from Hacker News

Australian customs searched more than 40k devices in 5 years

by CPAhem on 6/17/22, 4:04 AM with 12 comments

  • by zaptheimpaler on 6/17/22, 6:13 AM

    So apparently travelers have no legal obligation to provide their passcodes to the officers. Yet,

    "If a traveller exercises their right to refuse to provide a passcode, their device can be taken from the border and given to the ABF's digital forensic team for examination."

    So the alternative is not having access to your phone for at least 14 days. Losing access to your phone today is huge.. no 2FA codes means you're probably locked out of many services even on a PC. Not to mention this forensics team has access to software that can break smartphone security.

    So there is effectively 0 choice. If they want to search your phone, they WILL search it.

    I guess the only safe way to store private info is online, encrypted and ideally on your own servers.

  • by grnmamba on 6/17/22, 8:11 AM

    Of course, intrusive security checks are common when entering prison colonies.

  • by WantonQuantum on 6/17/22, 11:34 AM

    We (Australia) have finally voted out the conservative government that eroded our rights in the name of security. Hoping to see the new government redress these issues.

  • by type0 on 6/17/22, 9:06 AM

    As usual, Oceania is iving by the 1984 Handbook

  • by msrsan on 6/17/22, 6:12 AM

    Wow

  • by elmerfud on 6/17/22, 6:09 AM

    This isn't unique to Australia, most countries have this kind of authority to regulate their border and most never explicitly tell you the rights. Because if they phrase a question like a command most people assume they are exercising legitimate power.

    The real thing is, why would keep anything on your phone that would incriminate you? There's just way too n many places to securely stash data online to be retrieved later that keeping stuff like that on your phone or laptop isn't worth it.

    I don't want anyone to search my phone, but if they do force a search I pitty the person looking at the naked fat guy selfie pics.