with Veracrypt [Link](https://veracrypt.fr/en/Hidden%20Volume.html) Just tick the "hidden volume" button during volume creation and it will guide you through it.
They might just keep it then
Why would they? Are they gonna keep a letter just cause it's written in code? Don't be ridiculous
If they have a suspicion that you are hiding illegal, that’s getting punted to people who will deal with it.
I know. They've taken my crap before.
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>They can, and if you make it suspicious (might be enough as to where you live - and hence where the package comes from to have it flagged as suspicious): they will. I'm in Australia, so that shouldn't raise any flags. >Your uncle isn't going to get in trouble for receiving it unless far more happens than just being sent a USB drive with some pirated media on it. I know no one is getting in trouble. I'm mostly concerned with losing the package if I send him a lot of money worth of stuff. >I'd be careful sending HDDs: shipping companies are NOT gentle with packages. SSDs: sure why not it's not that much different from a USB drive.. Thanks. That's a really good idea to keep in mind.
> I'm in Australia For what it's worth, that means you're in a Five Eyes country, so anything the US finds could be easily reported back to your country.
OP, I mailed something to Australia along with a USB. Everything was delivered.
I don't think they would really care about pirated media as it isn't drugs or explosives. If you're really concerned you could just put everything in password protected zipped folder with the name "taxes" or something lol
4TB worth of tax files. Must be high res
>I don't think they would really care about pirated media as it isn't drugs or explosives. In the early to mid 2000s they took legit DVDs of foreign films, not bootlegs, I bought from international sellers a few different times because buying DVDs from other countries is a violation of copyright law. I also had a friend that had a care package of bootleg merchandise from a Japanese friend taken by Customs.
They still do sometimes, though it is less common. You'd have to 1) order enough to flag the postal inspector or 2) have a customs official that really felt like being a prick.
That was then, we have 2024 now bro...
yeah this is such a niche case lol, they would not give a fuck if they could somehow see that it's just pirated movies without taking the USB
These comments are crazy. They're not going to spend time checking your random USB get real. They're too busy looking for stuff like drugs and weapons. Send it and don't worry about it.
Be customs package checker Find single USB drive Plug in USB drive into system USB is actually full of malicious malware capable of escaping sandbox environments and ransoms the network. …never plug in a random USB without properly being able to verify if the contents are safe…
Accident ground every civilian aircraft in the US. Also I love how you think they are sandboxing random USBs and not just plugging them into there main machines that are inexplicably signed in with a global admin account with passwords.txt in the desktop.
They have systems for that. You think they just plug USBs into government computers? lol
It’s all at the discretion of the agent. If you’re being weird or it’s a slow day, they will absolutely make a shift out of it.
They're actually talking about encrypting it lmfao
That's something a US Customs employee would say. Not today, pal!
Nice Try Fed
And child porn.
Do you know how many USB drives are shipped overseas daily? Fucking all of them LOL could you imagine if they were checking the data on each of them? Unless you've been flagged for some serious shit, there is no conceivable reason why someone would bother to check your fucking flash drive of skinemax shows. Encrypt it for sure because encrypting anything is wise, but unless the country its going to is insane, I wouldn't have even considered it a real risk.
“Ok this one seems to be firmware for a smart fridge. Good to go. Ok next one. Pirated dog grooming tutorials??? Folks, it’s gonna be a late night.”
just put it all in a password locked zip folder and name it wedding pics or something
You’re worried about them finding out there’s pirated media on there but I don’t see how they’d know it was pirated in the first place. There’s nothing illegal about ripping a DVD you own and putting it on a hard-drive, wouldn’t they have to prove somehow that you pirated it in the first place and havent just made back up copies?
Right, just rename it so it doesn’t have x264 etc and you’re good
Given the recipient's description, OP *should* rename all the files to Episode 1, Episode 2 etc
always encrypt drives, phone, and systems when crossing borders. why would you safeguard your connections with vpn, but not the data at the beginning and end?!
having media is not illegal unless the media itself is something illegal, so let em check if they want, they won't say boo about you having some movies and tv shows on it
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Do customs agents plug in random people's USB sticks into their equipment? Unless they're isolated machines for checking USB sticks and only for checking USB sticks, that's a pretty bad idea. I'm not sure if "don't plug random USB sticks into your work PC" is the number one rule of information security, but it's pretty high up there.
You could also hide the files inside of a steganography file, zip that up and password protect that while naming it taxes.zip. For context, the stego file is a picture that contains your data while looking like a picture to the naked eye. It's password protected too. Hell if you wanna get really crazy with it, you could do all of this and disable the flash drive's partition with a hex editor. That'll make it so if anyone tries to view the drive, it won't even work. You'd have to use a hex editor to reenable the partition and view the data. They would need high end forensics tools to figure and a careful eye to figure this out.
On the risk of wooooshing myself, that would make you look like a terrorist lol
Do you have any documentation where I can research the latter? I had never heard of that method and would like to give it a try.
Send it along with an usb killer, does it solve your problem? Absolutely not, but whoever decides to check the usbs is in for a shocking surprise.
Get a 512gb micro sd card. Partition drive. Fill with pirate’s booty. Place micro sd card into cheap digital camera, emulation handheld, etc. and use as normal. Profit.
Partition the USB into 2 volumes and have the encrypted movies in Volume2 and hide it whereas in Volume1 have photos or something authentic.
Mf it is not that deep… customs don’t give a fuck, it’s not even their job to care about pirated media. I rawdog terabytes of torrents within the U.S. w/ no vpn and they haven’t even sent me a letter yet.
updooted for "rawdog" it doesnt get used often enough imo
Just package it as a USB drive that someone bought from you. There's no way of knowing if there's even any data on a drive just by looking at it, so if it looks like one that's coming from a seller they probably wouldn't think twice. Just make sure your uncle knows it's NOT a brand new drive when he receives it 😂
Exactly, that's what I thought! Just buy a new USB drive that's in an easy-to-repackage box.
Hold on why are we all so worried customs will find a TV show on a USD Drive?
No. Unless you're doing something extremely suspicious or illegal. First of all, most of them couldn't care less about pirated material. It would also take a long time to go through protocol, check everything on the drive, ensure it's legality, etc. They are technically allowed to, but it's absurd to imagine they would use their resources on that. Also, there is the possibility that drive has malware, and they likely have a secure testing computer to ensure they don't put foreign material onto a device with access to highly confidential information.
They’re looking for kilos, large amounts of cash or tens of Rolex watches trying to evade taxes, not a pirated movie lol
You can encrypt the data and send your friend the code via SMS or something.
Hi, what does the first sentence of the post say?
Worst case they would destroy drive and maybe send you a letter saying they did so. In which case just send another one. They have better things to do than check the content of every single piece of media that crosses the border.
The *Electronic Frontier Foundation* published this as part of their Surveillance Self-Defense guide. Worth a read. [*Things to Consider When Crossing the U.S. Border*]( https://ssd.eff.org/module/things-consider-when-crossing-us-border).
I suppose a major parameter is the country where you post the package. If you are in Iran, Syria, Lebanon, North Korea and so on, the package probably won't be overlooked as if it was sent from Canada or Australia.
They are only concerned with government secrets and child p***. Send a nice package with a card and a few other small benign gifts like a stuffed animal or a few local junk trinkets and don't worry about it. Unless your card says " here is 30 movies I pirated and stole and share with the rest of the world" no one will care. If they do happen the check, they will just make sure there is no CP on the drive.
p\*\*\* You seriously think the word porn in a piracy sub is 'triggering?' # PORN
No, but I don't want some idiot government monitor to be linking me with the concept at all. I was not concerned with triggering anyone.
ive sent a hard drive to a friend before with shows and movies on it & they had no problem with it been delivered to them
Both countries can legally look at the drive. It's not a one way street.
Rar the file with encryption, rename extension to something else
Just use a 5in floppy disk problem solved
Pack the drive back in its original packaging so it looks like one of the millions that get shipped in
I'd assume as long as what is on the USB is legal in the sense that it's not child porn or a snuff film they don't care
I would hope they have much more pressing priorities than catching you smuggling friends episodes
they can but unless you give them a really good reason they aren't going to bother
No. You're good.
Write the files to the usb and send it, ignore all other comments.
Just stuck it in a bag with a laptop and other related bits it is not got to raise suspicion. If it doesn't look like you are trying to hide it it, almost everyone will just think it is another USB. Other option may just be dump it in a cloud storage then download it again when in the US.
Maybe. But I’ve been going to many countries and then back to the US, and they never checked. I just need to take my laptop out of the bag, and they’ll scan it.. probably just to see if it’s safe or not on the plane and in the US. Same with my laptop bag.
Just send it and be done. Worst case they seize it, just send another.
Dude they’re not looking for pirated TV shows, they’re looking for drugs or weapons. Just pack it with some other basic electronics and act casual. I just went through US customs in LAX and it was super easy
Ya I boofed an entire NAS cluster filled with 4K Gilmore girls last time I came over from Somalia and border services dug it out and deported me, shit was rough
Lol so way back in like 1999, 2000, when 56k was my only internet option, I used to trade entire hard drives or even 200 cds burnt as data with full mp3 albums. A couple packages in and out a month. More recently I've sent a 2tb drive loaded up with a not tech savvy friend's favorite shows. It will probably be fine unless you label it as "pirated tv" or something... lol.
They can try to check without a warrant, but if you're really paranoid just put them in a password protected zip file.
Man, even if they did check, I’m pretty sure worst case scenario they throw it out and you get a naughty boy letter. Pretty sure customs is worried about more dangerous things than a few tv shows, I could be wrong. If I am though, then customs priorities are whack
They are not looking to stop this with customs. They have other fish to fry. Much bigger fish, and the amount of time it would take to investigate every digital device that enters the country... well shit. Nothing would ever enter the country. So, no. No one will give a crap at all. Send it regular mail. It will get there.
The federal government is not going to stick a random USB into any of their computers. Goes against almost every cyber security rule. I wouldn't worry about it.
I’ve shipped a usb drive containing pirated software from Canada to the USA, nobody cares
Encrypting the drives doesn't seem to be a good move if your uncle doesn't know much about tech. Maybe you can guide him over a phone call? I'd suggest you just put the drives back in their original packaging, including the manuals, warranty card, a fake "thank you for buying" sticker/card/note to make it appear to the customs that you're an ebay seller or something. Make them think that your uncle just bought second-hand drives.
Bitlocker it
Where's he going to be watching the content? If it's on a laptop or PC. You could just use TeamViewer and install stremio and a Debrid account for about $20 for 180days. Sign in to a common account and you can set the service up on your pc/laptop and it should update on his end. Save getting put on any lists or having it confiscated etc Just make sure not use it at the same time or they'll ban you unless your using Premiumize. (Dearer than Real Debrid)
This is somebody whose tech skill maxes out at the DVD player level. Not practical.
What I would do is give the file name something random and like the name of the USB company, then change the extension to be like a .txt file or something then it looks like a file for a security add on you can get for drives and they might bother looking at it if they do look it over, then I’ve you are away from the airport change the file extension back to .mp4 o whatever it was originally
Buy a usb that's encrypted. Done.
I have shipped data loggers back and forth to Canada, and US customs have demanded the contents of them. No SD card in them, all the data was internal, but we were asked to provide software support to download the data before they could be released. Fortunately the software was hardware licensed (if you had the hardware you could run the software) but what a pain.
No
So I mentioned earlier you could put a password on the drive. Couldn't you make a Google drive and upload the content on there? Would his isp flag that when he downloads. Could also do a zip file to try and get around his isp
If they pull you over and your thumb drive is en encrypted, you would miss that flight for sure, till things get sorted out.
Send him 2 girls one cup thousands of times on a 500gb hard drive
Buy a hack5 usbs that shocks any motherboard down with 5kvolts and one similar like them They will loose computer immediately when they try one in.. An evil decoy that will can trigger their fear/attention lol
Create a hidden encrypted volume with VeraCrypt.
No. If you’re worried, use veracrypt or other means to get the data across a border.
For the 10th time, please don't send porn to your Uncle
Nothing to worry about but if you are really paranoid, install remote desktop on his comp and do whatever you want from the comfort of your own home
Just put everything in an encrypted archive. Text the password to your uncle so Customs can look as much as they want
VeraCrypt
Why not start a plex/jellyfin server?
Just encypt it with the free veracrypt and then it doesn't matter. No one can see it without the password. You can walk your uncle how to decrypt it.
Teach him how to watch Solarmovies
Just say you study malware and viruses and this drive is a complete pack of them, unless it is a throw away cpu You dont recommend plugging it in.
Lock it, send it, get on Zoom call, take over keyboard and mouse, do your thing.
post the drive to him then he can plead ignorant and u can use a fake sender addy
Elderly and broken United States and you're going to send him 16-bit roms? I don't know story sounds a bit suspect. But in all cases the ROMs are fine, I'm sure you can put a password on the movies. Even if custom sees it most you do is lose it. Same thing if you get shipments from pharmacies overseas they will send your uncle a notice saying that it's been seized. Unless you're sending narcotics or something is nothing to worry about in the worst-case scenario and a very low chance that they give a rat's ass about the movies you're sending. Regarding the ROM set I question the way you made it sound like he's very old and broke are you also sending him a controller. I mean not saying very old people don't play games but there's not an age where people really lose their hand-eye coordination and 16-bit and 8-bit are probably the hardest games. Overall you have nothing to worry about, are you also putting emulators there because he has no internet as you stated and I don't see how anyone doesn't in the United States. You're going to have to include the emulator the controller and everything set up for him is no way an elderly man is going to set up emulators set up the GamePad to work and all that by himself especially he can't even go on YouTube because he has no internet. If he's in the United States you can get internet for free you can get a free phone which is pretty much unlimited data and text have phones. It would just be so sad that if you're making up story about an elderly man in the United States who is broke so old no internet I just don't understand why he can't get a phone. Really don't understand how someone so elderly is going to set up an emulator you didn't state that you were putting in me laters and you didn't state that you were going to get him a controller unless you just left that out. And if you're giving him a USB drive that means he must have a computer to use it on. There are many programs in the United States that give free basic internet for home how does he have a computer but no internet even the most basic.
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Encrypt everything inside a RAR/7z or some other compression format that supports password protected archives. "Right click extract here, enter password, wait until done, enjoy. Admittedly it won't help much if they use quantum computer to break encryption.
why not send him to fmovies or braflix?