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

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

#311

Post by ghjjjj »

beagle3 wrote: post #63
claudiawerner wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are cases at the Canadian border in which the investigators search for "boy" or "girl" using the Windows search tools to see if there is child pornography on your device. In other circumstances, they uncover hentai[0] showing characters that appear to be underage - and bringing that into Canada is illegal (in fact, much like Australia and New Zealand, any sexual depiction of fictional minors is illegal, and tha…

Is there an exception for religious texts? There are Is more than one common religions whose holy texts depict sexual activity with minors. Also, if I have a copy of Nabokov “Lolita” on my kindle, will I get in trouble? Stephen King’s It? An apt pupil?

“Also, if I have a copy of Nabokov “Lolita” “

Enforcement is selective.

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

#312

Post by ghjjjj »

late2part wrote: post #118
ghjjjj wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do since the courts assume the parties behave honorably (I.e. they assume there is no parallel construction)

Sadly this is an incredibly cogent concept. We saw this with Lavabit and when courts accept patently false LE testimony. The system works when corruption and deceit aren't present or tolerated - when they are the institutions become suspect.

I don’t have much problems with assuming parties are honorable. In fact I don’t know how a justice system would work otherwise.

My problem is that our prosecutors are often dishonorable!

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

#314

Post by Nasrudith »

LeonM wrote: post #99

I have asked this question before, but never really got a satisfiable answer: why do governments (not just USA/canada) spend these resources to check data physically at a border? It's not like you need to 'smuggle' any form of data physically. I mean, any data considered to be dangerous (like terrorist attack plans, atomic bomb designs or political inside information) can be accessed across borders via the internet.…

I would guess part of the reason is because they aren't rational - they are upset that things changed and interfered with their snooping even though it has been irrelevant since radio and code books have existed. If I say "Aunt Bertha had a baby." without context you have no idea if I am being literal or signaling something sinister.

A far harsher and less charitable theory is that border control is where paranoids, xenophobes, and authoritarians accumulate and the point is control and punishing "the other" instead of actual effectiveness.

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

#316

Post by cameronbrown »

vbezhenar wrote: post #180
dontbenebby wrote: post #62

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.

Wouldn't it just make more sense to keep all the data encrypted on a cloud service and not travel with any of the data physically? One step further would be to not travel with any devices at all, and just purchase something after crossing the border.

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

#317

Post by Nasrudith »

pjc50 wrote: post #77
WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, to be honest, that's probably illegal, but I have never liked trading freedom for security.

People love trading other people's freedom for security. Especially if it has to do with immigration.

Yep - that is why many love profiling - security theater that doesn't even inconvenience them because they are the "right people". Plus it focuses on "the bad people".

Even though it has a trivial workaround of not looking the part. The Lod Airport Massacre "terrorism swap" with Japanese Red Army Terrorists and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-External Operations in 1972 shows just how useless it is as a measure.

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

#318

Post by majos »

bonestamp2 wrote: post #278
LeonM wrote: post #99

I have asked this question before, but never really got a satisfiable answer: why do governments (not just USA/canada) spend these resources to check data physically at a border? It's not like you need to 'smuggle' any form of data physically. I mean, any data considered to be dangerous (like terrorist attack plans, atomic bomb designs or political inside information) can be accessed across borders via the internet.…

This might partially answer your question... I had my laptop searched at the border once. It was my work laptop. They told me the same thing, if I didn't share the password they would confiscate my computer. It felt wrong that they should be able to search my computer, but I also felt bullied because I was going to need my computer the next day if I wanted to work and I think most people, including my boss at the tim…

Why do you think they did this kind of invasive search? It's very weird to me that border patrol would randomly search all the images on someone's computer. This doesn't even seem like an efficient way to catch criminals. Power trip?

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

#319

Post by cormacrelf »

cameronbrown wrote: post #316
vbezhenar wrote: post #180

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.

Wouldn't it just make more sense to keep all the data encrypted on a cloud service and not travel with any of the data physically? One step further would be to not travel with any devices at all, and just purchase something after crossing the border.

That’s the idea behind 1password’s travel mode. Ostensibly you could do that for an entire device, but the easier you make it for yourself, the easier it is to write legislation saying you have to undo what you did. (Depends on the various jurisdictional constitutionalities of that kind of provision, but still.)

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

#320

Post by cormacrelf »

wepple wrote: post #226
angott wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that’s something we can do as HN readers, but good luck explaining that to the average lawyer or paralegal.

Instructing then how to power wash their chrome book and then simply login with their you okey again is achievable

Or just set up a rental service for overseas computing. Good thing about non-programmers is they don’t need three days to get 300 pieces of software installed and configured on a new machine.
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