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Australian Border Force searched phones of 10k travellers in past two years

theguardian.com

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Re: Australian Border Force searched phones of 10k travellers in past two years

#41

Post by zensavona »

jmyeet wrote: post #22
peutetre wrote: post #2

> The department data reveals that close to 94% of the time people freely revealed their phone passcode to officers, despite there being no legal requirement to do so. There really needs to be better education in civics. It's so important to know your rights, especially when someone in a position of authority tries to abuse that authority.

This one is tricky. You just don't have the same rights when trying to enter a country as you do if you're stopped by the police. Border officials have the power to deny you entry and generally there's very little recourse if they do. This makes you way more vulnerable and likely to cooperate than you would, say, during a routine traffic stop.

This applies to citizens returning home also. If I am an Australian citizen I do have a right to enter the country, yet I am still subject to this.

Re: Australian Border Force searched phones of 10k travellers in past two years

#42

Post by Hizonner »

karaterobot wrote: post #28
Hizonner wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, and grandparent has a typo. True you are not required to hand over the password, but they aren't required to give you back your phone if you don't.

> There is no limit on how long the devices can be held but the agency said the policy was to keep devices for no longer than 14 days unless it took longer to examine them.

Right. So they don't give you back your phone. You may get it a couple of weeks later. Very convenient for your trip.

... and they're doing it for purely punitive reasons. We all know they're not "examining" the phones in any meaningful way. It's too expensive and failure-prone.

Re: Australian Border Force searched phones of 10k travellers in past two years

#43

Post by [deleted] »

cletus wrote: post #27

Story time: when I worked at Google we had a specific policy for traveling to and from China. IIRC it went something like this: 1. You absolutely aren't allowed to take your regular phone and laptop; 2. You will be given loaner devices to take into China; 3. If you're asked to open such devices on entry, comply and then, when you can, inform IT; 4. Once you got back, I'm not sure what happened to those devices. I bel…

[deleted]

Re: Australian Border Force searched phones of 10k travellers in past two years

#44

Post by coldtea »

bongobingo1 wrote: post #12
geocrasher wrote: post #8

Easy solution: Travel with a burner phone.

Just make sure you use it for a few days before hand so it doesn't appear to be a burner phone, lest you be considered suspicious and remanded for additional interrogation.

>Just make sure you use it for a few days before hand so it doesn't appear to be a burner phone

Wouldn't they notice all your mail, call list, and other such accounts are from a few days?

Re: Australian Border Force searched phones of 10k travellers in past two years

#45

Post by Kim_Bruning »

People still wonder why I'm so careful with phones.

At this moment, phones in many jurisdictions are still fair game. Anyone can grab whatever they want from them. That's why you can't really trust them. We need new rules that declare the 'confidentiality of phone contents,' especially information at rest, as inviolable, similar to the secrecy of correspondence.

Re: Australian Border Force searched phones of 10k travellers in past two years

#46

Post by geocrasher »

DowagerDave wrote: post #38
geocrasher wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use whatever word you like better. Straightforward, Simple, uncomplicated not difficult. Seriously, set up a new phone, new number, new Gmail account, new IG/FB accounts, use them a week before you leave- tell your friends "Follow me here for my trip!" and have your phone number forwawrded. Put a few contacts in it. Done. Not a big deal at all for most technically competent people. That's us, right?

This is ridiculous. Put aside the idea of purchasing a new phone for a trip, you then suggest setting up all new accounts and then "telling your friends" - how exactly? contact everyone from your "real" accounts and say add my fake account? What about when you come back - tell them "ok delete my fake account and add my real one"? which is which now, oh and how do you access all your real contacts, credentials, paymen…

Where did I say to do this every time you travel? I described the setup of such a phone. In fact if you had a second phone just for travel, who'd care? Not that big of a deal. Y'all are being pedantic.

Re: Australian Border Force searched phones of 10k travellers in past two years

#47

Post by zensavona »

jl6 wrote: post #14

10,000 phone searches in the last two years. 3.3m visitors in March 2024 alone. So something like 0.01% of travellers get their phones searched. How are those 0.01% selected? > The agency does not provide information on the success rate for searches, but has said a phone would only be seized where officers suspected it had “special forfeited goods” such as “illegal pornography, terrorism-related material and media th…

Also consider Australians who travel and return home. I have personally had my phone searched 3 times. I know many people who also have the same experience. One time I refused and let them keep the phone, just bought a new iPhone and restored it. Since then I was searched almost every time I went through the airport.

After refusing to hand over the code (Politely... I explained that no, there is no terrorism material or similar on my phone, I just object to this practice, which they could not comprehend) I was treated pretty aggressively, had my whole body searched (not strip searched, but groped very well all over), all my luggage taken apart etc.

Re: Australian Border Force searched phones of 10k travellers in past two years

#48

Post by GJim »

bongobingo1 wrote: post #12
geocrasher wrote: post #8

Easy solution: Travel with a burner phone.

Just make sure you use it for a few days before hand so it doesn't appear to be a burner phone, lest you be considered suspicious and remanded for additional interrogation.

> use it for a few days before hand so it doesn't appear to be a burner phone

No need to bother.

Most companies of any size, and us civil servants, have policies to travel with burner phones/laptops when crossing (even some benign) international boarders and/or entering certain countries.

Frankly, it is so commonplace, it is not remotely suspicious to travel with a burner.

Re: Australian Border Force searched phones of 10k travellers in past two years

#49

Post by stronglikedan »

geocrasher wrote: post #23
williamdclt wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a very loose definition of "easy"

Use whatever word you like better. Straightforward, Simple, uncomplicated not difficult. Seriously, set up a new phone, new number, new Gmail account, new IG/FB accounts, use them a week before you leave- tell your friends "Follow me here for my trip!" and have your phone number forwawrded. Put a few contacts in it. Done. Not a big deal at all for most technically competent people. That's us, right?

Even easier: I keep my previous phone when I get a new phone, so it's just a matter of swapping a SIM card. Of course, my old phone was factory reset once I decided to keep the new phone, because I don't want it laying around with all my data even if it is just in my desk drawer.

Re: Australian Border Force searched phones of 10k travellers in past two years

#50

Post by Kim_Bruning »

codetrotter wrote: post #39
cletus wrote: post #27

Story time: when I worked at Google we had a specific policy for traveling to and from China. IIRC it went something like this: 1. You absolutely aren't allowed to take your regular phone and laptop; 2. You will be given loaner devices to take into China; 3. If you're asked to open such devices on entry, comply and then, when you can, inform IT; 4. Once you got back, I'm not sure what happened to those devices. I bel…

> it does seem prudent to wipe your device and restore when you land. Then again, border officials can also deny you entry with very little justification so who knows? For example, if they instruct you to turn on the device, and they see the setup screen or even just that it has no photos, no messages, nothing, might raise suspicion I would imagine. Good luck trying to argue with them that absence of data should be c…

They might try to claim that you're smuggling a new phone or some such. But you could often just state that it's corporate policy?

Now you can both take the same side complaining about stupid bureaucratic rules making everyone's life harder.

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