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

radionz.co.nz

631–640 of 647 posts

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

#631
“Excuse me sir but I believe your wife is quite hot and you maybe in possession of some personal photos me and the boys would like to have a good look at.”

Of course they don’t have to tell you why they want to look at your phone or what they’re doing with the stuff they’ve copied off it.

It’s basically a pant sniffers charter.

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

#632

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> getting a local SIM can be. I just picked up a new one for a work project at the local supermarket yesterday - $1NZD.

Which provider? I noticed (too late) that the airport SIMs have special overpriced plans. I'm used to paying ~$10/GB for data in Australia, it seems to be about double that in NZ without going on a plan.

I bought a 2 degrees one, but I'm pretty sure they had Skinny and Spark as well at the local New World. Easy to setup with just a credit card, or could've used one of the voucher cards which I'm pretty sure can be bought with cash.

Both here and in the US, I've found that airports usually are not good places to get SIMs - there seems to be some agreement whereby the expensive ones aimed at tourists are all that's available. Supermarkets or department stores tend to be my go-to.

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

#633
For anyone who goes back and forth between the US and Canada -- get a Nexus card. It is the best 80 bucks you will ever spend.

You fly through security, both on land and in airports, and you even get expedited through domestic security screening. It has made flying 10x better for me.

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

#634
post #509

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is terrifying, I had no idea this kind of practice is already in place! In Asia, so far I never got asked for my phone and equipment, but now I wonder what the best way is to handle this. Killing my phone and restoring after entering is one way, but for a laptop that's more annoying unless you live in the cloud. Might still be a good practice to have your devices in a state where you could easily wipe and restor…

Don't travel with your primary devices or any devices with sensitive or even personal information on them - to any country ruled by totalitarian regimes, like China, Iran, Turkey, New Zealand, Canada, or the US... :sigh:

New Zealand is a "Totalitarian Regime"? Thoise words must mean something different here

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

#635

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't travel with your primary devices or any devices with sensitive or even personal information on them - to any country ruled by totalitarian regimes, like China, Iran, Turkey, New Zealand, Canada, or the US... :sigh:

New Zealand is a "Totalitarian Regime"? Thoise words must mean something different here

Sure, somewhat hyperbolic, but a reference to this new law that went into force this week and the parent post:

"Travellers who refuse to hand over their phone or laptop passwords to Customs officials can now be slapped with a $5000 fine."

https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/367642/travellers-re...

I'm gonna have to treat that as a "hostile border", and treat it the same as the Chinese border...

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

#636

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say "don't go to Canada", but I'm not sure how common this is across the world. Does anyone have a sense of how common this draconian approach is? I have a US passport and have been to about 25 countries on six continents and have never experienced this, but borders see such mind bogglingly high numbers pass through that I wouldn't say I have a robust set of data points.

I would say "don't go to Canada", but I'm not sure how common this is across the world. The more you travel, the more common it is. The phone thing is somewhat new, ever since certain companies started selling devices to governments that let them crack, examine, and archive your phone. But being hassled at the border has always been a risk. Before it was terrorism, it was drugs, or just the change in culture. I've ha…

[deleted]

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

#637
post #4

It's troubling to watch one of the most amazing places on earth transform itself into a totalitarian purgatory. Access to physical phone/laptop is only the first step -- mark my words. Big Brother's bureaucrats are never satiated. Next, we will have demands for passwords and unrestricted access to : email, facebook, photo sharing, hacker news posts, social media, etc. I see sudden spike in the market for burner phone…

totalitarian purgatory Nitpick: in Catholic dogma purgatory is a place of purification, those in purgatory know that they are there for a reason and only for a certain time, afterwards they enter heaven. Hell on the other hand, is for eternity and ugly. That's why the two are easily distinguished in their iconography, both involve imagery of flames, but souls in purgatory look joyful and those in hell look despondent…

Perhaps limbo would be more apposite.

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

#638
post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I drove from Detroit to Toronto via Windsor, and was subjected to a vehicle search and questioning. I pulled up my hotel reservation at the agents' request, and he snatched my phone out of my hands and started going through my emails. He couldn't wrap his head around why anyone would want to take a roadtrip to toronto for an extended weekend, other than to run drugs. I've also been interrogated when flying into Canad…

I'm Canadian. I get searched all the time by both sides. Canadian side has been worse for me, so far. I really like going to other countries, their customs tend to be reasonable. coming back home is always a nerve racking experience. I haven't been asked for my phone yet, but have been asked for my camera. I'm being drawn more and more to paying for online storage/sync solutions and clearing my phone and laptop befor…

If you have a reasonable internet connection at home this might be the moment to get your own server. Next to online storage (Nextcloud/Owncloud, Seafile) it can host your mail (postfix/exim w/dovecot + spamassassin + sieve), source repo (gogs/gitea), miscellaneous web things you might want to host, media streaming server (airsonic, ampache, etc), personal VPN (openVPN) and more. This gives you far more flexibility (and storage) than commercial online storage/sync solutions for the price of some work to set it up and the electricity to power the thing.

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

#639

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have no right to privacy when crossing an international border. The solution is simple - don't carry any data you don't want to give to the country you're entering.

This is 100% the right solution, and there's a pretty easy way to accomplish this, with iPhones at least: Back up to iCloud Wipe your phone Cross the border Restore from iCloud And yes, this may fail visiting China, because who knows what the Great Firewall will block.

This can be made easier with a secondary discardable-grade phone with the same O/S as your primary phone.

Do factory reset and cross the border. Then just sign in to your travel phone just like you did when you bought it and switched on for the first time, and it pulls all apps/messages/passwords from the cloud. You'll get at least 95% of your real phone synced to the travel phone.

Back at home, your real phone is untouched and you can just switch back to it without having to set up anything, or losing any local settings. Then stash the travel phone until the next trip.

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

#640
post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now I want to go to Canada repeatedly just to get them to try to decrypt my phone. "You know, I don't recall the darn password. I'll just go have a seat while you do your thing." I'd be interested to know if they could!

They won't. They'll just keep the phone and send you on your way. You might be lucky if you get it back in 4 months likely never.

In civilized countries stealing is against the law...
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