Creeping

Fascism  

Travelers refusing to hand over phone password at airport now face $5000 Customs fine

[New Zealand]

Travellers who refuse to hand over their phone or laptop passwords to Customs officials can now be slapped with a $5000 fine. 

The Customs and Excise Act 2018 - which comes into effect today - sets guidelines around how Customs can carry out "digital strip-searches". 

Previously, Customs could stop anyone at the border and demand to see their electronic devices. However, the law did not specify that people had to also provide a password. 

The updated law makes clear that travelers must provide access - whether that be a password, pin-code or fingerprint - but officials would need to have a reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing.

 If people refused to comply, they could be fined up to $5000 and their device would be seized and forensically searched. 

"Nowadays we've got everything on our phones; we've got all our personal life, all our doctors' records, our emails, absolutely everything on it, and customs can take that and keep it." 

"They don't have to tell you what the cause of that suspicion is, there's no way to challenge it."

Border officials searched roughly 540 electronic devices at New Zealand airports in 2017. 

Customs will be required to keep Parliament updated on the number of devices searched every year. The agency said it did not expect the number to increase.

 DYI