{"id":8320,"date":"2025-12-14T22:12:40","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T22:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/12\/14\/let-donald-trump-see-inside-my-phone-id-rather-be-deported-emma-beddington-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T22:12:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T22:12:40","slug":"let-donald-trump-see-inside-my-phone-id-rather-be-deported-emma-beddington-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/12\/14\/let-donald-trump-see-inside-my-phone-id-rather-be-deported-emma-beddington-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Let Donald Trump see inside my phone? I\u2019d rather be deported | Emma Beddington – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A<\/span>s someone with a child in the US, this new Trump threat to scrutinise tourists\u2019 social media<\/a> is concerning. Providing my user name would be OK \u2013 the authorities would get sick of scrolling through chicken pics before they found anything critical of their Glorious Leader \u2013 but what if I have to hand over my phone at the border<\/a>, as has happened to some travellers already? I would rather get deported.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing criminal or egregiously immoral on there; I don\u2019t foment revolution or indulge in Trump trolling, tempting as that would be. But my phone does not paint a flattering picture of me. Does anyone\u2019s? Those shiny black rectangles have become contemporary confessionals, and we would like to believe they abide by the same kind of confidentiality rules.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a jokey online trend<\/a> of people posting pictures of themselves weeping, with the caption that their partner checked their phone for infidelity, but found \u201csomething much worse\u201d \u2013 the next image reveals it\u2019s the calculator app, used for infant-level arithmetic (15-9 say, or 300 x 2). Occasionally, it\u2019s a daft Google search (\u201cquickest way to make money<\/a>\u201d \u201chow to stop being batshit crazy<\/a>\u201d) or simply a million open tabs full of weirdness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And this is just stuff that people will admit to (or pretend; some of those sums have to be a joke). What about the rest? In the comments under photographs and videos, women express horror at imagining their ChatGPT prompts or Notes app<\/a> being scrutinised (\u201cI have a note that says \u2018If husband cheats, release the crickets,\u2019 and I do NOT want him to question me about it,\u201d one says, which particularly piqued my interest).<\/p>\n

Almost every app on my phone has embarrassing content, even seemingly innocuous ones. My calculator reveals a recent tussle with 16 x 3 and my calendar contains reminders that no functional adult should need. \u201cCheck big pears\u201d is arguably reasonable \u2013 we all know pears have a five-second window of edibility \u2013 but there\u2019s stuff like \u201cDrink water\u201d, \u201cStand up!\u201d (relics of abandoned attempts at wellness) and \u201cDEODORANT!\u201d \u2013 a recent and essential addition after many sweaty days forgetting. YouTube is all videos about the phallic-looking Korean skincare gadget I bought in a moment of self-loathing, but am too scared to use; photos contains selfies that must be destroyed with fire and Netflix reveals that I only watch Manhattan property agents with faces smooth as eggs and five-inch spike heels fighting over luxury beige penthouses.<\/p>\n

It gets worse: imagining anyone seeing my TikTok \u201cFor You\u201d page (where the algorithm offers up what you\u2019ve shown a moment\u2019s interest in, or predicts you\u2019ll like), is unbearable. A cursory swipe would reveal I\u2019ll stare at any number of fit youths slopping yoghurt into bowls to hit their protein goals, <\/em>have a morbid fear of \u201coveractive traps\u201d (it\u2019s a weightlifting thing) and harbour the delusion that I can learn to do a handstand when I gave up gymnastics aged eight. It\u2019s not a version of myself fit for public consumption.<\/p>\n

<\/gu-island><\/figure>\n

My phone enabled me to become this idiotic, and now it holds its secrets over me, lurking ominously beyond the lockscreen. I\u2019m certain everyone feels similarly, but it\u2019s hard to prove because no one wants to share what\u2019s in their rectangle of shame. I elicited enough anonymous admissions, though \u2013 a daily step count of 60, a food diary that\u2019s exclusively chocolate, photos of facial buboes, pelvic floor exercise prompts \u2013 to know none of us would be cool with our phones facing public scrutiny.<\/p>\n

Yet we\u2019re leaving our vanities and vulnerabilities, our big and little secrets, our precious data, in the hands of tech companies, and that could lead to worse than embarrassment, especially for women. In 2022, a study suggested<\/a> the majority of period-tracker apps share data with third parties; Facebook has disclosed private messages<\/a> to assist an abortion prosecution; this year, the UK National Police Chiefs\u2019 Council issued guidance<\/a> on searching women\u2019s phones after pregnancy loss.<\/p>\n

Even my foggy brain, full of shoulder mobility \u201chacks\u201d and Taylor Swift dance routines, can see that that\u2019s bad. Given that I need digital reminders for basic acts of personal hygiene, I can\u2019t realistically commit to an intellectually rigorous, entirely offline life. But as a bare minimum, in 2026, I\u2019ve resolved to put my darkest, weirdest, worst thoughts on paper.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As someone with a child in the US, this new Trump threat to scrutinise tourists\u2019 social media is concerning. Providing my user name would be OK \u2013 the authorities would get sick of scrolling through chicken pics before they found anything critical of their Glorious Leader \u2013 but what if I have to hand over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}