travel

New Zealand fines travelers who won't unlock secure devices

14 Comments

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14 Comments
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Not that I ever wanted to visit NZ anyway, and this news has only strengthened my desire to stay well clear of the place.

Lord help us all if this highly dubious practice comes to Japan.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

Soon to come everywhere.

We are already Guilty until proven innocent with most things nowadays

4 ( +4 / -0 )

You Shall Not Pass - without providing us with your password. Seriously, I'm a bit puzzled by this. I can understand the need for a country like the US doing this kind of thing but NZ?!?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Try Australia , they are simply arrogant stand over merchants who , if you do not comply , they call their Federal Police co-horts to intimidate you even further , and if you still fail to " give in " , they will deny you entry , OR jail you for a day or two , missing all your connecting flights , or back out on the next Jet home . Sydney is the worst one of them , I know from personal experience how much of a stand over group they are !! They do this to their own also ( Aussie passport holders ) so no-one is immune from these gestapo like staff .

2 ( +4 / -2 )

This is the kind of thing I would expect from NK, China, or Russia. But NZ has no business with this perversion and neither does the US. Sorry to hear that Oz is already on the road to gestapo behaviour.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

You may be surprised to know this is legal in many countries including Canada.

Basically, at border crossings you are subhuman and have no rights whatsoever. You may be groped, all of your property searched and seized, personal data hacked etc. And you have no legal recourse.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I hope this law turns up as a warning in the popular travel books. The drop in tourist dollars will solve this quickly.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Beagle questioned whether the intrusion would catch criminals, who would prefer to pay the fine than expose evidence that could lead to prison.

exactly.

Criminals could also store their data in the cloud, travel with a wiped phone and restore the data once they passed customs, he said.

Another excellent point. Makes you wonder if this is done for more nefarious purposes...

> Not that I ever wanted to visit NZ anyway, and this news has only strengthened my desire to stay well clear of the place.

I actually was interested in visiting, but after this.. no way.

Lord help us all if this highly dubious practice comes to Japan.

It has to. Japan loves to import any draconian idea it can get its hands on anywhere..

You may be surprised to know this is legal in many countries including Canada.

Oh no. Canada as well? Jeez I thought they were the last reasonable human beings on this planet..

Basically, at border crossings you are subhuman and have no rights whatsoever. You may be groped, all of your property searched and seized, personal data hacked etc. And you have no legal recourse.

Its so true. There has to be an international standard of what is acceptable to do to travellers-

We really do live in orwellian times. The scary thing is, there are people who are exposed to this and who will support this

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Devices need to have two passwords, one of which gives access to the real data whilst the other one displays a sanitised home screen with nothing out of the ordinary.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

NZ? NK surely?

2 ( +3 / -1 )

All so called freedom loving English speaking countries have reduced to this.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

"Visitors to New Zealand can be fined 5,000 New Zealand dollars ($3,243) for refusing to provide passwords to unlock electronic devices and allow customs officials to examine them"

So rich people don't have to unlock their devices. So unfair.

But then...

"But the New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties said the law gives customs officials the power to force travelers to unlock their smartphones without justification, and without legal options for travelers to challenge an order to enter a password."

So... omg... would they use waterboarding? Or worse?

But then...

"Beagle questioned whether the intrusion would catch criminals, who would prefer to pay the fine than expose evidence that could lead to prison."

It's still not clear what happens if you refuse to unlock your device - do they arrest you and torture you until you give them the password, or just fine you and put you on a plane back to wherever you came from?

Ah, life was so much simpler in the 80s, and even the 90s, lol.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

New Zealous? Oh, yeah, the little country that is hiding the infamous Kim Dotcom.

Why would honest people go there ?

one of which gives access to the real data

In 2018, why do you need keeping any data on a mobile device ?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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