It's like they are trying to destroy their tourism industry:
Warren advised people flying into Australia not to have anything on their device that they don’t want authorities accessing, and to ensure their device is encrypted with a strong passcode.
“Once they take your device out of your sight, you should assume it’s completely compromised and they have a copy of everything that was on it, and act accordingly,” he said.
James said the incident made him rethink what he would do next time he travels out of Australia.
“I think what I’ll just do next time is as we fly into Sydney, I’ll just press the factory reset button on the phone and when they pull me up again, I’ll be handing them a fresh clean factory reset.”
"Consider the device compromised" means more than just "they have your data"
Compromised means that they will have anything you put on that device after that point. Meaning it should go straight into the shredder and go buy a new one.
Doesn't matter if its factory reset or not, it needs to go in the trash
Phones need to have two passwords; one that when you unlock it just has the built-in apps and a small selection of your emails/images that you don't mind other people seeing.
Second password would actually unlock the entire phone and all files.
Truecrypt used to have this feature (when it was around). Only the second password would actually open the full encrypted storage - first password - which you could give under duress would only 'see' fake stuff that you put there; always thought that was a clever feature - never had a need to use it myself.
This made me wonder about cloud services or servers: would a border guard be smart enough (or care enough) to understand the difference between a device password and the password for an online account. If you just brought something that was a thin client, do you risk punishment for not providing additional login info? What worries me most about this kind of thing is being in a situation where some thug is asking you to do something that's either not possible, or clearly outside of the intent of the law, but you're at their mercy.
Re Australia, this is just the latest in a long list of many reasons I'll never go there. As someone else said, it will be interesting to see if tourism resumes or if most people will not risk trying to go their anymore given their recent behavior
I used to think it would be awesome to move to America for some startup job and live the good life... till I learned about healthcare and realised I didn't have it so bad in Australia not having to worry about bankruptcy for a broken leg. Now with the slow agonising slide of Australia into technocratic tyranny... and I'm not exaggerating some otherwise sensible policies to do with COVID or anything...
I'm talking about things like the Assistance and Access bill, data retention laws, the lack of usefully constitutionally protected rights, border policies like this, state governments banning basically harmless gel blasters while paintball remains legal, the bizarre online privacy law changes around the "eSafety Commission", efforts to ban cash transactions of $10000 or more, the currently underway efforts to "reform" the surveillance legislation giving them powers to modify data and take over accounts of anyone as they see fit (since theres no oversight mechanism beyond "trust we do our jobs")... the entire damn country has gone beyond "nanny state" and is getting worse every time I look at it...
But I'm still not seriously considering moving... Pre-Brexit I would have been seriously looking at moving to the UK by now since I'd probably have just spent most of my time in the rest of the EU and could avoid the worst of the UK's eccentricities... But Brexit... The USA remains a non-starter due to the insanity that is healthcare in the USA.
China. Lots of blatant plundering of water and natural resources, lots of political manipulation and Chinese money used to inch Australia toward authoritarian compatibility with Chinese global aspirations.
Australia doesn't have enough people, wealth, or apparently the political will to oppose China.
More and more we see Australia trying to out China in authoritarianism. However, at least China (and Russia for that matter) doesn't hide that it is authoritarian. People from Eastern states are very much aware of this and act accordingly. On the other hand, I wonder how Australians perceive this situation, and how much Goethe's old adage, “the best slave is the one who thinks he is free,” applies.
[+] [-] steelstraw|4 years ago|reply
Warren advised people flying into Australia not to have anything on their device that they don’t want authorities accessing, and to ensure their device is encrypted with a strong passcode.
“Once they take your device out of your sight, you should assume it’s completely compromised and they have a copy of everything that was on it, and act accordingly,” he said.
James said the incident made him rethink what he would do next time he travels out of Australia.
“I think what I’ll just do next time is as we fly into Sydney, I’ll just press the factory reset button on the phone and when they pull me up again, I’ll be handing them a fresh clean factory reset.”
[+] [-] netizen-936824|4 years ago|reply
Compromised means that they will have anything you put on that device after that point. Meaning it should go straight into the shredder and go buy a new one.
Doesn't matter if its factory reset or not, it needs to go in the trash
[+] [-] ejb999|4 years ago|reply
Second password would actually unlock the entire phone and all files.
Truecrypt used to have this feature (when it was around). Only the second password would actually open the full encrypted storage - first password - which you could give under duress would only 'see' fake stuff that you put there; always thought that was a clever feature - never had a need to use it myself.
[+] [-] olliej|4 years ago|reply
Presumably if you are sufficiently concerned your only option would be to erase your devices prior to crossing the border?
[+] [-] version_five|4 years ago|reply
Re Australia, this is just the latest in a long list of many reasons I'll never go there. As someone else said, it will be interesting to see if tourism resumes or if most people will not risk trying to go their anymore given their recent behavior
[+] [-] techdragon|4 years ago|reply
I'm talking about things like the Assistance and Access bill, data retention laws, the lack of usefully constitutionally protected rights, border policies like this, state governments banning basically harmless gel blasters while paintball remains legal, the bizarre online privacy law changes around the "eSafety Commission", efforts to ban cash transactions of $10000 or more, the currently underway efforts to "reform" the surveillance legislation giving them powers to modify data and take over accounts of anyone as they see fit (since theres no oversight mechanism beyond "trust we do our jobs")... the entire damn country has gone beyond "nanny state" and is getting worse every time I look at it...
But I'm still not seriously considering moving... Pre-Brexit I would have been seriously looking at moving to the UK by now since I'd probably have just spent most of my time in the rest of the EU and could avoid the worst of the UK's eccentricities... But Brexit... The USA remains a non-starter due to the insanity that is healthcare in the USA.
[+] [-] wait_a_minute|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 0xdeadb00f|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robbedpeter|4 years ago|reply
Australia doesn't have enough people, wealth, or apparently the political will to oppose China.
[+] [-] angrykangaroo|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] medo-bear|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] josephcsible|4 years ago|reply
Why does this matter, if Australia will just force you to tell them what it is?
[+] [-] 908B64B197|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hsx|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nitn|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]