Technologies

Don’t Let a Border Agent Ruin Your Holiday Trip. Travel With a Burner Phone

If you’re traveling internationally, a burner phone is the most effective way to protect your private data.

Let’s be real, the idea of a border agent scrolling through your phone is a modern-day nightmare. And with US Customs searching thousands of devices and using tools to copy their contents, it’s a nightmare that’s becoming more common. With your phone adding another layer to concerns about crossing the border, you have more to consider when traveling than ever.

This isn’t just hyperbole. 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. So what’s the solution? A burner phone. It’s the ultimate defense for keeping your personal data private when you travel, ensuring you stay connected without handing over your entire digital life at the border.

But the appeal goes beyond security. A stripped-down phone is also the perfect escape from the constant notifications and screen-time vortex of your primary device. Even celebrities like Conan O’Brien have embraced simpler phones to cut through the noise. Whether you’re crossing a border or just trying to cross the street without distractions, a burner might be the smartest tech you own.

Read more: Best Prepaid Phone of 2025

Although carriers have offered prepaid phones since the ’90s, «burner phones» or «burners» became popular in the 2000s following the celebrated HBO series The Wire, where they helped characters avoid getting caught by the police. Although 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.

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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 use.

Burners are different from getting a regular, contract-bound cellphone plan 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, although 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

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 12 #588

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Oct. 12, No. 588.

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

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a fun one, with kind of an old-fashioned twist. Some of the answers are a bit tough to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Follow suit

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Deal me in.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

REST, HIST, CHOP, PADS, RITE, RANG, SKATE, ARTS, HEART, TRICK, SKATER

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

WHIST, BRIDGE, EUCHRE, SPADES, PINOCHLE, HEARTS

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is TRICKTAKING. To find it, look for the T that’s four letters down on the far-left row, and wind up and across.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Sunday, Oct. 12

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Oct. 12.

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? It helps if you play cards. If you could use some answers, read on. And if you could need 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.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: A 5-Across might be a wild one
Answer: CARD

5A clue: One of two in a standard deck
Answer: JOKER

6A clue: Homer called its oil «liquid gold»
Answer: OLIVE

7A clue: Symbolic flower in Buddhism
Answer: LOTUS

8A clue: Bunkers on a golf course
Answer: TRAPS

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Use crayons, e.g.
Answer: COLOR

2D clue: Japanese dog breed
Answer: AKITA

3D clue: Really energize
Answer: REVUP

4D clue: Garment that may be strapless
Answer: DRESS

5D clue: Sudden shock
Answer: JOLT

Technologies

AI Is Eating the Internet, but Many Are Hopeful Human-Made Content Will Win Out

Publishers, including CNET’s owner, are taking a wide range of approaches to try to make it through AI’s changes.

With AI encroaching on all corners of the internet, from bogus articles to Instagram Reels, there’s concern that human-made content is under threat, and as a result, so are the film, music and publishing industries.

There are AI actresses, AI-generated music filling up Spotify and AI answers at the top of Google Search, above the 10 blue links.

But consumers of news and media remain uncomfortable with the idea of fully AI-generated content. A recent Reuters Institute survey of people in six countries, including the US, found that only 12% of people are comfortable with fully AI-generated news, compared to 62% who prefer their news entirely human-produced.

That desire for human-made content has some publishing executives optimistic, including Vivek Shah, CEO of CNET owner Ziff Davis. He said as much in a recent episode of the podcast Channels with Peter Kafka.

«The narrative around is that the declines in search traffic somehow are existential and I just don’t see it that way,» said Shah.

«I still think we prefer words and sounds and videos from humans,» he added. «Do I think that the robots will eat into some of that? I do.»

Internet search and content analysts see the same preferences among consumers.

«I also agree that as Google continues to roll out new AI search features like AI Overviews and AI Mode, users will continue to seek authentic content from real humans,» said Lily Ray, vice president of SEO strategy and research at Amsive, a marketing agency, «and when the AI answer isn’t sufficient to meet those needs, they will continue to search for content that provides that sense of real human connection.»

As AI is rapidly shifting how people find information online, publishers are moving quickly to strike deals. News Corp, Axel Springer and Future PLC have signed content licensing deals with OpenAI, for example. Other companies are taking on AI companies directly.

AI models are trained on the entire corpus of information found online, which includes published journalistic content. Recently, Penske Media, which owns Variety and Rolling Stone, sued Google over its use of AI Overviews, which gives AI-generated answers at the top of search. Penske alleges that Google is abusing its monopoly power in online search and that AI Overviews steals Penske content, circumventing the need for readers to click on articles directly.

Ziff Davis, along with the New York Times, has sued ChatGPT creator OpenAI for scraping journalistic content to train AI models rather than signing a licensing deal. Shah told Kafka that OpenAI rebuffed Ziff Davis’ attempts to negotiate a licensing deal.

OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Ziff Davis said Shah was unavailable for comment.

The strong response from publishers comes as Wall Street rewards Google, chipmaker Nvidia and OpenAI partner Microsoft with record valuations even as the publishing industry is contracting. There have been major drops in traffic across the internet in 2025. This year, too, the publishing industry has seen layoffs at CNN, Vox Media, HuffPost, the LA Times and NBC.

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Another way publishers are fighting back is by trying to block AI crawlers from scraping their content for free. Along with blocks in robots.txt, a file on a website that lays out certain permissions from online crawlers, Ziff Davis has signed on to the RSL standard, which is a more robust layer of tech that can block AI bots for sucking up content. The hope is that if enough publishers sign on, it can be enough of a united front to better bargain with Big Tech.

Despite the growing popularity of AI, Shah feels that ultimately people prefer «words and sounds and videos from humans.» He also notes that brands are increasingly trying to get their products to fill up AI search results, which isn’t good for objective purchasing decisions.

«If you start to look into citations in LLM chatbots, you’re going to see that sources have gone from journalism sources to marketing sources,» said Shah. «And so, someone’s got to measure this because I am amazed at how many citations are not publisher.com but a brand.com.»