NOTE: This post was originally published on October 16, 2018
Something fishy’s brewing down under—and it’s not just fish and chips. This month New Zealand introduced a highly invasive data law that gives Customs officials the right to not only conduct the equivalent of a digital strip search, but also to fine any traveler who refuses to comply.
The Customs and Excise Act 2018, which went into effect October 1, gives New Zealand officials the right to force travelers to unlock their electronic devices so that they can be searched. If that weren’t hairy enough, any visitors who refuse to fork over their PIN, fingerprint, or password could face prosecution and/or be fined up to 5,000 NZD (about 3,300 USD).
No steps forward for security, two steps back for privacy
In addition to granting Customs agents the right to shred your privacy, the law also gives them the ability to confiscate devices from travelers who refuse to comply. Customs agents are free to copy any data gleaned from a particular device, which opens the possibility for agents to abuse your personal data.
To make matters worse, there are no actual requirements for officers to follow before they stop someone. Instead, the decision is up to individual Customs agents—giving them more power to stop whomever they please, whenever they want.
It’s important to note that while New Zealand is not the first country to implement this type of law, it is the first to enforce fines as punishment for non-compliance. In the U.S., for example, digital strip searches have been an issue for some time now; however, if visitors refuse to hand over their passwords, the only recourse Customs officials have is to deny them entry.
Making the case for extra security
So what kinds of data could these officials be looking for? According to Customs spokesman Terry Brown, the process will include “a file-by-file [search] on your phone.” This could include potentially sensitive documents, web searches, photos, and more.
Speaking to Radio New Zealand, Customs Minister Kris Faafoi said this new policy was not only necessary, but long overdue. “A lot of the organized crime groups are becoming a lot more sophisticated in the ways they’re trying to get things across the border,” Faafoi said. “And if we do think they’re up to that kind of business, then getting intelligence from smartphones and computers can be useful for a prosecution.”
The New Zealand government has also tried to assuage fears by reiterating that very few travelers will be asked to hand over the data. Customs stated that although 14 million travelers passed through in 2017, only 537 devices were examined.
A strict law with surprisingly easy workarounds
Like many privacy laws, this one only skims the surface. Without giving law enforcement access to digital cloud or backup files, it’s incredibly easy for criminals, terrorists (and people with something to hide) to simply back up their devices before they travel.
Inversely, If the information on a particular person’s device is incriminating enough, the person could simply pay the fine and move on. So while it may be a pain, the easiest way to avoid dealing with this issue is to either A) back up your phone before you leave or B) save all your sensitive information to the cloud.
Traveling to New Zealand knowing your phone or tablet is going to be searched beforehand gives you plenty of time to enact the proper privacy protocols. Have a few photos you don’t want to a stranger looking at? Wipe ’em. Have a few emails you’d like to keep private? Send them to the cloud.
It doesn’t matter if you have nothing to hide
Only a few weeks into its existence, the law has been met with a huge tide of opposition. Privacy advocates like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties (CCL) have both made their disdain for the new law heard. In a recent statement, the CCL claims:
“Any professional criminal could easily store their data on the internet, travel with a wiped phone, and restore it once they enter the country. Any criminal who fails to do this would surely pay $5k fine rather than reveal evidence relating to crimes that might involve jail time.”
Even if your social media profiles are full of boring food pics and strangers posting warm birthday wishes on your wall, the fact that New Zealand has begun enforcing this law is alarming.
Is this another case of security theater, or is this another step in the long line of progressively invasive data laws that are slowly but surely restricting our freedom?
We’d love to hear your thoughts on this matter. Leave your comments below.
Comments
Customs literally just did this to me coming in to the U.S. At Chicago O Haire airport. Coming back from Europe. I refused to give up my passwords and they said it didnt matter if I did because they would be breaking into it regardless. 2 different Customs and Police told me specifically ‘You are not a U.S. citizen until we say you are and you have no rights until we say you do’. They lied to me and told me ‘I may not get my phone back’, even though the pamphlet they hand you tells you that you will, they just may have to send it to you at a later time. They refused to allow me to contact my Mom to let her know what was happening to me and they refused to allow me to contact an attorney. They constantly lied to me saying that questioning was not admissible in court and therefore my statements were not used for any investigations, which is a lie because it says in the pamphlet they hand you that all information seized and obtained is passed on to all law enforcement and intelligence agencies. They lied, told me I had no rights and was not a citizen, threatened me with conspiracy charges and aiding/abetting without even telling me why. Every time I said it’s only my responsibility to answer for myself , my trip and my experience of my trip theyd threaten me again when I refused to answer on behalf of anyone else I was with because I legitimately couldnt anyway. They threatened me for what I saw as my ideology and political beliefs and travel destinations despite my having done nothing wrong nor those I was with. Worse than this, to my horror a female agent at the counter legitimately yelled at a man from Jordan ‘Why did you erase this photo of your children?! Why?? Why do you have numbers of other women in your phone?? What kind of husband and father are you?! Once I get the translator here you better hope you have your story straight!’ So this officer clearly knew they could not speak or understand English well.They were humiliating people of color CONSTANTLY. Mostly those whom clearly were scared to defend theirselves and could speak little English. Customs in the U.S. is an absolute swamp of civil, human rights abuses, entrapment, incrimination through intimidation, threats, lying, psychological, emotional and socially abusive tactics. I am also a survivor of serious domestic violence which was not handled appropriately by law enforcement at that time and they used that against me by triggering those emotions on purpose and putting me in places that made me uncomfortable and not accommodating me when I told them places, tactics and behaviors they were using which mirrored abusive situations I had been in. The first Customs agent for example, grabbed my phone out of my hand (since he assumed it was unlocked), which both abusive boyfriends I’ve had in the past did…..grab my phone away from me. I’d expect a Customs agent to ask for it first and I was willing to hand them over after they were locked, but he grabbed one from me. Oh, and they also later tried to trick me into unlocking my phone. They said that theyd ‘allow’ me to call my mom if I’d unlock my phone to call her from it. I refused as I saw this as another way for them to get my phone from me unlocked. They continued to go off the basis that because I did not want my phones unlocked that I was guilty and because I did not think it appropriate for myself to answer questions I did not feel applied to me or the basics of my trip. I told them from the start that they wouldn’t find anything criminal on it, I simply refused to allow them into it because I dont think anyone should be forced to do so, that I find it a gross violation of rights to privacy and due process. I stated I’d stat there as long as I had to to resist laws that I think are a disgrace to our country. They eventually gave me both of my phones back which they had broken into, one of which now requires a PKU code to get back into, which I dont have.
This is awful. I’m very sorry that you had to experience this.
Can’t argue with a country making such provisions available, but as article says, ridiculously easy to bypass so why do it, who advised on this? Those I would have thought were more significant questions, pointing to dreadful incompetence on the part of whoever it was.
Wouldn’t it just be easier to leave your phone at home, buy a cheap one in NZ when you arrive? Like we used to do when data was so expensive you didn’t dare turn your phone on in a foreign country. Social media can be accessed from anywhere if you need to selfie your holiday.
Note that even China, the country everyone loves to hate, doesn’t do this. They ban a load of stuff, including VPNs and politically sensitive stuff. But would they threaten to “strip search” everyone’s electronics to find it? Nope.. that would decimate their tourism. EVERYONE would cancel their plans to travel there immediately if they tried this.
Data in the cloud? I don’t think so. Just avoid NZ. Let them rot on their island.
Don’t avoid NZ . We are nice people over here . We don’t like what customs have done as well .
You’re rude aren’t you. We don’t like this either. 👆
This is nothing new Canada does it the yanks do it
they catch a lot of bad guys
There should be an app that automatically uploads the complete contents to the ‘cloud’ and fills existing memory with a collage of ‘stuff’… something for the authorities to pour through, wasting man-hours. The same app can be used to restore uploaded data.
When I was younger (and data bases were not as developed) I used to provide personal data with slight variations… from the logging industry, I referred to the tactic as ‘monkeywrenching’. Maybe something can be done by overwhelming the data collectors with information.
Dik
power corrupts. Busybody poorly-paid officials
Does this include laptops?
7828290735
I’ll be changing my screen saver to a pic of my hairy butt for the enjoyment of customs officials. An appropriate protest against official tyranny.
This is completely unacceptable BS. Probable cause? None. Sensitive business information is not anyone’s to see and potentially leak. I’m not going to New Zealand. Waiting for the new breed of secure phones like the Librem 5.
At least there are the director cuts of Lord of the Rings, won’t be seeing NZ any other way by the looks of things right now.
they stupidly did not realize this would hit tourism adversely
They don’t think they need foreigners or tourists, like many other wannabe-right-leaning countries. They’ll learn it the hard way, when the quarterly fiscal reports come out, though. I’d say it’s a good thing this can’t happen in the states but anything freaking goes these days.
So maybe New Zealand is “wiped” from my future destinations list. This is so abusive, makes no sense.
George Orwells was right after all. Just a few year off.
I think we’re there already.
guess I”ll not be visiting New Zealand again anytime soon. Glad I’ve been there heaps. This is outrageous and I would hope that suck invasiveness will severely curtail their tourism since they depend quite heavily on that…..
That is what happens when there is no bill of rights.
The article fails to mention a third option: stay the hell away from new Zealand. The Lord of the rings movies were overrated anyway.
i will backup my iphone to my PC hard drive and wipe my phone, encrypt the bakcup file to hidden volume in veracrypt. restore it when i arrive the safehouse at the destination
More and more we go into a slavery system. It is already there, but not obvious enough for the sheep to start resisting. And when we finally are ready, it is probably too late.
We will come to a time, total recall, terminator V for Vendetta and matrix aren’t that far of the truth anymore. I hope I am dead before then.
Absurd. NZ just became another country that I backup and wipe my phone while travelling to and then restore after passing through customs. They can’t see anything if my phone boots up as, “Setup your new iPhone,” can they?
That’s exactly what I was thinking and I’d do the same… restoring to factory default and restoring from cloud afterwards.
Nope they can’t, if the data is on the cloud you’re okay!
Totally scandalous, this makes room for all sorts of abuse of our personal data.