[zensavona]

I'll just add a couple of details here since I have had this happen to me multiple times...

I'm an Australian citizen and this applies just as much to me as a foreigner (for whom although I disagree about, I could make a reasonable argument for this being valid). Police require a warrant and/or reasonable suspicion of having committed a specific crime to search any part of you or your belongings. Border Force do not require this.

When they ask for the code, they will either:

- just open your device and rifle through your photos and messages in front of you, asking questions like "got a lot of photos of x, what's that about?" or "who is y?", ask you questions like "what are you doing in Australia? Who are you seeing? What's your relationship to them?" et cetera (even to me, a citizen who spends majority of my time abroad).

- Take it into another room for 20mins or so and presumably take a dump of the whole thing for further analysis. I once asked "what is done with this data and how long is it stored" and they refused to answer the question.

One time after refusing to hand over the code (politely) I was treated pretty aggressively, had my whole body searched (not strip searched, groped well all over), all my luggage taken apart etc. I received a letter in the mail that I could go and collect my phone at the airport after around 3 weeks. It seems unlikely they have some tech which allows exfiltration of data from a locked iPhone(?) so I'm not sure what that's about. They claimed to me that they do indeed have this capability.

Since refusing to open the phone and letting them keep it I seem to be on some kind of list and have had a Border Force officer meet me at the baggage carousel a couple of times with the "please come with me sir" to my own private search area where a few of them are ready to search my luggage inside out. This seems to happen less recently since I have just given them the code. They have successfully made it inconvenient enough for me to comply.

One time years ago they did the same thing with my laptop. Since that incident they have only asked about my phone.

[tamimio]

> They have successfully made it inconvenient enough for me to comply.

That’s the point, unfortunately, that method works because most people just hand over their code without any questions, if enough people refused, it will be inconvenient to them not the other way around.

[akudha]

I don’t think it will ever be an inconvenience to them. They’ll just hire more people and get more resources from the tax dollars. Plus, they probably enjoy irritating people even if it inconveniences them.

Most people probably won’t last long in such jobs. I for one, don’t want to spend all my working time annoying others and being a dick. But the ones who do last long, probably get a kick out of being a nuisance

[ThrowawayTestr]

What would you say to people claiming that Australia is falling into authoritarianism?

[RachelF]

There's another symptom of this. Those in power are exempt.

When an MP, called Julie Bishop, had her bags searched, she used her power to get those involved sacked.

[DEADMINCE]

As far as internet access and devices and things like this go, all western governments are going to become authoritarian in this regard. Only thing we can do is try to change the government, and otherwise fight back with plausibility deniability and using tools like encryption and steganography.

[verticalscaler]

"What's the problem if you ain't got something to hide? And who would possibly want to even live without a smartphone?"

[Rinzler89]

Ah shit, comments like these and the videos from Boy Boy and Friendly Jordies makes me want to avoid traveling to Australia when I see how easily law enforcement there just violates people's rights using some legal loophole.

[bloomingeek]

I couldn't agree more! Hypothetical: I wonder how they would react, on looking at my cell, if before leaving home I removed all my pictures and contacts, erased my internet history and removed all files? Would they think I'm hiding something or just being careful with my private data?

Instead of, "Don't leave home without it!", leave home without data on phone. :)

[tamimio]

> on looking at my cell, if before leaving home I removed all my pictures and contacts, erased my internet history and removed all files?

They take a whole dump for future forensic if needed, and that includes the ability to restore what you have deleted.

[j5155]

Surely this is not possible (assuming the recently deleted folder is cleared)? I know it could be done with insecurely erased hard drives but I dont think any phones are using those?

[tamimio]

It is indeed possible, recovering a fully deleted file or even chats logs is the easiest part, given it’s unlocked. I don’t know about Australia, but plenty of law enforcements use cellebrite (1), and there are other tools too that provide such forensic analysis.

(1) https://cellebrite.com/en/home/

[DEADMINCE]

If you wipe the phone completely and re-image it, they can't recover a thing.

[bloomingeek]

Hypothetical 2: leave your cell at home and just carry your sim card. After leaving airport, purchase a usable phone and insert sim card. Remove card and ditch phone when leaving country. Would they detain and harass this person?

[tflol]

In my case, wandering male Sydney Funnel-web Spiders make me want to avoid Australia

[oska]

On the assumption (perhaps misplaced) that this comment is serious and not a joke, such a sentiment indicates extremely poor risk assessment. Native Australian fauna represents such an extremely small risk to tourists that it is not worth considering. (But obviously if you do encounter any dangerous looking fauna you should treat it with respect.)

But I do agree with the grandparent comment that this extreme level of airport search intrusiveness does legitimately make Australia a much less attractive tourist destination. And btw, as an Australian, I feel somewhat the same way towards the USA and its intrusive airport searches (which is what we are slavishly copying).

[DEADMINCE]

> Native Australian fauna represents such an extremely small risk to tourists that it is not worth considering.

Not only that, but most of the species are common in the USA and EU and just have different names.

Also, the US has far more dangerous animals, but somehow Australia is famous for that lol.

[stephenr]

You could just visit the other 99.6% of the country that Sydney funnel-webs don't inhabit?

[tflol]

Not a risk I'm personally willing to take ;)

[Rinzler89]

DEI petition to increase the number of female funnel-web spiders in employment in Sydney when?

[grecy]

Have you tried not bringing a phone?

I'd be really interested in their response when you tell them you don't have one on you.

[dazc]

Seems like a good case for having a basic Nokia just for travel purposes.

[GJim]

As I said earlier....

Most companies of any size, and civil servants, have policies to travel with burner phones/laptops when crossing (even benign) international boarders; including into Australia and "the land of the free"

Frankly, it is so commonplace, it is not remotely unusual or suspicious to travel with a burner phone.

[gruez]

Or their response if you gave them your phone and pin but it's a wiped/reset phone.

[fone]

Or their response if you didn't give them the passcode, and the data port is rewired internally.

[Aerbil313]

I'd wipe my iPhone and restore from iCloud backup after the airport.