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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

#401

Post by trhway »

mavdi wrote: post #392

We immediately need a phone and laptop feature called "Border crossing mode". Once you can perhaps active anytime but only gets deactivated once you're physically in a predefined location.

that mode should be almost always on - the CBP in US can do all that fun stuff to you at any time as long as you're closer than 100 miles to any US border - including ocean. So, for example, CBP can do anything they want to anybody in San Francisco. Granted, for now they do that mostly to "brown" people - well they need to start somewhere to get us into that shiny totalitarian future and of course the start is always with the most vulnerable.

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

#402

Post by slededit »

jrace wrote: post #380
slededit wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cannabis use is considered a “crime of moral turpitude”. So it’s legality elsewhere is irrelevant to the US. However your scenario is inaccurate. Just as having a google search about murder weapons won’t bar you for life neither will search history about cannabis. They may ask why your interested in it... But learning about a crime is not equivalent to commiting the crime.

Even just having investments in Cannabis stocks can cause a lifetime ban https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/why-investing-in-pot-could-pos... >Even though Znaimer didn’t admit to personally using pot, he was given a lifetime ban anyway because of his investments in U.S. marijuana companies, he said. >In one case, Saunders said an Edmonton man received a lifetime ban from entering the U.S. simply because he was a part-owne…

The rationale in the US law is that the crime is an equal moral failing to murder. That may be irrational to you and I, but that is the law.

Just as being an accessory to murder would be considered "very bad" so too would supporting cannabis use in any way. According to US law he is investing in a criminal enterprise, similar to funding a cartel in Mexico. The law doesn't match the common person's perception of severity, but the US border guards will enforce the law as written.

Again, none of this prevents you from merely learning about cannabis. It requires action of some sort to further the use of it.

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

#403

Post by xupybd »

_jcwu wrote: post #351
jliptzin wrote: post #233

This happened to me driving from the US into Canada with my significant other on a short vacation. After some routine questioning, the agent asked for our phones and passwords. Naturally, I hesitated and wanted to know why he needed to go through our phones. He didn't give a reason, but said if I refuse they'd hold us until their forensics team cracks the phone password anyway. I wanted to make a bigger deal about it…

If you watch the show "Border Security: Canada's Front Line" you will see how often this is the norm. It's on Netflix as well. I really think these are dangerous times and for some reason I only ever expected this from the US but never from Canada or New Zealand.

I suspect it has something to do with the five eyes network. They all adopt similar security measures.

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

#404

Post by TomK32 »

chrisper wrote: post #359
m_eiman wrote: post #305

Wouldn't it be possible to conveniently hide your usual filesystem from the border officers by using the new APFS shared-filesystems-in-single-container feature, without having to pre-allocate and waste space for an additional hidden data partition? Just install macOS like you normally do, set it up with a user and some basic data. Then create a new partition in the same container and install what you normally use (o…

It's probably obstruction of Justice.

I thought that's only the case when there's already an investigation?

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

#405

Post by nojvek »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #361
wild_preference wrote: post #257

Happened to a female friend flying from Toronto to visit me in Mexico. Because she had a connecting flight in US, a US agent went through her phone. (Classic mistake of entering the US unless absolutely neccessary) Guy was reading her Tinder messages and accusing her of being a prostitute. He brought up some saucy messages and would say things like “girls don’t do this kind of stuff for free...” Finally handed her ba…

Sadly, the motive there was probably he found her hot, would hit that, was aggravated at reading her Tinder messages and finding her even more hot because of it and was pissed off that there was no way in hell he would ever get a shot at being with her, so he felt some need to piss all over her, blame her for making him hot and bothered with no immediate means to get relief, yadda. This is an essential element of sit…

That’s sexual harassment.

But then who’s gonna police the police?

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

#406

Post by macintux »

doubleunplussed wrote: post #367
middleclick wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I wonder why. If I am a resident of a country, why is that my rights suddenly go away at the border? Why is it that I have rights when I step out of the airport but when I am in it, I have no rights. I am not criticizing what you said, I am curious.

Because they can. Civilisation spent centuries building up rights and due process, and then the authorities suddenly decided none of it mattered in this specific context because we let them. We should be livid. It's an absolute disgrace and an embarrassment to post-enlightenment humanity. I can't use the visa waiver program to travel to the US because I was arrested once. Not convicted of any crime, mind you, just ar…

> Influential people travel more though.

And probably have sufficient influence to sidestep most such problems.

Clearly the U.S. political system isn't interested in anything that sounds like weakening border security. I think we're all going to be suffering indefinitely.

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

#408

Post by komali2 »

clubm8 wrote: post #343
komali2 wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And in doing so created a huge push by the New Zealand immigration peeps to incentivize other tech workers to come in. They even put up stalls at tech conferences, which was where this idea came from at all for us. Way they told us is there's even specialized visas. The fact that billionaires do as they please is a global fact I have long gotten used to.

>And in doing so created a huge push by the New Zealand immigration peeps to incentivize other tech workers to come in How so? He never even revealed the citizenship - it was discovered by NZ based investigative journalists.

Vaguely recalling an article about how he created a push in new Zealand to bring in more techn workers, leveraging his wealth to pressure/incentivize the government, etc.

Regardless, to your original point - a billionaire doing as he pleases does not affect my perception of a country.

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

#409

Post by newscracker »

> But Mr Beagle said "serious criminals" would simply store incriminating material online.

> "You'd be mad to carry stuff over on your phone.

Of course, intelligent criminals would never have incriminating communications or evidence carried on a device across international borders. What's more, they would know that there is such a law and hence have their devices wiped clean or get devices with minimal information to support whatever cover they're using. Lawmakers and law enforcement must be idiots to imagine that serious crime could be prevented or caught by this measure.

> Privacy Commissioner John Edwards had some influence over the drafting of the legislation and said he was "pretty comfortable" with where the law stood.

This just shows how government appointed officers behave like puppets of the government, and rarely side with common people on big issues (such as mass surveillance).

Similar to DRM, these measures inconvenience the innocent while doing nothing to prevent the bad people from doing bad things. The balance is tilted heavily towards abuse and harassment of the innocent. Being one of the Five Eyes [1] countries, I'm not surprised that New Zealand does this kind of thing.

The lesson is loud and clear: if you're traveling, backup your phone online, wipe it, and then carry it with minimal personal information. Otherwise all your personal communications, including sensitive/intimate photos and private messages, will be taken by border patrol for their personal use.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes

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

#410

Post by moonka »

trhway wrote: post #401
mavdi wrote: post #392

We immediately need a phone and laptop feature called "Border crossing mode". Once you can perhaps active anytime but only gets deactivated once you're physically in a predefined location.

that mode should be almost always on - the CBP in US can do all that fun stuff to you at any time as long as you're closer than 100 miles to any US border - including ocean. So, for example, CBP can do anything they want to anybody in San Francisco. Granted, for now they do that mostly to "brown" people - well they need to start somewhere to get us into that shiny totalitarian future and of course the start is always…

ACLU has a good explanation here about the 100 miles to the border. It covers 2/3 of the population. https://www.aclu.org/other/constitution-100-mile-border-zone
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