<story><title>Canadian journalist&apos;s detention at US border raises press freedom alarms</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/02/business/media/canadian-journalists-detention-at-us-border-raises-press-freedom-alarms.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>exolymph</author><text>&amp;gt; I asked what would happen if I didn&amp;#x27;t turn the password over and just went back home to the US, they told me they&amp;#x27;d seize the device and put me in prison until they break into it.&lt;p&gt;I guess it depends on how much you care about your personal info or how sensitive your data is, but I wouldn&amp;#x27;t budge based on this. I&amp;#x27;d say, &amp;quot;Okay, I want to talk to the American embassy,&amp;quot; then wait it out.&lt;p&gt;Edit: To be clear, this would be my response without knowing anything about the relevant Canadian law — since I don&amp;#x27;t – because the statement sounds like a lie. LE lies all the time. Indefinite imprisonment of a random person? Nah. And breaking into a locked phone is actually very difficult — see Apple versus FBI.</text></item><item><author>jliptzin</author><text>Don&amp;#x27;t be fooled, Canadian border patrol proudly engages in this as well. I was recently driving across the border to Montreal on vacation when Canadian border agents, in addition to searching my car and personal belongings, demanded to see my cell phone and turn over the password. I simply asked why, since I didn&amp;#x27;t think I was doing anything suspicious, at which point the agent angrily responded &amp;quot;because I can and now I&amp;#x27;m going to search it extra thoroughly.&amp;quot; I asked what would happen if I didn&amp;#x27;t turn the password over and just went back home to the US, they told me they&amp;#x27;d seize the device and put me in prison until they break into it. So, I gave the password, 3 agents took it in the back for 45 minutes, came back and questioned me about some texts I had with a friend from months ago who was talking about marijuana, and eventually let me pass to Canada. Hopefully they didn&amp;#x27;t hold on to all my personal data or install backdoors but just in case I wiped the phone and reinstalled from a backup.&lt;p&gt;In any case, this was extremely intrusive and I couldn&amp;#x27;t stop thinking about it the whole trip. I wondered what would happen if I had actually forgotten my phone password - just weeks before I changed from a 6 digit numeric code to a longer alphanumeric and almost forgot it since it had been a while since the last time I restarted my phone requiring password entry. I had a lot of very private photos and conversations on there with my SO. Definitely ruined my whole vacation.&lt;p&gt;Edit: Also, they didn&amp;#x27;t just stick to private photos and messages, they even opened up dating apps checking for messages there, opened up unread snap and kik messages too.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>empressplay</author><text>You&amp;#x27;re under the mistaken impression that when you enter a border crossing you can turn around and go home without the permission of the country you&amp;#x27;re attempting to enter.&lt;p&gt;This is not true. You&amp;#x27;ve already entered the country, and so the border staff (US, Canadian, whoever) can indeed detain you, throw you into immigration detention, take all your stuff, really whatever they want. You don&amp;#x27;t have any rights. You could call your embassy, but they will tell you that so long as the other country is following its own laws, you&amp;#x27;re stuck, and they can&amp;#x27;t help you.&lt;p&gt;If you don&amp;#x27;t like it, don&amp;#x27;t go.</text></comment>
<story><title>Canadian journalist&apos;s detention at US border raises press freedom alarms</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/02/business/media/canadian-journalists-detention-at-us-border-raises-press-freedom-alarms.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>exolymph</author><text>&amp;gt; I asked what would happen if I didn&amp;#x27;t turn the password over and just went back home to the US, they told me they&amp;#x27;d seize the device and put me in prison until they break into it.&lt;p&gt;I guess it depends on how much you care about your personal info or how sensitive your data is, but I wouldn&amp;#x27;t budge based on this. I&amp;#x27;d say, &amp;quot;Okay, I want to talk to the American embassy,&amp;quot; then wait it out.&lt;p&gt;Edit: To be clear, this would be my response without knowing anything about the relevant Canadian law — since I don&amp;#x27;t – because the statement sounds like a lie. LE lies all the time. Indefinite imprisonment of a random person? Nah. And breaking into a locked phone is actually very difficult — see Apple versus FBI.</text></item><item><author>jliptzin</author><text>Don&amp;#x27;t be fooled, Canadian border patrol proudly engages in this as well. I was recently driving across the border to Montreal on vacation when Canadian border agents, in addition to searching my car and personal belongings, demanded to see my cell phone and turn over the password. I simply asked why, since I didn&amp;#x27;t think I was doing anything suspicious, at which point the agent angrily responded &amp;quot;because I can and now I&amp;#x27;m going to search it extra thoroughly.&amp;quot; I asked what would happen if I didn&amp;#x27;t turn the password over and just went back home to the US, they told me they&amp;#x27;d seize the device and put me in prison until they break into it. So, I gave the password, 3 agents took it in the back for 45 minutes, came back and questioned me about some texts I had with a friend from months ago who was talking about marijuana, and eventually let me pass to Canada. Hopefully they didn&amp;#x27;t hold on to all my personal data or install backdoors but just in case I wiped the phone and reinstalled from a backup.&lt;p&gt;In any case, this was extremely intrusive and I couldn&amp;#x27;t stop thinking about it the whole trip. I wondered what would happen if I had actually forgotten my phone password - just weeks before I changed from a 6 digit numeric code to a longer alphanumeric and almost forgot it since it had been a while since the last time I restarted my phone requiring password entry. I had a lot of very private photos and conversations on there with my SO. Definitely ruined my whole vacation.&lt;p&gt;Edit: Also, they didn&amp;#x27;t just stick to private photos and messages, they even opened up dating apps checking for messages there, opened up unread snap and kik messages too.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jliptzin</author><text>Actually if I were alone I would have done that just to prove a point, but I was with my SO and I didn&amp;#x27;t want to ruin his vacation as well.</text></comment>