ROME (AP) — The Prada Group announced a deal Thursday to buy Italy’s Versace from the U.S. luxury group Capri Holdings under terms that value the fashion house at 1.25 billion euros ($1.4 billion).

Prada said the addition of Versace’s “highly recognizable aesthetic … constitutes a strongly complementary addition” to its portfolio, which includes the Prada and Miu Miu fashion brands. It said Milan-based Versace offered “significant untapped growth potential.’’

The final value of the deal will be adjusted at closing, expected in the second half of the year. It will be funded by 1.5 billion euros in new debt and has been approved by the Prada and Capri Holdings board of directors.

“Versace will maintain its creative DNA and cultural authenticity, while benefitting from the full strength of the Group’s considerable consolidated platform, including industrial capabilities, retail execution and operational expertise,’’ Prada said in a statement.

Versace, founded in 1978 by the late Gianni Versace, has been owned since 2018 by Capri Holdings, which includes Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo.

Capri Holdings paid $2 billion for Versace, but had been struggling in the recent era of “quiet luxury’’ to position the stalwart of Italian fashion with its sexy silhouettes and loud patterns.

Last month, Capri Holdings named Dario Vitale as creative director to replace Donatella Versace, who assumed the role after her brother’s 1997 murder. Vitale came from Miu Miu, the stunningly successful youth-driven brand in the Prada Group.

Versace was given the new role of chief brand ambassador in the shakeup, which was widely viewed as setting the scene for the long-rumored Prada sale. Miuccia Prada acknowledged the group’s interest on the sidelines of Milan Fashion Week in February.

LONDON (AP) — Planning an international trip? Travelers should prepare for the possibility of extra scrutiny of their phones when crossing borders, especially when entering the United States.

The Canadian government warned travelers in a recent travel advisory that U.S. border agents are entitled to search your electronic devices and “don’t need to provide a reason when requesting a password to open your device.”

Some recent cases have made travelers nervous about their privacy, such as when a Brown University professor with a U.S. visa was deported to Lebanon after border agents found a photo of Hezbollah’s leader on her phone.

“While 100% privacy may be impossible in these situations, there are a few things you can easily do that make it much harder for someone to see your private data even with physical access to your device,” said Patricia Egger, head of security at encrypted service Proton Mail.

Here are tips on protecting your device privacy while travelling:

What should I do before I set off?

Experts say the best strategy is to reduce the amount of information you’re carrying while traveling.

If possible, leave your phone at home. If you need one on your trip, borrow a tactic used by corporate executives looking to avoid hackers: get a temporary or “burner” device. It can contain just the information you need for your trip. Download anything else from the cloud when you need it.

If you have to bring your phone or laptop, upload sensitive information to a cloud storage service that uses end-to-end encryption, then delete the originals from your device.

Also, encrypt your phone or laptop’s storage drive and protect it with a strong password. Be aware this is different from merely having a device passcode lock, which is more easily cracked, or the end-to-end encryption on your favorite communication platforms.

Turn off fingerprint or facial recognition features and use the PIN or passcode instead.

What kind of search will be done at borders?

There are two kinds of searches, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website.

In a basic search, an officer scrolls through your phone’s photos, emails, apps and files. No suspicion of wrongdoing is needed to conduct this type of search.

In an advanced search, the contents of your device could be copied for analysis. But a senior manager needs to sign off and there needs to be “reasonable suspicion” of a legal violation, except if there’s any concern for national security, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

Who’s at risk of getting searched and what are they looking for?

“It’s hard to say,” says Sophia Cope, senior staff attorney at the EFF, which offers an extensive online guide to border privacy. Warrants are not needed to inspect devices belonging to anyone entering the country.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents carried out a total of more than 47,000 electronic device searches last year, up tenfold from a decade ago.

Basic searches “can be for no reason at all, totally random, or based on a mere hunch about someone – maybe based on how they look or an answer they gave to a preliminary question,” said Cope.

Travel history can also be relevant, for example, if a traveler originates from someplace where terrorism, drug trafficking, or child sex tourism is common, she said. Border agents can also search devices “at the behest” of other agencies like the FBI or if they’re associated with someone else of interest, such as a journalist’s source, a business associate or a family member.

What should I do when I get to the border?

Best to power off your devices when you touch down.

Under current policy, U.S. border agents are only allowed to look at information stored on the device, and not anything that’s kept in the cloud. So if you have to leave your phone on, make sure it’s kept in airplane mode or otherwise disconnected from the internet by Wi-Fi or cellular data.

“Before crossing the border, put your device in airplane mode to ensure remote files don’t get downloaded accidentally,” the Canadian government warns.

But keep in mind there might be cached data that still remains on your phone, such as files in the trash that haven’t been emptied.

What if I refuse?

American citizens can’t be denied entry to the United States for refusing to consent to device searches. The same should apply to lawful permanent residents such as green card holders, the American Civil Liberties Union says.

But agents can make things difficult if they’re refused. Travelers could be questioned, detained temporarily or have their devices seized and not returned for days or even weeks, rights groups say.

Foreign travelers could be turned back if they say no.

If you’re forced to unlock your device, Egger advises that “where you can, log in yourself rather than divulging any PINs or passwords, and if forced to share passwords, change them as soon as you can.”

Experts say the reason you should not use your device’s fingerprint or facial recognition feature is that it’s easier to compel you to unlock your device with biometrics. A border agent could simply hold your phone up to your face or force you to press your finger onto your device. There are also fears that police could use fingerprints stored on government databases.

Powering off your devices is another way to protect against sophisticated attacks in case you don’t consent to a search.

Most modern phones and some laptops encrypt their data using a strong cryptographic keys only accessible when the user unlocks it with the passcode, said Will Greenberg, the EFF’s senior staff technologist.

If the device is locked but not turned off, the key remains loaded on the device’s memory. Powerful hacking tools made by companies like Cellebrite can recover the key and decipher the data.

But if the device is off, the key is unloaded and can’t be accessed until it’s turned on again and unlocked with the passcode.

“This is why a border agent can’t simply turn a device on to use a tool like Cellebrite,” Greenberg said.

What about social media?

To be on the safe side, delete your social media apps and reinstall them later. Even though content is mainly stored on a social media company’s servers, Cope says some posts or images might remain on your phone’s memory cache and therefore viewable even in airplane mode.

What else can be searched?

It’s not just phones and laptops. Digital cameras, smartwatches, tablets, external hard drives and other electronic devices can be searched.

What not to do?

Some tactics might backfire. If you’re tempted to completely wipe your phone or laptop hard drive before you travel, experts warn it could raise scrutiny.

“If detected by a border agent, the fact that you wiped your hard drive may prompt the agent to ask why you did so,” the EFF’s guide says. “Even traveling without devices or data that most travelers typically have could attract suspicion and questions.”

Also don’t try to hide information on your device, because border agents could find out, the group says. “Lying to border agents can be a serious crime, and the agents may take a very broad view of what constitutes lying,” it says.

What about other destinations?

Check local laws of your destination before you travel. For example, Britain’s counterterrorism law allows police to demand that people passing through the country’s border hand over devices along with passwords and PINs. If they refuse, they can be charged with terrorism.

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MECHANICSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Mike Fowler had been faintly aware that a museum of Rolls-Royce and Bentley vehicles existed near his boyhood home in the suburbs of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, but the car enthusiast didn’t expect the experience he got when he started volunteering there.

Fowler had oil on his hands within a half-hour of his first volunteer session at the Rolls-Royce and Bentley Museum. More than a year later, he keeps a list on his phone with notes about cars in the collection to help him get them started properly or disconnect their batteries.

Fowler is part of a group of about 50 volunteers who gather twice a month at the museum to help out, including cleaning, maintaining and driving the fleet of customized iconic vehicles, many designed to be driven by a chauffeur. For many volunteers, it’s an opportunity to experience a life few people can afford.

“You take it out on the road and you are transported to a different time, a different mentality,” said Fowler, a 28-year-old Camp Hill resident.

Newcomers are first paired with a more experienced volunteer for about a year and must pass the museum’s driving school. They start with the most modern vehicles, which have automatic transmissions.

“We’re very protective of the collection. We’re its caretakers, and we take it very seriously. So you can’t just come in off the street and start driving,” said Sarah Holibaugh, the museum’s head librarian and archivist. “But it should be that way.”

A museum that’s easy to miss

The 29 antique and collectible Rolls-Royce and Bentley automobiles that date as far back as the late 1920s are the central attraction of the largely overlooked and seldom visited museum, which is easy to miss among the surrounding miles of farm fields and stretch of nondescript industrial buildings just outside Mechanicsburg. The museum, owned by the Rolls-Royce Foundation, includes a showroom, maintenance area and a third room being converted into a library and reading room.

“I often wonder if the homes around here know the foundation exists,” Fowler said. “Or if they always just wonder, ‘Why do we see these vintage Rolls-Royce and Bentleys roaming around from time to time?’”

The museum has its roots in nearby Harrisburg, where Rolls-Royce put an owners’ club in the 1960s, located between large dealerships in New York and Washington. After Hurricane Agnes devasted that location in 1972, a businessman donated the Mechanicsburg property for a new facility. The 6,000-person owners’ club, with members in 26 countries and a headquarters in the same complex, is a separate entity but works closely with the museum.

Though admission is just $5, the museum launched in 2004 gets only about 1,000 visitors a year. It typically draws members of car clubs, groups of seniors and students on school field trips, with visits that have to be scheduled in advance.

Who used to own that car?

It also has rented out its cars for films and similar uses. The museum’s 1961 Rolls-Royce Phantom V was in last year’s Timothée Chalamet biopic about Bob Dylan, “A Complete Unknown,” and a 1959 Silver Cloud I from the collection appeared in Season 4 of the series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”

Volunteers also help preserve and digitize the museum’s archive of ownership and service records for North America, which span from 1907 until 2004, shortly after Rolls-Royce and Bentley were acquired by BMW and Volkswagen, respectively. Records for cars made for the European market are available through the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts’ Club in the United Kingdom.

The North American records, which are available for a fee and produce the foundation’s biggest revenue stream, have helped prove cars outside of their collection were once owned by famed director Alfred Hitchcock, actor Zsa Zsa Gabor and hockey great Wayne Gretzky.

Foundation records have also debunked claims about purported prior ownership, including a Rolls-Royce vehicle thought to have been owned by country singer Hank Williams Jr.

“We were able to absolutely prove that it was not owned by him,” recalled volunteer Randy Churchill, a Boiling Springs man now retired from a marketing career. “They just thought they had a million-dollar gold mine on their hands.”

Vehicles in the museum’s collection range in value from about $30,000 to about $120,000. A whiskey delivery truck appraised at $320,000 has been donated and will soon be on display.

Many of the cars Rolls-Royce has built are still on the road and used models can be surprisingly cheap. But maintaining an older Rolls, with its customized features and expensive parts, can be pricey, noted volunteer Ron Deguffroy, a retired psychologist from Chambersburg.

“The most expensive Rolls-Royce you will buy,” he said, “is a cheap one.”