> how would this work in jurastictions that are likely to jail you for transporting information across borders
Great question! This is, by far, my biggest worry. Especially in North Korea if we ever launch there. This is actually going to be the topic of the next episode in the Inside Awala podcast: https://awala.alitu.com/
Long story short, there are measures that we've taken, and measures we will take.
Measures that we've taken include using another layer of E2E encryption for the data transported by couriers and minimising the metadata to such an extent that you couldn't see who's the sender/recipient, even if the authorities took the courier's device to a lab. This way, couriers couldn't be coerced into giving something they don't have.
Measures we will take include concealing the app. For example, it could look and behave as a calculator when you open it (even its icon and name could convey that), and you'd only see the actual app once you enter a particular math expression.
Also, the technology is getting independent security audits periodically. They're currently wrapping up the latest one, and the report should be available in the coming weeks.
As for China, that's a totally different problem: They do have access to the Internet, but it's heavily censored. However, we're tackling that problem too now, as we're adding a resilient VPN function to Awala, whose prototype was already tested in China: https://github.com/relaycorp/fanqiang-poc
The reason for this VPN functionality inside Awala is that, at the end of the day, every single region that's susceptible to Internet blackouts is also subject to Internet censorship when the Internet is available. So people shouldn't have to install multiple apps for the various types of censorship they will be subjected to at different points in time.
However, at the sneakernet level, and at least today, I think the only region where it'd be useful would be North Korea, if this is ever used there. Interestingly enough, I'll be talking about this in the next episode of the Inside Awala podcast, in case you're interested: https://awala.alitu.com
China is very special case of totalitarianism with low entropy, but most other totalitarianism cases have low entropy only in capital City, and extremely corrupted outside capital, especially on borders.
This is don't mean that you could run across border on station wagon filled with prohibited content, but somebody could hide something like microSD in clothes.
Exists paradox - people usually thinking, jails have very strong and serious security system so inside there should be sterile environment without anything prohibited, but in reality usually there exist black market of prohibited things.
I would expect that just having the app installed would get you some quiet time in a small room.