Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Canadian journalist's detention at US border raises press freedom alarms

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 257 posts

Re: Canadian journalist's detention at US border raises press freedom alarms

#151

Post by lostlogin »

emiliobumachar wrote: post #101
chinathrow wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even more depressing is the fact that many countries take the US as their idol and start also requiring all 10 finger prints at border crossing. It's an epidemic these days.

Here in Brazil we demand fingerprints only for Americans , as a reciprocity measure. A mix of revenge and incentivising change. It's controversial, cause it hurts tourism and business.

I think that's the point - reading state communications and using government spy apparatus for private enterprises also hurts trade and that is presumably part of the escalation.

Re: Canadian journalist's detention at US border raises press freedom alarms

#152

Post by DanBC »

dragonwriter wrote: post #149
mzw_mzw wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should journalists have more rights than ordinary civilians?

They shouldn't, legitimate "press freedoms" don't belong to a special journalistic class, they protect activities no matter who is engaged in them.

US government seems to think that there is, in fact, a special journalistic class:

https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/employment/media.h...

Re: Canadian journalist's detention at US border raises press freedom alarms

#153

Post by joering2 »

chinathrow wrote: post #31
jliptzin wrote: post #21

Don't be fooled, Canadian border patrol proudly engages in this as well. I was recently driving across the border to Montreal on vacation when Canadian border agents, in addition to searching my car and personal belongings, demanded to see my cell phone and turn over the password. I simply asked why, since I didn't think I was doing anything suspicious, at which point the agent angrily responded "because I can and no…

Some risk averse people are following one rule: Do not carry any electronics at any border crossing. It's a hostile territory.

I travel for few months every year to Europe to work from my home country (I work remotely). After reading so many crazy stories, I have adopted few rules:

I have SSD drive that I use in States. Once I'm ready to go, I swap it with "empty" drive and fire up the OS just to get some updates on files on it, so it doesn't look like it hasn't been used for a long time.

Once in Europe, I put the drive that has more tools and my files I use daily. I also use personal DropBox and the most important files are sync over the net when I login from Europe.

As to the phone - my network doesn't work in Europe anyways, so instead of selling/throwing away my perfectly working Iphone5, I use it in Europe and my new phone I leave in states.

Moreover I cannot say much about driving to Canada, but I was tempted once with saving $150 on a ticket and flying to Europe through Montreal instead of Chicago. That was horrible mistake. That airport is super disorganized and there is literally no staff to help you. No other information than to research for yourself. Few years ago some guy got teased to death because he was so frustrated and I don't blame him...

As of the phone in US, I have jailbroken version with an app that allows me to do a triple-click to shut it down completely. I got used to using this trick when I'm pulled over by LE or entering airports or other places... just in case!

I don't think I would ever give out my password without talking to a lawyer first.

Re: Canadian journalist's detention at US border raises press freedom alarms

#154

Post by casualstroller »

joering2 wrote: post #153
chinathrow wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some risk averse people are following one rule: Do not carry any electronics at any border crossing. It's a hostile territory.

I travel for few months every year to Europe to work from my home country (I work remotely). After reading so many crazy stories, I have adopted few rules: I have SSD drive that I use in States. Once I'm ready to go, I swap it with "empty" drive and fire up the OS just to get some updates on files on it, so it doesn't look like it hasn't been used for a long time. Once in Europe, I put the drive that has more tools a…

I will take YUL over ORD any day. It's a very well-organized airport. As for the "tasering", it was at YVR (Vancouver). Should I list the number of incidents at US airports?

Re: Canadian journalist's detention at US border raises press freedom alarms

#155

Post by tempestn »

marme wrote: post #118
tempestn wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that settles it. I was already considering this before, but now I'm actually going to do it. Before crossing the border, I'm rooting my phone so I can take a full disk image, which I'll leave at home. Then I'll factory reset and just load what I need for the trip^. It's a pain, but worth it to avoid the chance of this kind of invasion of privacy. ^Can make an image of that too for ease of use on future trips.…

better yet is to buy a cheap unlocked phone from walmart and just take your sim out and put it in the cheap phone and leave your real phone at home.

Even so, the main thing I wouldn't want someone snooping in is my email, and as long as that's online it seems just as feasible that I would be forced to log into that as into my phone.

Also, I tend to use my phone a lot when I'm traveling, so I'd like to have it!

Re: Canadian journalist's detention at US border raises press freedom alarms

#156

Post by dragonwriter »

DanBC wrote: post #152
dragonwriter wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They shouldn't, legitimate "press freedoms" don't belong to a special journalistic class, they protect activities no matter who is engaged in them.

US government seems to think that there is, in fact, a special journalistic class: https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/employment/media.h...

US immigration policies aren't even in principle based on any conception of rights, but of national interest.

Re: Canadian journalist's detention at US border raises press freedom alarms

#157

Post by lostlogin »

mzw_mzw wrote: post #150
lostlogin wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So that the rest of us can stay informed and sources can be protected. The tricky hit is regulating who is a journalist - bloggers here in NZ are running into this.

But do you trust the same governments hassling journalists at the border and rooting through their electronic data to decide who is, and is not, a journalist?

That's pretty much exactly what I was getting at - the journalists police the state, but the state polices the journalists.

Re: Canadian journalist's detention at US border raises press freedom alarms

#158

Post by goatforce5 »

ue_ wrote: post #77
jliptzin wrote: post #21

Don't be fooled, Canadian border patrol proudly engages in this as well. I was recently driving across the border to Montreal on vacation when Canadian border agents, in addition to searching my car and personal belongings, demanded to see my cell phone and turn over the password. I simply asked why, since I didn't think I was doing anything suspicious, at which point the agent angrily responded "because I can and no…

I read a story on /r/hentai (yes, bear with me) who said that he was stopped at the Canadian border and they searched his laptop. In his browser image cache they found drawings of fictional characters who appeared to be under the age of 18 engaged in sexual acts. They detained him for a day (or two, I can't remember) and confiscated his laptop permanently. Laws like this are silly, horrible, and have no place in a de…

An episode of Border Security had a furry trying to enter Canada, complete with the border guards trying to work out if furry porn counted as bestiality porn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y_5b1JsIs4

It's probably best to not draw attention to yourself when crossing borders. i.e., don't wear a giant tail when talking to border guards.

Re: Canadian journalist's detention at US border raises press freedom alarms

#159

Post by sqeaky »

michaelcampbell wrote: post #95
sqeaky wrote: post #90

I am deeply concerned for the state of my country people say stupid shit like this: > “Keeping America safe and enforcing our nation’s laws in an increasingly digital world depends on our ability to lawfully examine all materials entering the U.S.,” Mr. Givens said in a statement on Thursday. People who say this fail to realize they are the threat.

> People who say this fail to realize they are the threat. I don't think they care, honestly.

Does that make them more or less dangerous?

Re: Canadian journalist's detention at US border raises press freedom alarms

#160

Post by YZF »

exolymph wrote: post #50
jliptzin wrote: post #21

Don't be fooled, Canadian border patrol proudly engages in this as well. I was recently driving across the border to Montreal on vacation when Canadian border agents, in addition to searching my car and personal belongings, demanded to see my cell phone and turn over the password. I simply asked why, since I didn't think I was doing anything suspicious, at which point the agent angrily responded "because I can and no…

> I asked what would happen if I didn't turn the password over and just went back home to the US, they told me they'd seize the device and put me in prison until they break into it. I guess it depends on how much you care about your personal info or how sensitive your data is, but I wouldn't budge based on this. I'd say, "Okay, I want to talk to the American embassy," then wait it out. Edit: To be clear, this would b…

I think the correct legal approach there is to say that you are withdrawing your application to enter Canada. They're supposed to let you go back to the US at this point. I am not a lawyer.
Post reply on HN