Friends and I are considering some travelling around the world, including perhaps a trip to China. There is much negative press on the state of digital privacy in China, but what exactly should I pay attention to if I do visit? If I am your typical privacy enthusiast with a GrapheneOS phone and Linux laptop, how might I prepare for the trip privacy-wise? I’d also love to hear any firsthand experience as to which concerns are myths and which ones are real.
Buy and use a burner phone while you’re there, and remember that VPNs are illegal.
If you use a sim card from a European country or the US, CA, AU, NZ, JP, etc. all your traffic will be routed through your home country anyways and you won’t be affected by the great firewall.
Do not use any wifi networks ever! Don’t even look at them. Turn off wifi.
Using a SIM card with a decently sized roaming plan is absolutely the way to go.