# Protecting your sources when crossing a border or checkpoint

> Crossing a border or checkpoint with your phone without exposing sources: assess the risk, lighten the device, encrypt, and what to do afterwards.

Canonical: https://ntilia.com/en/guides/protect-your-sources
Updated: 2026-09-28

## The essentials

The best protection is not to carry what you don’t want seen: before crossing, move sensitive notes off the phone to a safe place, encrypt the device with a long passcode, turn off biometrics and log out of your accounts. Adapt these steps to your level of risk and to the country’s laws.

## 1. Assess your risk

Not everyone needs the same precautions. Ask yourself: who might want to search your phone, what your sources risk if a name shows up, and what your status is in the country you are crossing. The higher the stakes, the less you should carry.

## 2. Before you leave

1. **Carry as little as possible** — Remove from your devices anything you wouldn’t want accessed. For the most sensitive stories, a clean travel phone with a different SIM card is the safest option.
2. **Put sensitive notes somewhere safe** — Hand a copy to a trusted person or newsroom, off your phone, before emptying it.
3. **Encrypt and lock** — Turn on full-device encryption and use a long passcode rather than a 4-digit PIN.
4. **Prepare your documents** — Print tickets and travel documents so you don’t have to unlock your phone to show them.

## 3. Right before crossing

- Turn off fingerprint or face unlock: a passcode is harder to obtain by force.
- Log out of your accounts and uninstall sensitive apps until you are through.
- Power the phone off: that is often its best-protected state.

## 4. After crossing

Once somewhere safe, on a reliable connection, restore your notes from the trusted copy. If your device was taken out of your sight, treat it as compromised: change your passwords and warn the sources concerned.

## Where nTilia helps, and where it isn’t enough

nTilia’s Travel Mode (from Pro) automates step 2: an encrypted copy goes to a safe recipient, then the phone no longer carries sensitive notes. If you are forced to reopen the app, deactivation only takes effect after 24 hours, or with the safe recipient’s approval: you cannot hand over the notebook on the spot. If the phone is taken from you, you or your recipient can empty it remotely. Travel Mode requires the vault: destroying its key makes whatever remains on disk unreadable, and the emptied device is signed out. Device-only notes never sync, and the vault is encrypted.

> **Limits** — nTilia does not wipe the phone: Signal, photos, maps and already-downloaded ZIPs remain searchable, and this is not a forensic wipe. A remote wipe only works once the phone gets a network. An article already published stays online, even after “Burn”: if reading it could expose you, hide your journal before crossing. What already travelled (DOI, subscribers, reposts) stays out of reach.

## Frequently asked questions

### Do I need a dedicated phone for travel?

For the most sensitive stories, or if you are at high risk of being detained, yes: a clean device and a new SIM card limit what can be found.

### Why turn off fingerprint or face unlock?

Because it is easier to force someone to press a finger or look at the screen than to obtain a long passcode.

### Is deleting a note enough?

Not always: copies may remain elsewhere (backups, messaging apps, photos). Better never to have the sensitive data on the device when you cross.

## Go further

- [Travel Mode: the complete guide](https://ntilia.com/en/travel)
- [Story: Travel Mode at the checkpoint](https://ntilia.com/en/travel/story)
- [nTilia for journalists](https://ntilia.com/en/for/journalists)
- [Guide: take notes without a network](https://ntilia.com/en/guides/take-notes-without-a-network)
- [Comparison: nTilia or Standard Notes](https://ntilia.com/en/compare/standard-notes)

## Sources

- [CPJ — Digital Safety Kit](https://cpj.org/2019/07/digital-safety-kit-journalists/)
- [CPJ — Nothing to Declare: crossing a U.S. border](https://cpj.org/reports/2018/10/nothing-to-declare-us-border-safety-journalist/)
- [EFF — Journalist security checklist for border travel](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/journalist-security-checklist-preparing-devices-travel-through-us-border)
- [EFF — Digital privacy at the U.S. border](https://www.eff.org/wp/digital-privacy-us-border-2017)