Personal Security While Shopping and Traveling

Tagged with laptop computer, mini pc, phone, shopping, travel on February 18, 2025

I’m concerned about my personal security when I’m at one of the malls, shopping for groceries, or traveling from place to place. Regardless of where I am when I’m away from home, I always carry a small messenger bag with me. I call it a sling bag, and I’ve had the one I’m using now since early 2018.

Sometime after I moved to the Philippines in 2006, when sling bags started to become fashion accessories, I bought one for one particular reason. A lot of places in the city had nothing to clean up with after using their restrooms, so I always carried a roll of toilet paper. I still do, even though things have gotten better since then, with a lot of places having bidet sprayers at the very least.

Other Items in My Sling Bag

I haven’t carried a wallet in my back pocket for years. Along with the city I’m currently living in, I’ve been to places where pickpockets seem to be everywhere. It may seem redundant to place things in my wallet and then in my bag, but I only keep my wallet in my bag when I leave home. It’s usually sitting on a table next to my computer desk when I’m at home.

Although I owned a feature phone before moving to the Philippines, I didn’t own a smartphone until 2015. That was at least nine years without any kind of phone. My wife, Josie, continued to use a feature phone until after she returned with me at the end of 2014. She carries hers in her handbag and I carry mine in my sling bag when we’re away from home.

The only thing I carry along with those three things is anything I know I’m going to need when I’m out and about. When I depart next month, it’ll hold my exit clearance/reentry permit, along with a copy of our plane ticket. The only time my bag leaves my possession is when it’s being screened at the airport, or when someone I trust is holding it.

Personal Security With My Backpack

Although I rarely use it, I always use it when traveling by plane. It’s my carry-on bag, while my sling bag is my personal bag. I’m allowed both. The backpack is easier to stash in the overhead compartment than a regular piece of luggage designed for that compartment. I make sure the contents are secure before I go to the airport, just in case something unexpected happens.

It doesn’t matter if it’s my laptop computer or my mini PC, I make sure the administrator and user passwords are set in the BIOS. It’s trivial to get into the operating system with a USB drive, but not so trivial to reset the BIOS. I put my laptop computer in my backpack, and I put my mini PC and portable monitor in my luggage to be checked.

When it comes to personal security, I’m paranoid. Based on some of my experiences, it’s way better to be paranoid than not.

Image by Schreibvieh, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons