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Canada Border Services seizes lawyer's phone, laptop for not sharing passwords

cbc.ca

191–200 of 483 posts

Re: Canada Border Services seizes lawyer's phone, laptop for not sharing passwords

#191
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't use american definitions of "probably cause". Canada is a different country and defines probably cause very differently. Canada has a different relationship with its boarders than America. The physical scale is are different. Sovereignty is different. Canada's "charter rights" are different than american "constitutional" rights. Canada placed greater trust in individual enforcement officers and, generally, does…

Canada does things differently. As a Canadian, I would say “not really”. Plenty of examples of people’s rights being violated by Canadian officials. Those events don’t get the scrutiny that US events do, but they certainly happen.

And the Canadian courts are far more likely to say the infringement was acceptable, either in that court, or under an appeal if the government loses.

Re: Canada Border Services seizes lawyer's phone, laptop for not sharing passwords

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a grad student I worried about this, since I was required to keep study participant data and student data confidential. Sounds like this lawyer arrived at the same plan I did: Refuse the request, file a lawsuit, and contact the media when released to shame the government that saw fit to violate my rights.

Encrypt the data (probably easiest way is to use encrypted 7z archive), memorize the password, upload the encrypted data into any cloud storage (e.g. Google Drive) and don't care about disclosing anything on your devices.

Full drive encryption and then using spideroak for cloud storage is a better and easier solution

Re: Canada Border Services seizes lawyer's phone, laptop for not sharing passwords

#193
I think there could be a market for backup/wipe/restore services. Very feasible for phones leave minimally needed contact info during travel.

For laptops keep the is on device and user data on external pulled and put in checked luggage. Security's annoying but lazy.

Edit: removable storage on mobile could get popular as a privacy feature.

Re: Canada Border Services seizes lawyer's phone, laptop for not sharing passwords

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a grad student I worried about this, since I was required to keep study participant data and student data confidential. Sounds like this lawyer arrived at the same plan I did: Refuse the request, file a lawsuit, and contact the media when released to shame the government that saw fit to violate my rights.

Encrypt the data (probably easiest way is to use encrypted 7z archive), memorize the password, upload the encrypted data into any cloud storage (e.g. Google Drive) and don't care about disclosing anything on your devices.

It's easy to break your encryption. Trust me, if you live in a country that has crap laws, they will actually extract the password from you:

https://xkcd.com/538/

Edit I'm not saying it's a bad idea to encrypt your drives, just that it doesn't save you from someone determined..

Re: Canada Border Services seizes lawyer's phone, laptop for not sharing passwords

#196
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On Chrome OS, this should cause the “your OS is unverified” warning to show up.

Does that mean that every OS file is signed and checksummed like on iOS (correct me if I’m wrong)?

https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/...

Re: Canada Border Services seizes lawyer's phone, laptop for not sharing passwords

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Encrypt the data (probably easiest way is to use encrypted 7z archive), memorize the password, upload the encrypted data into any cloud storage (e.g. Google Drive) and don't care about disclosing anything on your devices.

Not a great idea. You have no reason to believe deleted and cached copies aren’t lingering on you disk unprotected.

If you're THAT worried, then securely reformat disk and reinstall OS just before travel.

Re: Canada Border Services seizes lawyer's phone, laptop for not sharing passwords

#199
post #33

> Officers uncovered a customs-related offence during 38 per cent of those searches, said the agency. I really want to understand what kind of digital data is considered a customs-related offence.

I'm more surprised at the 38% true positive rate. If you consider false positives, it would mean that they are shockingly good at profiling and most criminals are dumb enough to leave obvious evidence on their phone, or an overwhelming majority of people have committed a "customs-related offence" so that you could pick anyone and they would be guilty.

Or they are lying with statistics (i.e. using the smallest excuse to justify inclusion as a positive).

Re: Canada Border Services seizes lawyer's phone, laptop for not sharing passwords

#200
post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Encrypt the data (probably easiest way is to use encrypted 7z archive), memorize the password, upload the encrypted data into any cloud storage (e.g. Google Drive) and don't care about disclosing anything on your devices.

It's easy to break your encryption. Trust me, if you live in a country that has crap laws, they will actually extract the password from you: https://xkcd.com/538/ Edit I'm not saying it's a bad idea to encrypt your drives, just that it doesn't save you from someone determined..

the parent isn't saying to encrypt your drives, they're saying to encrypt your data and store it separately from your computer - essentially treat any devices you're carrying across the border as compromised before you even reach the border.
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