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Yes, Canada, the UK, and Australia all have policies to ask travelers for their passwords for laptops/cell phones, and you'll be sent back home (if you're a for

Yes, Canada, the UK, and Australia all have policies to ask travelers for their passwords for laptops/cell phones, and you'll be sent back home (if you're a foreigner) or arrested (if you're a citizen, at least in Canada [1]) if you refuse. 1: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/alain-philippon-to-plead-guilty-cellphone-1.3721110 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/alain-philippon-to...

teh_klev 9y ago
UK citizen here. I'm not aware of any policy in the UK that forces travellers to hand over their device passwords - i.e. not in the same draconian way that's happening in the US. Border control in the UK is pretty well overstretched as it is. I don't think they've got the resources to perform this type of intrusion, even if they wanted to.
- txcwpalpha 9y ago
  From 2013: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10177765/Travellers-mobile-phone-data-seized-by-police-at-border.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10177765/Travellers-mo... Also a case in 2016 of a UK citizen being arrested for refusing to give his password to UK border police: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/sep/25/campaign-group-director-in-court-for-refusing-to-divulge-passwords https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/sep/25/campaign-gro...
  - teh_klev 9y ago
    Yeah, but I don't think it's a routine thing (I'll check with my pal who runs a borders team to be sure). I think you need to have been a specific target and person of interest for things to go that far.
    - txcwpalpha 9y ago
      That's pretty much the same "but it only happens to a small fraction of people so it's okay" deflection argument that you can say about the US policy as well, which you called "draconian".
toomanybeersies 9y ago
I had a friend get refused entry to Australia because they made him open his Facebook messenger, and they found out he was planning to work on a tourist visa. They only did that though because he just finished a 3 month tourist visa, left the country for a week, and then came back with another 3 months.
- FireBeyond 9y ago
  Seems to me that's the digital equivalent of showing up on a tourist visa (or via the visa waiver program) with a bunch of resumes printed in your luggage.

teh_klev 9y ago

UK citizen here. I'm not aware of any policy in the UK that forces travellers to hand over their device passwords - i.e. not in the same draconian way that's happening in the US. Border control in the UK is pretty well overstretched as it is. I don't think they've got the resources to perform this type of intrusion, even if they wanted to.

txcwpalpha 9y ago
From 2013: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10177765/Travellers-mobile-phone-data-seized-by-police-at-border.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10177765/Travellers-mo... Also a case in 2016 of a UK citizen being arrested for refusing to give his password to UK border police: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/sep/25/campaign-group-director-in-court-for-refusing-to-divulge-passwords https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/sep/25/campaign-gro...
- teh_klev 9y ago
  Yeah, but I don't think it's a routine thing (I'll check with my pal who runs a borders team to be sure). I think you need to have been a specific target and person of interest for things to go that far.
  - txcwpalpha 9y ago
    That's pretty much the same "but it only happens to a small fraction of people so it's okay" deflection argument that you can say about the US policy as well, which you called "draconian".

toomanybeersies 9y ago

I had a friend get refused entry to Australia because they made him open his Facebook messenger, and they found out he was planning to work on a tourist visa. They only did that though because he just finished a 3 month tourist visa, left the country for a week, and then came back with another 3 months.

FireBeyond 9y ago
Seems to me that's the digital equivalent of showing up on a tourist visa (or via the visa waiver program) with a bunch of resumes printed in your luggage.