Technologies

Traveling Abroad? Protect Your Private Data From Border Searches With a Burner Phone

US Border Patrol has the right to search your electronics without probable cause. Carry a burner and save yourself the headache.

Crossing a border is stressful enough — and now your phone adds another layer. According to new figures from US Customs and Border Protection, nearly 15,000 device searches were carried out between April and June — over 1,000 of them using advanced tools that copy or analyze a phone’s contents. The rising numbers raise questions about how much personal data travelers may be handing over without realizing it.

One way people are protecting their privacy is by traveling with a no-frills device. A basic or burner phone can keep you connected for calls and texts while limiting the amount of personal information stored on it. It’s not just about crossing borders either — having a stripped-down device can help cut screen time, reduce distractions and give you a mental break from constant notifications.

Even celebrities have embraced the switch. Conan O’Brien has said that carrying a simpler phone helps him stay focused, proving that sometimes less really is more. If your smartphone feels like it holds too much of your life, scaling back — whether for travel or everyday use — might be worth considering.

Read more: Best Prepaid Phone of 2025

Although carriers have offered prepaid phones since the ’90s, «burner phones» or «burners» became more popular in the 2000s following the celebrated HBO series The Wire, where they helped characters avoid getting caught by the police. Though often portrayed in that light, burners aren’t only used by criminals, but really by anyone concerned with surveillance or privacy infringement.

What is a burner phone, and how does it work? Here’s everything you need to know about burners and how to get one.

Don’t miss any of CNET’s unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add us as a preferred Google source on Chrome.

What is a burner phone?

A burner phone is a cheap prepaid phone with no commitments. It comes with a set number of prepaid call minutes, text messages or data, and it’s designed to be disposed of after use.

Burners are contract-free, and you can grab them off the counter. They’re called burner phones because you can «burn» them (trash them after use), and the phone can’t be traced back to you, which makes them appealing to criminals. Burner phones are typically used when you need a phone quickly, without intentions of long-term usage.

Burners are different from getting a regular, contract-bound cellphone plans that require your information to be on file.

Why should you use a burner phone?

Burner phones are an easy way to avoid cellphone contracts or spam that you get on your primary phone number. Burners aren’t linked to your identity, so you can avoid being tracked down or contacted.

You don’t have to dispose of a burner phone after use. You can add more minutes and continue using it. Burner phones can still function as regular phones, minus the hassle of a contract.

You can also get a burner phone as a secondary phone for a specific purpose, like having a spare phone number for two-factor authentication texts, for business or to avoid roaming charges while traveling. Burner phones are often used by anyone concerned with privacy.

Read more: The Data Privacy Tips Digital Security Experts Wish You Knew

Burner phones, prepaid phones, smartphones and burner SIMs: What’s the difference?

Burner phones are cheap phones with simple designs that lack the bells and whistles of a smartphone. Because they’re designed to be disposable, you only get the essentials, as seen by the most common version, the flip phone.

All burner phones are prepaid phones, but not all prepaid phones are burners. What sets a burner apart is that you won’t have to give away any personal information to get one, and it won’t be traceable back to you. Again, a burner phone is cheap enough to be destroyed after use.

Prepaid smartphones are generally low-end models. You can use any unlocked smartphone with prepaid SIM cards, essentially making it a prepaid phone.

If you want a burner, you don’t necessarily have to buy a new phone. You can get a burner SIM and use it with an existing phone. Burner SIMs are prepaid SIMs you can get without a contract or giving away personal information.

Where can you buy a burner phone?

Burner phones are available at all major retail outlets, including Best Buy, Target and Walmart. They’re also often available at convenience stores like 7-Eleven, local supermarkets, gas stations and retail phone outlets like Cricket and Metro.

You can get a burner phone with cash, and it should cost between $10 and $50, though it may cost more if you get more minutes and data. If you’re getting a burner phone specifically to avoid having the phone traced back to you, it makes sense to pay with cash instead of a credit card.

If you just want a prepaid secondary phone, you can use a credit card. Just keep in mind that credit cards leave a trail that leads back to you.

There are also many apps that let you get secondary phone numbers, including Google Fi and the Burner app. However, these aren’t burners necessarily because the providers typically have at least some of your personal information.

If you’re just looking to get a solid prepaid phone without anonymity, check out our full guide for the best prepaid phone plans available. We also have a guide for the best cheap phone plans.

Technologies

These 8 iPhone 17 Pro Max Feature Rumors Have Me Questioning My Earlier Phone Choices

Do I stick with my tradition of opting for the regular size iPhone Pro, or is this the year to move up to the Pro Max?

Apple’s phone lineup is usually split between the more-affordable iPhone and the extras-added iPhone Pro models, but this year we could see another split, and I’m not talking about a possible iPhone 17 Air. Whereas the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are basically the same phones but with different size screens and bodies, the iPhone 17 Pro Max expected to be announced at Apple’s «Awe dropping» event next week on Sept. 9 could set itself apart from the regular-size iPhone 17 Pro.

I’ve always stuck with the standard iPhone Pro, but now I’m not so sure. Here’s a rundown of some of the features rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro Max that I’m most curious about.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Making the case to go larger

The iPhone Pro Max models are tanks compared with the rest of the line — well, they’re not on the toughness level of the Samsung Galaxy XCover 7 Pro, so maybe they’re more like solid midsize SUVs. But they’re notable for their larger screens, bigger bodies and especially for having room for more of everything in an iPhone.

And that includes a larger battery. The Max models already have more battery space than other models, but the iPhone 17 Pro Max could end up being almost half a millimeter thicker, at 8.725mm, according to a May post by 9to5Mac. Has anyone ever asked for a more bulky iPhone? Actually, yes, yes and yes.

Add the new Adaptive Power feature in iOS 26, which uses AI to distribute power more efficiently when demand is high, and we could see a boost in daily use before reaching for a charger. (Then again, Adaptive Power could be a software workaround that could mean longer life using the same physical battery size.)

If you’re already committed to carrying a larger iPhone, a tad more thickness and heft isn’t too much more to shoulder.

The back of the iPhone 17 Pro case is also rumored to shift the Apple logo down from its current perch. That doesn’t seem like a big functional change, but it should help soothe folks who choose to add a clear MagSafe case, since the logo will be centered within the MagSafe area. You can’t say Apple doesn’t sweat the design details.

A leak on X from Majin Bu purports to show an iPhone 17 Pro case, though it’s not clear whether that’s something assembled by hand to match rumored specs or is some iPhone knockoff.

iPhone 17 Pro looks so good pic.twitter.com/P7aFwR5FML

— Majin Bu (@MajinBuOfficial) July 10, 2025

Top up accessories with reverse wireless charging

This rumor could solve a problem I run into far too often: If I forget to charge my Apple Watch at home or my AirPods Pro are running low, there isn’t much I can do unless I’ve packed a portable charger. Even though power banks are affordable and often compact, it’s still one more thing to bring along.

But consider the iPhone that is always with me. When you look at its innards, most of what takes up space is battery. What if I could use the iPhone’s battery as a power source for recharging my accessories, without the hassle of a cable? 9to5Mac surfaced a rumor that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max models might incorporate reverse wireless charging. In addition to being able to charge the iPhone’s battery using MagSafe on the back, I could put my watch or AirPods case, which both charge wirelessly already, on the iPhone to share some of the juice from its larger battery.

The Samsung S-series phones already implement this feature, so it’s certainly doable. The Apple Watch still uses a proprietary charger shape, so perhaps it wouldn’t work flush with the iPhone’s back, but I could see case makers offer designs with a subtle indentation that would fit the watch.

Bring on all the camera upgrades

We can’t talk about the case without mentioning the camera bump, which could become a more expansive camera island (or maybe on the larger iPhone 17 Pro Max, it will be more like a camera continent) that stretches across the width of the iPhone back, according to CAD renders by Majin Bu. We even got a glimpse of a possible test iPhone 17 Pro in the wild when someone snapped a picture of what looks to be an Apple employee using a phone with a design that matches many rumors (via Foxy Pupy on X).

That expanse may include an upgraded 48-megapixel telephoto camera, which feels overdue for a top-tier camera system. Granted, it will probably take extra steps to capture photos in the full 48-megapixel resolution, as is the case with the current main Fusion camera in the iPhone 16 Pro models, where images are «pixel-binned» with multiple pixels grouped together to enhance light gathering ability. But given the great results we’ve seen from the 48-megapixel camera in the current models — the iPhone 16E leans heavily on that resolution using its sole rear-facing camera — extending it to the telephoto camera would definitely be a win for photographers.

Speaking of resolution, a 24-megapixel front-facing camera is expected, up from 12 megapixels, so perhaps my selfies will look better. More likely, it’s to boost the next rumored feature.

Check Out the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s Cameras, Display and Colors

+9 More

See all photos

A movable camera lens

I’m breaking out this camera rumor separately because it would mark a huge change in the iPhone camera system. According to a post at MacRumors, the iPhone 17 Pro could have an 8x optical zoom. Not only that, it’s said to be able to move, so perhaps there could be a range of zoom between 5x and 8x that is all optical (versus relying on digital zoom to crop and enlarge the image to fit the same field of view). The 5x zoom in the current iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro Max uses a «tetraprism» design to achieve its telephoto range while still keeping the camera bump modest.

Video recording makes a leap

Cameras on both sides will reportedly work together with dual video recording using the built-in Camera app, a boon for conducting interviews or making reaction videos where you want to see both sides of a conversation. Third-party apps have been able to tap into this capability for some time, but haven’t been available as a default option.

Not as important for everyday use, but interesting in terms of advancing the state of the art, the iPhone 17 Pro Max could support 8K video recording, as speculated by MacRumors after reports that 8K was tested for the iPhone 16 Pro. The iPhone is swiftly turning into a production video camera, from features such as 28 Years Later to custom cameras built from iPhone tech in the F1 movie.

An improved cooling system

Recording video in 4K resolution, much less 8K, is a demanding, power-hungry task that leads to heat build up. In already warm environments, it can even overheat the iPhone and temporarily shut it down. So the prospect of a new internal cooling architecture, while being invisible to iPhone owners, has me nerding out just a little.

According to Majin Bu and others, the iPhone 17 Pro models will feature a «vapor chamber» cooling system. As the processor heats up, a small amount of liquid in the chamber evaporates and condenses in cooler areas and is then passed back to the hot areas.

Wi-Fi 7 and fast cellular via a new Apple modem

This is more geeky and less obvious to everyday phone owners, but that’s also kind of the point. The iPhone 16E shipped with Apple’s C1 cellular modem, Apple’s first homebrew cellular hardware it has been trying to build in order to wean its dependence on Qualcomm, which has provided the modem hardware in previous iPhone models.

However, the C1 lacks a faster millimeter wave cellular network and doesn’t support Wi-Fi 7, even though it’s more conservative about power usage (and still performs well), an acceptable trade-off for the budget phone in Apple’s lineup.

But for the iPhone 17 Pro Max, we’re talking about the next professional models, and an iPhone Pro in 2025 can’t ship without the latest, fastest wireless technology. It would be more realistic to see Apple stick with Qualcomm for the Pro line than include the C1 — but I suspect a C2 is coming.

According to MacRumors, the Wi-Fi 7 compatibility could be provided by a separate dedicated chip designed by Apple.

An orange iPhone 17 Pro Max

You don’t have to be an ardent fan of the Netherlands national football team to appreciate the color orange. Leaker Majin Bu posted renders of the new color lineup for iPhone 17 Pro models, and one of them is gloriously ginger. Not only is this interesting because orange is orange, but because it would be a departure from Apple’s recent line of cool, muted colors for the pro lineup. (There are also rumors that the iPhone lineup will include a new sky blue color, about which I have opinions.) I don’t hide my iPhone in a case, so being able to show off a bold color sounds like a fun idea.

These aren’t the only iPhone 17 Pro rumors we’re tracking, but right now they’re the ones that have me looking at my calendar and wishing September could arrive just a little faster.

Technologies

Watch Every Starship Flight Test by SpaceX

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, Sept. 3

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Sept. 3.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? 7-Across made me laugh, and I didn’t get the answer right away, but my high-school-senior daughter knew immediately. Want the answers? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.