There is always an option at the airport to print a paper boarding pass. And if you check a bag, or if you need to check in in-person (typical for international flights, where they want to see your passport) they will hand you paper boarding passes.
I fly regularly, and I’ve used my phone, but i often put the phone away and use the paper one, which is less fussy.
What happens if the goon demands that you hand over your phone for inspection, even though you’re not showing that you’re carrying it?
Many of the low cost carriers are charging for printed boarding passes
My understanding of judicial rulings is that “they” can force you to use biometrics to unlock a device but not a PIN or password. So if your phone, for instance, is powered down and the only way to unlock it on boot is by PIN, you could in theory legally refuse to do so. Which is not quite the same as your question but then it doesn’t really matter if it’s in a bag they can presumably search or on your person.
The New York Times article I linked to suggested disabling facial or fingerprint recognition.
Regarding printer ownership, it’s “nearly half of Americans,” though I don’t know what that exactly means. Does that mean adults? Households? Everyone? We have two in our household. I would say most people I know have a printer in their house. Heck, I just printed something an hour ago.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/07/10/printer-home-hacks-tips/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Most people I know (mostly old-ish people) don’t. In fact, many people don’t even have a computer. They do all “computer stuff” on their phones or tablets. You’d think old people would want bigger screens.
I have a printer, but I rarely use it. When I do use it, I need it. But my sister is linked to my computer, and she’s always (not quite so much lately) printing out things to “read later.” Drives me crazy. I told her she’s buying the printer paper.
Thanks. Unfortunately, when I click the link I get a pop up window telling me that I can read the article for free. I just have to give them my e-mail address and create an account.
Huh. I was able to read it without an issue, and I don’t have a WaPo sub. This seems to happen a lot with links here where it’ll read find for the poster but not for everyone clicking on it. Maybe I had some “free views” or something as I don’t really read any papers these days.
That whole post is riddled with condescension, assuming everyone is too stupid to consider any of those things. When it is fact her who is not considering that, if you are attempting to get on a plane with a phone, that phone is ipso facto discoverable by the scanner, so that putting it “in a bag” does nothing whatever to protect it from being found. “Stick it in a bag. Not your pocket.” This is required to get through security anyway. Clueless and condescending.
That would absolutely make me nuts! And anyway, it’s not so much the paper, as it is the toner / ink cartridges. On my printer, I print 10 things and it starts screaming at me that I’m out of ink. Printers are all the work of Satan. This is common knowledge.
I’ve owned many printers (starting back when a cheap color printer cost several hundred 1990s dollars) but for the last few, they were used so rarely that the next time I needed to print out some government document for something (the only time I found myself needing one) the inkjet would be dried out, making the printer useless so I’d buy a new cheap one, which would sit unused until the next time I needed to buy a new cheap one. (Meaning when I printed something I was paying like $10 or more per page.) The last time I printed anything was more than 15 years ago now.
Now she’s carried her cross to ATMB for a drive-by post about mods hating her.
I am looking into getting another toner printer. This one was a deluxe model. I got it as a gift. I won’t be able to afford a deluxe model. Toner cartridges are very expensive. I will need four of them to print in color. But, toner is already dry and does not go bad. I will actually save money over an ink printer in the long run.
I am wondering if I should start another thread about printers, ink versus toner, and other related issues.
Yep, she owes me for the eye-sprain.
For now. This will change, and soon.
That’s her standard modus operandi. She’s a prime example of the Dunning-Kruger effect, too dumb to grasp what she doesn’t know.
Probably. This thread won’t attract many people who know about printers.
Hey, not so fast 
! I’m an IT guy and know a lot about printers, but please don’t ever ASK me about them. They are my (and every other IT person’s) bane and probably brought me closer to my grave.