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Canadian Charged for Not Unlocking Smartphone at Canadian Border

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Re: Canadian Charged for Not Unlocking Smartphone at Canadian Border

#131

Post by DannyBee »

akamaka wrote: post #22

Here's the section of the law that he was charged under: False statements, evasion of duties 153. No person shall (b) to avoid compliance with this Act or the regulations, (i) destroy, alter, mutilate, secrete or dispose of records or books of account, (ii) make, or participate in, assent to or acquiesce in the making of, false or deceptive entries in records or books of account, or (iii) omit, or participate in, ass…

I"m a US lawyer, and uh, this looks remarkably weak of a charge unless their is some canadian precedent somewhere that says "records or books of account" covers "random shit on non-business phone"

Re: Canadian Charged for Not Unlocking Smartphone at Canadian Border

#132

Post by pyrocat »

mherdeg wrote: post #119
Silhouette wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That description seems awfully close to saying an officer can selectively interfere with someone's life just because the officer didn't like the look of him. I think we all know how that one turns out.

Sure, it gets us the "Terry stop", a police tactic which the Supreme Court currently says is legal. In Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968), Terry was represented by Louis Stokes, who went on to become a luminary in local and national politics. Here's what Stokes said about the case, from http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/nypd-stop-and-frisk-2012... : > Stokes, chairman of the legal-­redress committee of the Cleveland…

Relevant: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/05/nypd-memo-stop-and-...

Re: Canadian Charged for Not Unlocking Smartphone at Canadian Border

#133

Post by pyrocat »

astrobe_ wrote: post #85
udev wrote: post #28

"Under the Customs Act, customs officers are allowed to inspect things that you have, that you're bringing into the country," - Here's my phone, sir. - I see it has a password, give me the password. - Mhhh... OK. It is 1234. - Oh, I see you have Dropbox app installed. I need the Dropbox password. - Mhhh... OK. It is 5678. - Oh I see you have a GPG encrypted file in Dropbox. I will need to decrypt that. Give me the pa…

Is "Sorry, I forgot my password" an option here?

That depends, do you like waterboarding?

Re: Canadian Charged for Not Unlocking Smartphone at Canadian Border

#134

Post by MichaelGG »

JohnTHaller wrote: post #124

We should frame this story with what the actual end result of 'unlocking your phone' is when discussing it. The government routinely claims that it is no different than asking a traveler to open a physical briefcase. It is very different. If you're treating the phone as a 'good' as indicated in the quotes on this story, you can inspect my phone as a good. You can look at the phone. You can xray it. You can open up th…

Right. No one needs to import data via physical presence, so customs simply doesn't need to inspect the data on devices. If someone wanted to bring contraband in, they simply can download it over the Internet, no customs searches needed.

This is vastly different than physical goods inside boxes or briefcases, which all physically pass through the border in an inspectable manner.

Re: Canadian Charged for Not Unlocking Smartphone at Canadian Border

#136

Post by marinabercea »

spiritplumber wrote: post #80
ignostic wrote: post #17

Customs officials forcing you to unlock your phone is not just an invasion of privacy - it's a pointless invasion of privacy. Customs agents don't even know where to start in finding data that a user wants hidden. Even if allowed access to personal devices, data is slippery enough that it could be stored in almost anything. Here's yet another example of taking away rights in a way that does nothing to deter actual cr…

I had this experience. My laptop wasn't locked, but I was asked to let someone look through it. That took about 20 minutes, which caused me to miss my coincidence. Since I now had time to waste, I asked to see the customs lady's supervisor, and then berated the person who inspected my laptop for not having any idea how to do this sort of search properly. So, I ended up sitting both the customs lady and her supervisor…

Hilarious and gutsy! I admire your commitment to anti half-assery, even if it could've turned on you. I'm assuming the bill remains unpaid?

Re: Canadian Charged for Not Unlocking Smartphone at Canadian Border

#137

Post by tempestn »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #38
udev wrote: post #28

"Under the Customs Act, customs officers are allowed to inspect things that you have, that you're bringing into the country," - Here's my phone, sir. - I see it has a password, give me the password. - Mhhh... OK. It is 1234. - Oh, I see you have Dropbox app installed. I need the Dropbox password. - Mhhh... OK. It is 5678. - Oh I see you have a GPG encrypted file in Dropbox. I will need to decrypt that. Give me the pa…

Could you not backup your device, wipe it at the border, and then when they request the password simply say "There is no data on the device. Its as it comes from the factory" and hand it to them? You could then perform an over the air recovery once safely away from the border.

Just make sure you wipe it before you cross. If you try to do it after they've asked you for the password I'm sure they'd consider that obstruction too.

Re: Canadian Charged for Not Unlocking Smartphone at Canadian Border

#138

Post by MichaelGG »

cpncrunch wrote: post #122
Canada wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a bullshit excuse border guards give to search electronic storage.

Why is it a "bullshit excuse" if they do actually manage to catch many people by searching phones?

Imagine how many more criminals we could catch if we could search their homes at will! Or listen in to every single conversation. Why stop there, perhaps make citizens check-in every 15 minutes with a quick video?

This is one of the main points of having civil liberties.

Re: Canadian Charged for Not Unlocking Smartphone at Canadian Border

#139

Post by Magi604 »

Spearchucker wrote: post #117
toomuchtodo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you not backup your device, wipe it at the border, and then when they request the password simply say "There is no data on the device. Its as it comes from the factory" and hand it to them? You could then perform an over the air recovery once safely away from the border.

I do this (reset and reformat to factory spec) with my phone and my laptop every time I cross a border. On the other side I download a TrueCrypt file which has everything (and only what) I need whilst abroad. I started doing this in 2010, after my phone got taken into another room for a half hour at Ben Gurion in Tel Aviv in 2010.

I've been wondering about how to do this.

The problem I'm having is that I have a ton of widgets and custom settings on my phone (Android). If I were to wipe my phone before crossing a border, it would take quite a while to get it set up the way I like on the other side.

I am just using stock android though. I wonder if there is a way to achieve what I want with a rooted phone.

Re: Canadian Charged for Not Unlocking Smartphone at Canadian Border

#140

Post by tempestn »

Spearchucker wrote: post #117
toomuchtodo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you not backup your device, wipe it at the border, and then when they request the password simply say "There is no data on the device. Its as it comes from the factory" and hand it to them? You could then perform an over the air recovery once safely away from the border.

I do this (reset and reformat to factory spec) with my phone and my laptop every time I cross a border. On the other side I download a TrueCrypt file which has everything (and only what) I need whilst abroad. I started doing this in 2010, after my phone got taken into another room for a half hour at Ben Gurion in Tel Aviv in 2010.

Do you use Android or iOS? I'd love to find a way to image and restore an Android phone, both for better backups and things like this.
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