Obliged to give up passwords and pins to NZ Customs?

Forums › Off topic › Obliged to give up passwords and pins to NZ Customs?

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#1218314 20-Jan-2015 14:26

Geektastic: I had some fun in Australia on a flight back from SE Asia to Wellington via Sydney.

I was randomly stopped for an explosives search with the swabs - and then had to explain that 3 days or so before I had been working with UXO Laos destroying munitions left over from the Vietnam war. Although I was only there taking photos, there was C4 all over the place!
Fortunately it did not show up in the swab, but it did give me kittens for a moment!

A former colleague of mine was a Navy Weapons officer. He got pinged by the explosive swab check a couple of times!

No signature to see here, move along...

freemark

103 posts

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#1218316 20-Jan-2015 14:27

gzt:
freemark: The fantasy that she was required to supply these things "because she was visiting DotCom" is just that - KDC's attention seeking uncritically reported by one of his sycophants. The "profiling" of this woman would have raised quite reasonable flags anyway. To be visiting a known felon she recently met via the internet possibly raised the risk factor.

This is a good point but does not yet identify any reason for the data search.

I can only imagine that when Agencies conduct searches of your Notebook or SmartPhone that they key in certain words or phrases, not too hard to imagine what they are. Personally I'm pretty comfortable with this level of surveillance when profiling raises flags.

When as youthful traveller I arrived at an Aussie Airport from Thailand at 2AM in hippy clothes with photos of bongs I wasn't too surprised or upset when they wanted to search all my stuff.
If someone gets a thrill out of any "personal type" pics or vids on my phone I'd be quite flattered..if a border agent illegally decided to put them on Youtube I wouldn't be blaming "The Govt" either.

networkn

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#1218317 20-Jan-2015 14:28

We seem to get stopped every time we travel, swabbed, extra bag searches, etc. Not sure why, our risk profile would be very low.

I never really mind it, better safe than sorry.

Rikkitic

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#1218319 20-Jan-2015 14:28

I’m not a security expert but it seems to me that this whole discussion is academic. Surely digital smuggling must be the easiest thing in the world to do? Are border guards really so stupid that they don’t know that? Just clone and encrypt your incriminating drive, dump it before departure in your friendly neighbourhood file locker, smile at the border guards as you march past with your clean laptop, download and install Tor after arrival, retrieve forbidden goodies from file locker. What could be simpler? The only people who are going to be caught at the border are the amateurs, or is that what this is about?

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

Rikkitic

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#1218328 20-Jan-2015 14:35

And speaking of explosives swabs, I travelled through Australia several times a few years ago with a 14 year-old family friend. Every time we passed Customs I got done, my companion never. Finally I asked one of the agents why I was the only one being picked on. He told me that they were prohibited from checking anyone under the age of 18. How about that for security?

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

networkn

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#1218330 20-Jan-2015 14:37

Rikkitic: And speaking of explosives swabs, I travelled through Australia several times a few years ago with a 14 year-old family friend. Every time we passed Customs I got done, my companion never. Finally I asked one of the agents why I was the only one being picked on. He told me that they were prohibited from checking anyone under the age of 18. How about that for security?

I can assure you categorically that he was not being truthful in his answer. My 2 year old and infant were both checked, and I have travelled with kids of varying ages and they have been swabbed.

Rikkitic

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#1218344 20-Jan-2015 14:54

networkn:

I can assure you categorically that he was not being truthful in his answer. My 2 year old and infant were both checked, and I have travelled with kids of varying ages and they have been swabbed.

Probably the rules have changed since I travelled. Whether he was being truthful or not, the fact remains I was checked repeatedly, the teenager never.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

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MikeB4

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#1218380 20-Jan-2015 15:38

Rikkitic: I’m not a security expert but it seems to me that this whole discussion is academic. Surely digital smuggling must be the easiest thing in the world to do? Are border guards really so stupid that they don’t know that? Just clone and encrypt your incriminating drive, dump it before departure in your friendly neighbourhood file locker, smile at the border guards as you march past with your clean laptop, download and install Tor after arrival, retrieve forbidden goodies from file locker. What could be simpler? The only people who are going to be caught at the border are the amateurs, or is that what this is about?

The Customs Officers are not stupid, they are doing the job required of them.

Athlonite

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#1218481 20-Jan-2015 18:19

Don't want them to see anything on your laptop or smart phone then do this

Encrypt everything you don't want them to see
back it up to onedrive or dropbox or mega
delete the files
uninstall one-drive drop-box or mega app
clean the registry of any offending entries to said apps
secure wipe the free space on your hdd
give them your passwords and let them have at it (they'll not find anything anyway)
leave airport and reinstall the app you used to backup your encrypted zip files and re-download them
laugh maniacally at customs stupidity with Kim Dot Com

freemark

103 posts

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#1218497 20-Jan-2015 18:48

Athlonite: Don't want them to see anything on your laptop or smart phone then do this

Encrypt everything you don't want them to see
back it up to onedrive or dropbox or mega
delete the files
uninstall one-drive drop-box or mega app
clean the registry of any offending entries to said apps
secure wipe the free space on your hdd
give them your passwords and let them have at it (they'll not find anything anyway)
leave airport and reinstall the app you used to backup your encrypted zip files and re-download them
laugh maniacally at customs stupidity with Kim Dot Com

Sounds like a lot of work to do when life is preferably more productive & fun. How about do this

Don't be a Terrorist
Don't be a drug smuggler
Don't be into paedophilia & kiddy porn
Don't be a subversive Watermelon
Don't get in to industrial espionage
Or just don't come to NZ...

Abo

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#1218499 20-Jan-2015 18:53

My passwords are mine/my thoughts, if someone wants them they will have to take it by force.

That being said I would probably just wipe my devices before crossing the border and let them go loose on blank devices, takes less than 30 minutes to restore once done so it's a minor inconvenience compared to giving up your rights and private information.

freemark

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#1218518 20-Jan-2015 19:21

Abo: My passwords are mine/my thoughts, if someone wants them they will have to take it by force.

That being said I would probably just wipe my devices before crossing the border and let them go loose on blank devices, takes less than 30 minutes to restore once done so it's a minor inconvenience compared to giving up your rights and private information.

To a certain extent I agree..particularly around actual "thoughts" - I don't necessarily consider a password to be this. I'm also not really of the "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" mindset.

The main reason that our freedom from surveillance/easy travel etc has been compromised is the tacit support of anything & everything anti capitalism/freedom/ traditional Western values by the Political Left. Radical Islam takes great moral & practical support from this, endangering the freedom of us all. Very ironic considering the "liberals" will be the first on the chopping block, but absolutely tragic for free-thinking people. The enemy of my enemy is not always my friend, but more and more the friend of my enemy becomes my enemy as well.

JaseNZ

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#1218522 20-Jan-2015 19:31

Back in the day when I was constantly flying around the globe I flew into Namibia just as it was gaining its independence.

We circled the run way for an hour while it was swept (covered in sand) , upon landing we were met by customs at the bottom of the steps who had ak47's and pointed them at us and were marched to the terminal (if you could call it that) , at gunpoint our bags were searched and then taken , I had on old 386 brick of a laptop in a separate bag they just took that.

We left the terminal with empty wallets and our passports and that was it. I was only 22 at the time and Shi*ting myself the whole way.

After being through something like that I would have no problems giving customs at our boarder my password.

Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding : Ice cream man , Ice cream man

JimmyH

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#1218525 20-Jan-2015 19:32

KiwiNZ: Until they pass customs they have not crossed the border and are not covered by NZ civil rights. NZ customs have extensive search powers you are required by request to grant access to computer and related equipement, if access is refused then entry can be refused. The US and most countries would do the same.

I would fully cooperate as I have no interest in generating greater hassles at airports etc just to be stubborn and bloody minded.

That's true for non-citizens. Not so sure whether they can refuse citizens entry, esp on a valid passport.

I can hypothetically think of stuff that isn't illegal but which I wouldn't want accessed by a random govt employee like this. Nudie pictures of someone, sensitive commercial documents relating (say) to contract negotiations with the government, my medical records, my bank account details etc.

However, if I was worried about this I would either heavily encrypt them and upload them to the likes of Dropbox (so I could safely retrieve them when in country), or encrypt them on a small micro SD which was concealed other than in (or in the same bag as) the device. I wouldn't have them on a device I was ostentatiously carrying through Customs.

blakamin

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#1218529 20-Jan-2015 19:38

Geektastic:

I was randomly stopped for an explosives search with the swabs -

I love the way they call it an "explosives" search... I get the "explosives" search about every 3rd time I travel (6 flights just in the last month).

Must be all the tattoos.

Basically they use "explosives" as an excuse to drug swab you.

I don't mind... They won't ever find any on me. I got annoyed once in Auckland when they did a full bag search, but that was because I was about to miss my connecting flight.

That's probably why the C4 didn't show!

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