Precautions when travelling to Middle East (DXB,SHJ) w.r.t PC and Kindle contents?
My memory may be incorrect, but UAE and neighboring countries are quite strict on censorship and from what I remember, even things such as Orkut were blocked and large chunks of magazines blacked out for being offensive (late 90's, early 2000's)
Keeping this is mind, are there any precautions I should take when travelling there? If I have some erotica on on Kindle, would it cause problems? What if its deleted but still on my Amazon account. Or on my laptop, if my browsing history has such sites...
What level (if any) of sanitization is required? Or have the Middle eastern countries liberalized more now? (I presume not since the "No shorts","No shoulders" and "dress decently" type signs are still present at many places)
Best Answer
In theory, nothing has changed: pornography, very broadly defined, remains entirely banned in the UAE. An Internet filter also remains in place, although it's very patchy (playboy.com will be blocked, obscurehotgoatse.xxx probably not) and it's easily circumvented by VPN.
In practice, Dubai gets so many visitors that they don't even attempt to control the entry of digital information at the borders, they're primarily interested in alcohol and drugs. Unless you raise red flags for other reasons, your laptops, Kindles etc are not going to be examined at all.
TL;DR: If your porn is stashed well enough that your mom can't find it, I wouldn't worry about it.
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Travel Requirements to Dubai (United Arab Emirates) from the Philippines
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Answer 2
No porn, no religious stuff (bibles and other symbols or jewerly), no pork meat, no drugs. You will be safe in 99% of islamic countries (Dubai included).
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