Canadian border agents increasingly being nosey with tech

[Andreas Lilja]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cbsa-boarder-security-search-phone-travellers-openmedia-1.5119017

 

Quote

After landing at Toronto's Pearson Airport on April 10, he said the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) flagged him for an additional inspection — for no stated reason.

 

Wright had just returned from a four-month trip to Guatemala and Colombia where he studied Spanish and worked remotely. He took no issue when a border services officer searched his bags, but drew the line when the officer demanded his passwords to also search his phone and laptop.

Wright refused, telling the officer both devices contained confidential information protected by solicitor-client privilege.

He said the officer then confiscated his phone and laptop, and told him the items would be sent to a government lab which would try to crack his passwords and search his files.

 

Next step is asking for your password regardless of whether you travel or not?

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

what the hell? what did he do to deserve that? 

[Guest]

Better than American border authorities being nosy with my ass.

[PlayStation 2]

10 minutes ago, floofer said:

Better than American border authorities being nosy with my ass.

Dunno, I'd take someone thinking that I'm thicc rather than giving up my passwords to my shit.

[jiyeon]

28 minutes ago, Andreas Lilja said:

He said the officer then confiscated his phone and laptop, and told him the items would be sent to a government lab which would try to crack his passwords and search his files.

Is this not covered by any law?

 

What kind of person would you have to be for your devices to be sent to the government?

 

Or, what kind of person would you have to be to convict a seemingly-innocent man and get his items sent to the government?

[PlayStation 2]

2 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

You can get in trouble for asking them to buy you dinner first apparently they consider that harassment.  Not even joking.

Sheesh, high standards, eh?

[TetraSky]

It's not really a new thing
https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/border-phone-laptop-search-cbsa-canada-cbp-us-1.4002609
 

When you go to another country, you should expect to have your shit looked into and if you refuse to comply, have it seized and/or get refused access to the country.

 

The last line of that article I linked is quite telling

Quote

"You protect your privacy before you get to the border, not at the border," Vonn says. "Think long and hard before [crossing] if there are other people's information on your device that you are legally or ethically obliged to protect."

 

This sort of crap happens all the time to people travelling to the US, why shouldn't it happen when travelling to Canada?

[Zodiark1593]

Assumming you don't want to lose your equipment, highly sensitive data should be encrypted and uploaded to a cloud service and subsequently wiped from your equipment. If you don't need a lot of compute, consider a cheap Atom 2-in-1 or an older laptop for work. I tend to lean toward the Atom tablets as the battery life tends to be usable compared to using an old laptop.

 

Though I'd probably keep a heavily encrypted 2 GB flash drive with my rabbit pictures to entertain the NSA for awhile if they bite.

[Guest]

33 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Dunno, I'd take someone thinking that I'm thicc rather than giving up my passwords to my shit.

I don’t like a surprise prostate exam, although I appreciate their efforts for their prostate cancer screening program.

[Valentyn]

If they did that with my stuff which are provided by work, I'd have to contact my company's global security team ASAP. No way anyone should be giving up their own details or passwords. Not unless they're being charged with a crime can/should they confiscate anything, and even then don't give them anything until you speak to council. What right do they have to essentially steal someone's property? 

I thought Canada of all places were better than that.

[duncannah]

You could use something like Hidden Volume in VeraCrypt: https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Hidden Volume.html

Although not sure if this really works against extortion

[Andreas Lilja]

23 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

This sort of crap happens all the time to people travelling to the US, why shouldn't it happen when travelling to Canada?

Because two wrongs don't make a right and data doesn't seem to suggest that this kind of policy works.

[Andreas Lilja]

56 minutes ago, floofer said:

Better than American border authorities being nosy with my ass.

I forgot about the potential embarrasement when you're a grower rather than a shower.

[Misanthrope]

As Valentyn said: Issue here is that if your company/client is ok with you working abroad remotely, then you're in a conflict of interest between the probably illegal request and the very-much-legal NDA: Yes they could keep the laptop and phone, but no I cannot give you the password since the data there does not belong to me, belongs to my employer/client so I cannot legally consent to you looking at it border crossing or not.

 

In fact I also planned on possibly doing this (Since I also work remotely through a VPN) and I wouldn't be giving my work passwords to the TSA or ICE or the Royal Mounted Whatever in Canada, I'd be like "Sure go right ahead and keep it, you're not getting the passwords, I will tell legal at my company to contact you"

 

EDIT: Also this is a good argument as to why, even as a free lancer, you should probably keep work and personal devices separated. I would let any airport agent look at my Mass Effect alien porn videos all they want but that's because that's my stuff to submit for review (And quite honestly, personal amusement at their reaction to the extremely nasty but legal porn I keep) but work stuff should always be separate.

[Brooksie359]

1 hour ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Assumming you don't want to lose your equipment, highly sensitive data should be encrypted and uploaded to a cloud service and subsequently wiped from your equipment. If you don't need a lot of compute, consider a cheap Atom 2-in-1 or an older laptop for work. I tend to lean toward the Atom tablets as the battery life tends to be usable compared to using an old laptop.

 

Though I'd probably keep a heavily encrypted 2 GB flash drive with my rabbit pictures to entertain the NSA for awhile if they bite.

Yeah seems perfectly reasonable for everyone to know how to do that and know they should do that when traveling. 

[Brooksie359]

1 hour ago, TetraSky said:

It's not really a new thing
https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/border-phone-laptop-search-cbsa-canada-cbp-us-1.4002609
 

When you go to another country, you should expect to have your shit looked into and if you refuse to comply, have it seized and/or get refused access to the country.

 

The last line of that article I linked is quite telling

 

This sort of crap happens all the time to people travelling to the US, why shouldn't it happen when travelling to Canada?

Not really at all tbh. I dont think they should be searching beyond what they need to for the job of border security. Why the hell do they need access to their phone and computer? That's like if I had confidential documents in paper form and they started to just look through it all. They can clearly see it's just paper and shouldnt pose any threat to the country. 

[Evanair]

Cloud storage and burner devices.

 

It's about knowing the laws before you travel. Points of entry into most countries have different laws for Search and confiscation than any other place.

 

In the US, it's 100 miles from the federal border and points of entry, border patrol can basically do what they want (yes there are certain laws, but for the most part this is true.)

 

Backup online and erase your devices if you need security while traveling.

[Trik'Stari]

And yet still more people demand further government intrusion upon our lives in the name of safety.

 

This is the outcome of that demand.

[MoonSpot]

2 hours ago, Andreas Lilja said:

he officer then confiscated his phone and laptop, and told him the items would be sent to a government lab which would try to crack his passwords and search his files.

After which they can plant anything they want into said devices to incriminate political dissidents & rivals.  Hooray for the not-so-brave new world.

To be honest I wouldn't give a shit if they did this to people who aren't Canadians, but they're just going to do this to lawyers and journalists whom are the last professions on earth where this invasion can be justified.

[Paranoid Kami]

My parents had to go to the States(Canadian slang for 'Murica") to do some immigration work and the guy there accused them of trying to hide things because they never brought their phone with them. They wanted to go through it so they could check messages and stuff like that even though it wasn't required for what they were there for. They just automatically wanted to search them because they could and it became part of their process. Messed up.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Andreas Lilja said:

I forgot about the potential embarrasement when you're a grower rather than a shower.

I often do forget, but then again that’s because I don’t have anything to be embarrassed about down there.

[BuckGup]

4 hours ago, valdyrgramr said:

In the US you would need a warrant for that or probable cause.

HAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA funny joke. 

 

For one Patriot Act

Second Freedom Act

Third they don't follow the laws anyway 

[BuckGup]

1 minute ago, valdyrgramr said:

Patriot act is based on you being a terrorist and acts as a form of less restrictive probable cause, second one is info controlled by the government, and while they might not care it's hard to argue their case in court.

Except the patriot act removed the need for warrants in special cases and even if they need a warrant they can get one up to 72 hours after the fact. Most judges never deny a warrant request either

[ARikozuM]

4 hours ago, TetraSky said:

It's not really a new thing
https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/border-phone-laptop-search-cbsa-canada-cbp-us-1.4002609
 

When you go to another country, you should expect to have your shit looked into and if you refuse to comply, have it seized and/or get refused access to the country.

 

The last line of that article I linked is quite telling

 

This sort of crap happens all the time to people travelling to the US, why shouldn't it happen when travelling to Canada?

I don't really care what portion of politics you lean on, but no one should have a right to check your electronics if they're protected by a password (privacy laws where you cannot be forced to provide any information). There comes a point where regulation goes too far and this is one of those times. 

[schwellmo92]

Been happening in Australia for years, I assumed most civilised countries did this (or had the powers to). I've personally had my phone gone through when returning from holiday, it was an uneasy feeling that's for sure.