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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

#221

Post by [deleted] »

kadendogthing wrote: post #88
landonxjames wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because there is a HUGE difference between the contents of your luggage (some clothes, maybe some souvenirs, etc.) and all of your digital accounts (personal pictures, credit card numbers, access to banking, home address, etc.) I don't really care if the TSA look at my underwear, but I don't want anyone, especially low level employees, having access to every single aspect of my life.

You are classically Missing The Point. Historically, your luggage would contain personal pictures, credit card numbers, general banking statements, generally personal information, etc. The medium in which this information is stored and carried around has changed. The need to inspect what you're bringing into the country has not. These processes didn't originally come about because people wanted to inspect your 5 diff…

[deleted]

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

#222

Post by v_lisivka »

yholio wrote: post #85

This is an important issue cryptographers and security minded people often overlook: the strongest cryptography is irrelevant if it opens you to such social harassment. What we need is practical cryptography. I have found practical success by booting from an encrypted Linux partition that has absolutely nothing relevant on it, with a weak password I can always enter when requested by big guys with guns. Unbeknown to…

OMG. Just use two SSD's and turn off second in the BIOS.

Or use same technique as Chinese fakers are using to create fake flash cards or SSD's: just reduce size of drive directly in the controller.

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

#223

Post by komali2 »

clarkmoody wrote: post #214
jsilence wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about "probable cause" or "innocent until proven guilty"? Why would I have to accept being strip searched without a warrant?

At a border, you have no rights.

That's not true in many countries.

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

#224

Post by justaguyhere »

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #155
kadendogthing wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are classically Missing The Point. Historically, your luggage would contain personal pictures, credit card numbers, general banking statements, generally personal information, etc. The medium in which this information is stored and carried around has changed. The need to inspect what you're bringing into the country has not. These processes didn't originally come about because people wanted to inspect your 5 diff…

This is a classic case of a law that will only effect your average (law-abiding) citizen. If you have something to hide, it would be trivial to store it on a web storage service that those searching you would have no way of knowing you possess (how would they know you have an account on some obscure storage platform that you paid for with monero? Or even just information stored in S3, they would need a list of all us…

they would need a list of all users linked to passport numbers for every service available around the world

At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years, a person needs to punch in their SSN (or the equivalent in whichever country we are talking about) simply to access the internet and any service on the internet.

But for today's case - this is just security theater. Just a reminder to average Joe that he can be harassed anytime.

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

#225

Post by tootahe45 »

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…

In the UK and NZ they're already looking to stop people from buying burner phones with cash.

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

#226

Post by scrollaway »

Tloewald wrote: post #120
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…

Twenty years ago, Nicholas Negroponte pointed out the irony that when he passed through Singapore customs, they searched his atoms but not his bits. Is being searched before you get on a plane or enter a customs checkpoint some kind of hideous infringement of your civil liberties? No! There’s no problem with this in principle. The problem is that it’s silly, and it causes a privacy and security violation while not ac…

Hey Tloewald, please don't pretend to speak for everyone when you say "being searched" isn't a problem in the first place.

It's not a problem for you, fine. I'd ask you to let me search you but that'd only be to prove a point, so by all means keep accepting it. But when you say it's not a problem, you do not speak for me.

It's pointless, degrading, and above all it's sad that you and many others accept it without questioning it.

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

#227

Post by gruez »

swarnie_ wrote: post #141
gruez wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's impossible for any court forensic team, let alone an airport goon, to prove there is actually another partition inside the outer encrypted partition booting into a 50 GB partition on a 512GB SSD isn't suspicious?

Find me a member of the TSA who can explain the significance of that sentence let alone catch it in practice then we can discus the viability of it. It seems to me this would fix the larger problem most the time.

as someone else mentioned, the only reason it works now is that very few people does this. if this starts getting popular, i guarentee that TSA is going to check for hidden partitions, patched kernels, suspiciously clean OS, etc.

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

#228

Post by debacle »

vorpalhex wrote: post #213
debacle wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a nuanced topic (border security), and while I think there's slippery slopes (and their associated fallacies) in both directions, it is true to say that you are very free to share none of those things with border security, and border security is very free to not admit you to the country.

In most countries, border security isn't entirely free to run rampant over your basic freedoms. Privileged communications (eg client/attorney) is an extremely important basic bastion of freedom and law, and violating that (which in this case seems incidental, not intentional) is a mockery. Sure, any country is welcome to violate that norm, just the same as any country is welcome to force it's people in labor camps fo…

> In most countries, border security isn't entirely free to run rampant over your basic freedoms.

Can you give me an example of a non-EU country, or an EU country admitting a non-EU citizen, that has strict rules on how a visitor must be treated?

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

#229

Post by stephen_g »

lolc wrote: post #81
chooseaname wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then you'll find yourself in a situation where you could possibly be lying to the customs officers.

Out of curiosity: Is lying to customs officers illegal in New Zealand? I've lied to a great many people, including police officers on duty. They can't take me in if I wish them "a good day", or can they?

I'm not sure about verbally lying to customs officers, but in my country (Australia) I know that lying on your customs declaration is an offence (making a false statement on an official document or something like that). The flight attendants have to read out a little script including that after they hand out the declaration/entry cards. I expect NZ is similar.

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

#230

Post by sys_64738 »

berbec wrote: post #126
clubm8 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Not after they subpoena this HN comment. ;) Anyone subpoenaing this comment would discover I post on HN exclusively over Tor :)

I'm behind three proxies!

We know ;-)
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