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New Zealand travellers refusing digital search now face $5k Customs fine

radionz.co.nz

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Re: New Zealand travellers refusing digital search now face $5k Customs fine

#51

Post by boobsbr »

> The updated law makes clear that travellers must provide access - whether that be a password, pin-code or fingerprint - but officials would need to have a reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing.

Does the Law in NZ have any provisions against self-incrimination? The US has the 5th Amendment, some countries in the Americas signed the American Convention on Human Rights. How does NZ deal with this issue?

Can't it be considered that providing a password to a safe or personal device is akin to being a witness against oneself?

Re: New Zealand travellers refusing digital search now face $5k Customs fine

#52

Post by redleggedfrog »

All these laws should come with a stipulation that, if nothing is actually found on a device that actually helps law enforcement protect the civilians, after say about 5 years the law is rescinded. Really, such laws should have to come up for re-approval at an interval anyway.

Anyone who has something to hide will either be smart enough to hide it or not bring the device altogether. Really all they're doing is annoying those who are not a threat.

Re: New Zealand travellers refusing digital search now face $5k Customs fine

#53

Post by tonyedgecombe »

no1youknowz wrote: post #11

If this becomes the norm, then I can see a startup offering "convincing" email, browser history, social media profiles, photos and telephone call lists to present to customs. Give those pesky 5 eyes poison data of a fictional life via a 2nd phone.

It would probably be easier not to bring a phone and just buy one when you arrive.

Re: New Zealand travellers refusing digital search now face $5k Customs fine

#54

Post by maxxxxx »

ryandrake wrote: post #16
jackhack wrote: post #4

It's troubling to watch one of the most amazing places on earth transform itself into a totalitarian purgatory. Access to physical phone/laptop is only the first step -- mark my words. Big Brother's bureaucrats are never satiated. Next, we will have demands for passwords and unrestricted access to : email, facebook, photo sharing, hacker news posts, social media, etc. I see sudden spike in the market for burner phone…

Factory reset and wipe your device before travel, and restore when you get to your hotel. I’m a privacy nut and while this is a disturbing trend there exist straightforward work arounds. EDIT: I do this all the time and it’s not even remotely difficult or a big deal.

How do you do this with an Android device without spending hours restoring it?

Re: New Zealand travellers refusing digital search now face $5k Customs fine

#55

Post by nimbius »

seems like this is relatively easy to circumvent.

Taking a laptop means running tails or having a second partition, something simple/windows to boot up. Customs just wants to see a desktop im guessing.

as for file searches on the phone, its a bit more complicated...

1. run syncthing on your phone, send your data to the cloud.

2. wipe/factory reset the phone. now you're ready for that inspection.

3. restore/load once on the ground and in your hotel.

Re: New Zealand travellers refusing digital search now face $5k Customs fine

#57

Post by davezatch »

plink wrote: post #7

Privacy Commissioner John Edwards had some influence over the drafting of the legislation and said he was "pretty comfortable" with where the law stood... "You know when you come into the country that you can be asked to open your suitcase and that a Customs officer can look at everything in there." Evidently, severe brain damage is no hindrance to securing a commissioner's appointment in New Zealand.

Devil’s advocate: what _is_ wrong with that logic? If we accept that customs can search our persons or luggage as a condition of our entering a given country, what is it about digital materials that makes them off limits?

Re: New Zealand travellers refusing digital search now face $5k Customs fine

#58

Post by crispyambulance »

jackhack wrote: post #4

It's troubling to watch one of the most amazing places on earth transform itself into a totalitarian purgatory. Access to physical phone/laptop is only the first step -- mark my words. Big Brother's bureaucrats are never satiated. Next, we will have demands for passwords and unrestricted access to : email, facebook, photo sharing, hacker news posts, social media, etc. I see sudden spike in the market for burner phone…

    > I see sudden spike in the market for burner phones. ANd a long-term opportunity for a company that can create a "burner" social media profile.
I am sure that some folks will try those things and it may work for a while, but the way things are going, it's not going to matter whether you bring your device, a burner, or nothing at all. All it will take is one more 911-like crisis and inevitable fear-mongering.

Then, your online profile is going to get mined along with everyone else's, continuously, by multiple state-level organizations who cooperate with each other-- whether you've booked travel or not.

By the time folks get to a border it will just matter of diverting anyone with a "red X" next to their name.

Re: New Zealand travellers refusing digital search now face $5k Customs fine

#60

Post by walterbell »

xoa wrote: post #48

I hope the spread of this sort of thing helps push forward general implementations of owner customizable Views and associated triggers of our systems and data rather then the long standing default of binary access/no access. All the technical foundations for this exist right now, and in the case of Apple in particularly they've already got it all together in every modern iDevice. They've got a well hardened and integ…

QubesOS enables some of this today, at high setup cost.

iOS12 Shortcuts may enable this in the future, if apps can be tagged by users with custom metadata, which then drives a OS-wide policy engine.

iOS "Screen Time" has arbitrary categories of apps, some of which incorrectly classify social apps (like Flipboard) as "Reading". This need to be customizable based on user priorities.

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