Pre-paid/burner phones at Disney?

[lorenni]

We are flying in from outside the US soon, arriving at Melbourne and driving up to Orlando. U.S. citizens may be requested by CBP to provide passwords to access content on smartphones, and we would rather not share our confidential client emails with them. I also don't want us to be hamstrung without a smartphone for the week (I know, it's possible to survive the week pretending its 2010, but I don't really want to).

Are there prepaid/burner phones available anywhere in the MK? Or in the Melbourne airport? If we get a prepaid phone can I just install the MDE app and be all set?

NOTE: I am not trying to start a discussion about the current immigration climate. I provide the above info only to explain the reason/rationale behind my inquiry. U.S. citizens are not technically be required to provide passwords for cell phones/content/accounts - BUT the alternative to complying with the request could be a day in a windowless room with our kid instead of wandering the Flower & Garden food stalls. Followed by at least another day lost as we trot to my firm's local office for them to figure out what has been accessed. Not ideal.

 

[CAS239]

If you are only looking for one to just use MDE and a few other features and don't need a full on phone to buy. You could look into getting an iTouch. All the same features and can use it in the park just like an iPhone.

 

[DopeyDame]

How are you getting from Melbourne to the airport? If you'll have a rental car, your best bet will probably be to stop at a target or something along the way. Or maybe even order one online and have it shipped to your hotel. I can't remember seeing any actual phones for sale in the parks, but we weren't specifically looking for them.
(And I, like you, won't be flying internationally with my real phone any time soon, so I completely understand your request)

 

[lorenni]

If you are only looking for one to just use MDE and a few other features and don't need a full on phone to buy. You could look into getting an iTouch. All the same features and can use it in the park just like an iPhone.

Could I conceivably use an old iphone? Assuming I can access wifi at the resort or the park. I hadn't thought about just bringing a retired device back into service. I wonder if I could take it to the Apple store to get it wiped and just set it up under my apple ID once we've landed. (I am not the brightest tech bulb in the chandelier.)

 

[wilkeliza]

Could I conceivably use an old iphone? Assuming I can access wifi at the resort or the park. I hadn't thought about just bringing a retired device back into service. I wonder if I could take it to the Apple store to get it wiped and just set it up under my apple ID once we've landed. (I am not the brightest tech bulb in the chandelier.)

Yes as long as it can use the iOS that supports MDE (so I think you need at least a 5) you can set it up as just a ipod. We do it for my little cousins all the time so they have a way to play their games and music and not be a big deal if they break it.

 

[scrapquitler]

Could I conceivably use an old iphone? Assuming I can access wifi at the resort or the park. I hadn't thought about just bringing a retired device back into service. I wonder if I could take it to the Apple store to get it wiped and just set it up under my apple ID once we've landed. (I am not the brightest tech bulb in the chandelier.)

I don't see why not.

 

[IrishNYC]

Could I conceivably use an old iphone? Assuming I can access wifi at the resort or the park. I hadn't thought about just bringing a retired device back into service. I wonder if I could take it to the Apple store to get it wiped and just set it up under my apple ID once we've landed. (I am not the brightest tech bulb in the chandelier.)

Yes, you can do this. We routinely give DD our retired iPhones so that she can use them as iPods. She can access wifi, and did so at disney, and does regularly wherever we travel.

 

[lorenni]

So, if we go with the old iphone option - how do I get around texting without a phone number? One of my staff talks about What'sAp - would that work? (I'm not nearly as old as I sound, I swear it.)

 

[wilkeliza]

So, if we go with the old iphone option - how do I get around texting without a phone number? One of my staff talks about What'sAp - would that work? (I'm not nearly as old as I sound, I swear it.)

Whatsapp works or you can text other iphone users through messenger.

 

[IrishNYC]

So, if we go with the old iphone option - how do I get around texting without a phone number? One of my staff talks about What'sAp - would that work? (I'm not nearly as old as I sound, I swear it.)

Assuming you're coming in from out of the US, WhatsAp would be your best bet. It works on Wifi. Anyone can text you at that. However, anyone with an iPhone can text you via your iMessage email address, as well.

 

[bryanb]

WhatsApp, Apple iMessage, Google Hangouts, Facebook Messenger -- all good ways to text other people. I believe they all only work with other people who are on the same service. Otherwise you need SMS.

If you want true access to SMS, you can get Google Voice. It will give you a real telephone number for free that you can use to send and receive texts. There's an iPhone app for Google Voice that makes it easy to text and place calls over Wi-Fi.
http://voice.google.com

The question you have in your post is a very real problem. My company phone and email contains confidential information, and I'm not authorized to give my password to anyone... to say nothing of doing that and then letting them browse my phone freely. Planning ahead can help save a lot of challenges in this area.

 

[CAS239]

So, if we go with the old iphone option - how do I get around texting without a phone number? One of my staff talks about What'sAp - would that work? (I'm not nearly as old as I sound, I swear it.)

Yea there's a bunch of apps where you can text others. You can send and receive as long as you're on wifi. Which is at all the parks, Disney Springs, every Disney hotel and generally every hotel off site

 

[scrapquitler]

We are flying in from outside the US soon, arriving at Melbourne and driving up to Orlando. U.S. citizens may be requested by CBP to provide passwords to access content on smartphones, and we would rather not share our confidential client emails with them. I also don't want us to be hamstrung without a smartphone for the week (I know, it's possible to survive the week pretending its 2010, but I don't really want to).

Are there prepaid/burner phones available anywhere in the MK? Or in the Melbourne airport? If we get a prepaid phone can I just install the MDE app and be all set?

NOTE: I am not trying to start a discussion about the current immigration climate. I provide the above info only to explain the reason/rationale behind my inquiry. U.S. citizens are not technically be required to provide passwords for cell phones/content/accounts - BUT the alternative to complying with the request could be a day in a windowless room with our kid instead of wandering the Flower & Garden food stalls. Followed by at least another day lost as we trot to my firm's local office for them to figure out what has been accessed. Not ideal.

Would it be possible to delete the email account from your phone before you leave your home airport, then add it back after you pass thru customs and immigration??

 

[wrlippert]

It is my understanding that CBP may ask you for the passwords to your email accounts and social media accounts regardless of whether you have a device in your possession or not. They can use their device to access your email and Facebook accounts on the internet. Once they have access, they can use software to download all of the content. I assume that since they know you are arriving, they may have searched to see if you have such accounts. Telling them you don't have an email account might get you detained if they know better. Before you leave your phone at home and make life difficult, you might want to check with your nation's state department to get some informed guidance on what to expect upon arrival in the US.

 

[lorenni]

And DONE! Thanks for the great advice! For those who may come after, here's what I did:

1. Dug through a box and found a "retired" iphone 4 (retired because the speaker broke) and the correct charger. Charged it until it would turn on.
2. Connected it to my laptop and uploaded all pictures (just in case any had been left behind in previous uploads)
3. Disconnected the phone and signed into my house wifi
4. Went to Settings>General>Reset (followed the instructions here, which are for a later ios but worked for my old phone: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201274)
5. The phone wiped itelf and the "new phone" screen came up with "HELLO" - I chose to set the phone up as a NEW PHONE, rather than restoring.
6. Opted to set up a new AppleID with a new icloud email account
7. Upgraded the software to 9.3.5 via Settings>General>software update
8. Downloaded mydisneyexperience from the app store (required completing account info for the new Apple ID account.) MDE required ios 8 or higher. I will not log in to MDE until I arrive, as that would them provide a clear link to my "real" email which I use for MDE.

If I can do this, anyone can!
I'll look into the various messaging apps - I'll need it only for the folks with whom we are traveling, and select family not on the trip.

 

[lorenni]

It is my understanding that CBP may ask you for the passwords to your email accounts and social media accounts regardless of whether you have a device in your possession or not. They can use their device to access your email and Facebook accounts on the internet. Once they have access, they can use software to download all of the content. I assume that since they know you are arriving, they may have searched to see if you have such accounts. Telling them you don't have an email account might get you detained if they know better. Before you leave your phone at home and make life difficult, you might want to check with your nation's state department to get some informed guidance on what to expect upon arrival in the US.

I'm not actually sure this is right for U.S. Citizens, but social media logins/handles are being requested from residents of certain countries (including the UK, France and Spain that I know of).

As a U.S. Citizen, my physical person and the possessions with me are subject to search at the border. If my phone is not with me, they cannot search it. If they insist on social media handles, I'll have to decide whether or not to take a stand, as they cannot legally require me to provide them. But even if they eventually accessed them, the issue of client confidentiality is not there with my personal email accounts. And they wont be able to access my good messaging from their own devices without the cooperation of my company. I can't even access my work email on a new device.

Assuming for a second that they have enough free time to search for email accounts for all incoming passengers, how could they know whether or not an account belongs to me or to anyone else? LinkedIn, maybe, since the picture is clearly me (they are welcome to peruse the snoozefest that is my linkedin account).

 

[lorenni]

Would it be possible to delete the email account from your phone before you leave your home airport, then add it back after you pass thru customs and immigration??

My understanding is that simply deleting things from your iphone is insufficient because once they have the iphone they can restore anything that has ever been on the phone (absent a full reset/wipe)

 

[mountdew1]

Going to leave these here
https://www.aclu.org/know-your-righ...enforcement-airports-and-other-ports-entry-us (Specifically #6 since the OP seems to be a US citizen)
https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-future/social-media-passwords-shouldnt-be-condition-entry-us (Which would indicate a) not actively a policy and b) as proposed would only apply to certain countries)

*Disclaimer* - I am not a lawyer, so read and interpret the advice provided by the ACLU at your own peril.

 

[lorenni]

Going to leave these here
https://www.aclu.org/know-your-righ...enforcement-airports-and-other-ports-entry-us (Specifically #6 since the OP seems to be a US citizen)
https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-future/social-media-passwords-shouldnt-be-condition-entry-us (Which would indicate a) not actively a policy and b) as proposed would only apply to certain countries)

*Disclaimer* - I am not a lawyer, so read and interpret the advice provided by the ACLU at your own peril.

Exactly! Do I have to comply? No, but they can ruin my day if I don't and then possibly take my phone anyways. The last thing I want to do on vacation is contact my clients one by one to let them know their confidential information has been shared/copied.

Thanks for posting the links! Good guidance for everyone traveling from outside the U.S.

 

[bryanb]

I'm not actually sure this is right for U.S. Citizens, but social media logins/handles are being requested from residents of certain countries (including the UK, France and Spain that I know of).

As a U.S. Citizen, my physical person and the possessions with me are subject to search at the border. If my phone is not with me, they cannot search it. If they insist on social media handles, I'll have to decide whether or not to take a stand, as they cannot legally require me to provide them. But even if they eventually accessed them, the issue of client confidentiality is not there with my personal email accounts. And they wont be able to access my good messaging from their own devices without the cooperation of my company. I can't even access my work email on a new device.

Assuming for a second that they have enough free time to search for email accounts for all incoming passengers, how could they know whether or not an account belongs to me or to anyone else? LinkedIn, maybe, since the picture is clearly me (they are welcome to peruse the snoozefest that is my linkedin account).

This is really unfortunately. As a U.S. citizen, I know I would have an issue if the authorities in the UK, China, or any other country wanted to look through my phone.
Even worse, customs officials in the U.S. have the right to make a copy of your phone for offsite analysis.

If they start doing this enforcement with any regularity, they will scare off a whole lot of tourism business.