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

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

#421
post #403
post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Exactly. Why do you think Canada is exempt from a number of US border requirements (e.g. ETSA). It’s not out of the US goodness of their heart. It’s because the US and Canada freely share information.

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

#422
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Requires root in my (limited) experience. TWRP + Titanium Backup does the trick pretty quickly.

I did that for a while. But it's still quite a bit of work to get the phone ready after it has been wiped.

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

#423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consider a few hours restoring from a backup while I sleep to be a pretty small price. To some people this might be a huge inconvenience, I suppose. I mean, think about it: Hours without access to Instagram. HOURS!!

When I arrive at the airport I use my phone for maps, my travel info, my contacts, my reservations, busses, trains, taxis, uber, messages with people I'm coordinating with, my travel notes, etc... Or are you suggesting I should camp out in the airport for a few hours to restore my phone before I can figure out where I'm going and get ahold of my contacts? Oh let me guess. Your solution so to print those contacts and…

Maybe I’m just too old or unimaginative, but none of these objections seem like serious showstoppers to me. This is straying far from the original topic but now I’m curious: How would you survive if you were to accidentally lose your phone while traveling, or if it got stolen? One can (and should) be capable of being a functioning adult without a cell phone.

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

#424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consider a few hours restoring from a backup while I sleep to be a pretty small price. To some people this might be a huge inconvenience, I suppose. I mean, think about it: Hours without access to Instagram. HOURS!!

How about not having a stable connection? That's something I encounter a lot where I travel.

So it might take a little longer. Who cares? It’s a phone.

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

#425

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…

> would say things like “girls don’t do this kind of stuff for free...

Should have replied, "Maybe Stateside, they don't!"

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

#426

> 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…

>if you're traveling, backup your phone online, wipe it, and then carry it with minimal personal information

It would be nice if phone vendors provided a mechanism to backup my phone, wipe it, then some time later merge the backup with the contents of the phone. Would be nice to be able to leave the primary contents of my phone at home while a travel and then merge my travel photos and messages and such back in when I restore my original contents after returning home.

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

#427
post #102
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…

That is the same approach used by TrueCrypt (RIP) for it's "hidden volume", to solve pretty much the same problem. https://www.truecrypt71a.com/documentation/plausible-deniabi...

> TrueCrypt (RIP)

Continued by VeraCrypt: https://www.veracrypt.fr/

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

#428
post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably obstruction of Justice.

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

Maybe I used the wrong words. I am not a lawyer, so I don't know the exact name of it. But I know using special configs to hide stuff from a federal agent is the same as lying to them which is a felony, I think. Not sure if it is the same in Canada though.

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

#429
This is so easy to get around that it's only going to persecute regular people.

As the comments above can attest to, there's multiple ways of circumventing these searches. And we've given it what, 5 minutes of thought? Imagine what you could come up with if you actually had something to hide.

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

#430
post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Perhaps that mode could be called full disk encryption? All humans inside the US border have the fifth amendment right to remain silent, so handing over encryption passwords to the CBP is a choice. Unfortunately, the 5th amendment doesn't apply in New Zealand - if you remain silent at a NZ airport while customs ask for your password, they will impose a $5000 fine on you. The only viable solution I see is to only trav…

While I agree with you on the 5th in application to passwords, the judges, at least some, in US - dont.
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