They can ask to see your phone. Know what they’d find.
At the US or Canadian border, officers can search your phone — no warrant, no suspicion needed. Landside checks your iPhone the same way they would, on your Mac, before you travel.
DRAMATIZATION
Messages
still up for picking up some weed edibles before the trip lol
Mail
honestly I’m just working remotely on my tourist visa, no big deal
Photos · Recently Deleted
47 items you forgot were still there
An officer scrolling your unlocked phone sees all of this. Most people have no idea it’s there.
This is not a fringe practice.
55,318US border device searches in fiscal year 2025 — a record
~70,000on pace for fiscal 2026, and rising
92%are “basic” searches — an officer manually scrolling your unlocked phone
Source: US Customs & Border Protection, Border Search of Electronic Devices statistics (cbp.gov). Canada’s government advises travelers to “expect scrutiny at ports of entry, including of electronic devices.”
Plug in. See what they’d see. Decide what travels.
01
A private check, on your Mac
Connect your iPhone over USB. Landside reads a local, encrypted backup — the same data an officer could browse — and nothing leaves your computer. Ever.
One cable. One button. No account, no cloud.
02
Flagged the way an officer would read it
Messages, WhatsApp, notes, photos and apps checked against destination rules — grouped by conversation, so 400 flags become a handful of decisions.
Every flag shows exactly why it matched, with the message in context.
03
A guided cleanup — by you, on your phone
Assisted Clean walks you item by item with the exact taps. Then a rescan verifies each one is actually gone. Landside never deletes anything — you decide, you tap.
One calm verdict, then exact steps — nothing left to guesswork.
We show you what we can’t see.
Every privacy tool overpromises. Landside’s coverage map states plainly what’s outside its reach — and what to do about each gap — because an officer holding your unlocked phone can see all of it.
That honesty is the product.
what landside can’t see
Signal messagesExcluded from all backups by design. Review them on the phone itself.
iCloud-synced contentMessages or Photos in iCloud aren’t in local backups — we tell you how to include them.
WhatsApp encrypted backupsIf enabled, WhatsApp is excluded — a temporary toggle fixes it; we walk you through.
Deleted-message remnantsForensic recovery of deleted data needs lab tools. Out of scope, stated openly.
What we don’t do
We don’t install anything on your phone.
We don’t delete anything — you do, on your device, by your choice.
We don’t modify your backup.
We don’t send anything anywhere. No account, no cloud, no telemetry.
We don’t promise a “clean phone” — we show you what we can’t see, too.
We don’t coach anyone to mislead officers. Answer every question truthfully.
Your three options, honestly priced.
Time
Cost
Blind spots
Read the EFF guideThe free manual checklist — the advice is good; verifying you followed it is on you
3–5 hours
Free
High — no verification
Carry a burner phoneA second device, a second number, your real life left behind
Days to set up
$200–600+
Your actual phone is still home
LandsideSee what an officer would see, fix what matters, verify it’s gone
~30 min, once
from $49
Stated plainly, on screen
early-access pricing — locked for public launch
One trip or every trip.
Travel Season
$49
one-time · covers you for 90 days
Unlimited checks for one device
Destination rule packs included
Assisted Clean + rescan verification
50% credited if you upgrade to Pro within your season
30-day walk-through-confidence guarantee.If Landside doesn’t change how prepared you feel before your next crossing, email us within 30 days — full refund, no questions, no forms.
Windows version in progress. Prices in USD — early-access pricing is locked when we launch publicly; whatever you pay today is your price for the term you buy.
Fair questions.
Is this legal?
Yes. Reviewing what’s on your own device before you travel is exactly what the EFF, ACLU and BCCLA have recommended for years. Landside installs nothing, deletes nothing, and never tells you what to say to an officer. It’s preparation, not evasion — and it’s not legal advice.
Does it delete anything for me?
No — and no desktop app can; Apple doesn’t allow it. Landside shows you exactly what to review and guides each step on your phone. You make every decision and every tap.
Will an officer find the app on my phone?
There’s nothing to find. Landside runs entirely on your Mac and installs nothing on the device. It also never modifies your backup.
What about Signal and encrypted apps?
Signal excludes its data from all backups by design, so no backup-based tool can see it — Landside says so plainly and tells you to review those conversations on the phone itself. That honest gap report is a feature, not a footnote.
Android?
Mac + iPhone first. Android media scanning is in progress; message content on Android needs a companion app and will follow. The pricing page will say exactly what’s supported when it ships.
Your next crossing is on the calendar. So is theirs.
Thirty minutes tonight, on your Mac, and you walk to the booth knowing exactly what’s on your phone — and what isn’t.