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Canadian Fined For Not Providing Border Agents Smartphone Password (www.cbc.ca)
Reader da_foz writes: A Canadian was reentering Canada when he was arrested and charged with hindering or obstructing border officials. At the time traces of cocaine were found on his bags and he was carrying $5,000 in cash. He provided his smartphone to border agents as requested, however refused to provide the password. Canada Border Services Agency officials asked for Philippon's smartphone and its password. From a report: "He handed over his BlackBerry but refused to disclose the code to access the phone. Philippon was arrested and charged under the federal Customs Act, accused of hindering or obstructing border officials." It is unclear if he provided the password while agreeing to the fine.
Are those the ones that you rent rooms to?
for the fine. wink and a nod
Boarder Agents?
After all, if you have it on you, they can't track it! Heads explode when you compare this to the vitriolic hatred of economists for capital controls.
"Traces of cocaine" -- traces of cocaine can be found on almost 90% of circulating US currency.
Likewise, they can ask for your phone, sure, but if they ask you to unlock it they can fuck right off. And they in turn can choose to tell you, too, to fuck right off. It's the prerogative of a border agent.
Are those agents that tie you down to a board with leather straps and proceed to repetitively submerge you into a vat of cold water?
The luddite is "manish" but we already knew that
Like a water boarder??
And a person's password can be at least in part defined by what they are thinking about while they provide the password? Even if laws existed to force you to comply with law enforcement when they ask for access to your device, if a computer can read your state of mind, it could potentially be configured to disregard entry attempts if your attempt to access was not sincere (that is, you were doing so only under duress, or compulsion by another party), and I am pretty sure that no law could ever be created that requires you to *think* in a certain way.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
they sprinkled a little bit of crack cocaine on top of his clothing
was he black?
How was this drug residue found? Most police field test kits are very sensitive and can detect a positive result on anything that has come into contact with money. It has been shown that just about all money has some amount of drug residue on it because contaminated bills get put into automated counting machines which flips them at high speed spreading contaminated particles over an entire stack of bills and the machine itself.
The fact this guy was carrying so much cash could have been the source of the contamination and should not be indicative of illegal behavior by itself.
This very scenario could happen to anyone to force you to cough up passwords.
Sounds like a good feature for Alfresco would be a fake PIN or password that sends you to a dummy account with minimum if anything available. Android already supports multiple user profiles, maybe treat the lock screen as a log in as well.
Carrying a blackberry in this day and age is a finable offense in itself!
I had a coworker who went to Canada on business. Because he looked like a goddamn hippie with blond hair in a pony tail, he expected trouble at the border. When the border guard gave him the evil eye over his passport, he handed over his honorable discharge papers from the U.S. Army. The border guard let him through without further incident.
It's worth noting (and the summary misses this) that he pleaded guilty, and was then given the fine. This trial date has been a long time coming. It's a shame that the Canadian Law won't be inspected more vigorously on this point.
In Canada, under sections 7 and 11(c) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canadians have the right to remain silent during both interrogation and trial.
Open and shut case here.
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
Never, ever give out your passwords to any "law enforcement" (the reason for the quotes will be clear)
- It's ridiculously easy to plant evidence on a cellphone or PC;
- Your password can be used later for industrial espionage;
- There is no guarantee that the law officer would really be a law enforcement officer or that he is honest and therefore not going to use your passwords for dishonest activities;
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
Are traces of cocaine the same as the "we smelled marijuana"? Was the cash found first, then they somehow found some "traces of cocaine"?
SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT
I was talking about this with a guy named Vlad who was getting sent by the Germans to Russia to destroy their economy.
Vlad told me the government owns it all anyway and generously allows mere citizens to access it.
So, nothing to see here I guess.
Are the Headings "Write-only" (so they can never be spell corrected?)
I guess I lucked out as I just came back to Canada through Vancouver and denied to give the agent my computer and phone passwords. He said he could keep them if he saw fit and hand them over to "other agencies" to crack them.
Don't provide any password to a border agent, or really anyone who doesn't need it.
My company is currently in the process of designing a special TPM style product that makes it very near impossible to enter a devices without being the one intended for reception. Well solutions like this do exist, ours is going to be fairly open, cheap and allow it to interface to almost device to which someone can write a low level kernel based driver. With our device, it makes it impossible to access the contents of anything on the device under encryption due to how the data is stored and decrypted. Without access to the exact key which is paired to the device under encryption, you may as well wipe the device because except in exceptional cases, where multiple keys are warranted, there is no other way in the device under encryption.
I'm bringing this up for this exact kind of situation, well traveling you can keep your data fully encrypted, have one of our keys at home, with the data it encrypted being unavailable physically until you arrive home, and you could carry a second key which can decrypt any data marked for use between the two keys or just the data encrypted well traveling, with the only way to view the date, to be in possession of a key physically, think very small USB thumb drive.
If the border needs access, they can get access themselves. You're not stopping them by giving your phone, and you're not stopping them by refusing to give up a password or encryption key, you're simply protecting your right against possible self incrimination, and if the border patrol is actually qualified in the first place to do a job that would be require decryption information on a phone, they should be able to do it regardless of what you put on it. I know that's a ridiculous statement, but it works. You shouldn't have to provide access to your personal data, to anyone. If anyone wants access, they can get access themselves without you.
I even once gave the border an entire database encrypted with our key solution, told them how it was encrypted and that the key for decryption was already sitting at an office in the US, so even if I wanted to get the data, I couldn't, they had no choice but to let me travel. You're not blacking anything by refused to decrypt data or let them into the system. In our case, we're going to the Nth degree and making it a physical problem, where it doesn't matter if you know the password, because it's point to point tied down.
I support anyone who refused to give up access, it's the right thing to do, the access isn't theirs and if it is, they can enter it themselves.
you go to room 101 the last guy cracked in 5 days.,
Why are duress passwords not a standard feature at this point?
Because they are useless once the party causing the duress becomes aware that such a thing exists.
Agent: "Give me your password" ...
You: "Here you go"
Agent: Clubs you with a wrench. "Give me your REAL password, smartass"
You:
I figured he must have been sitting in a boat being towed in.
Or else the agents were all women and the submitter badly misspelled "broad".
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
An alternate password could be used to give more limited device access, or execute actions such as immediately wipe device, etc.
Is there a particularly sane reason you're so obsessed with apps?
Where are the Illiberals going to flee now, should a Republican win elections?
Why is my real account disabled?
Hey Canada, I know that you look up to us like some kind of big brother of big brothering but if you could just stop copying us that would be great, if you keep just copying everything we do I'm going to tell England!
but I thought for US you are not required to even speak to the border agent.
Unfortunately, in these cases, it sounds like the border agents has sufficient cause to investigate, given that this person had traces of cocaine on them.
However, how easy would it be for me to dust you with cocaine, knowing that you're ahead of me in line, to divert the attention of the authorities.
In either case, I'm sorry, I am NOT giving you my password to my phone, and before I even enter the airport, I'm going to turn my phone off, forcing it to require the password (and not my fingerprint).
Which leads to another question: should we even be using biometric data to unlock our phones? I'm starting to think not, and given that I rarely use my thumbprint anyways, I should just probably turn that all off.
Good luck trying this with U.S. ICE and/or CBP. There are no good outcomes.
* You could be interrogated for hours
* You could be arrested
* You could be refused entry
* Your device could be seized
"I don't know the password" will likely get your device seized.
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
I noticed in those bordercontrol reality tv shows that people coming from cities like Amsterdam are under less scrutiny when they test positive for drugs particle, because 90% of the people will have those.
I'm tired of this "manishs" person not having a better grasp of English, but also authoring 90% of the /. links I follow here from Twitter. The embarrassments are mounting for whoever it is -- if they CAN be embarrassed. I dunno. Some of the articles posted seem possessed of a political slant suggesting a personality of really odd affect.
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
So, like... DUDE. I'm not just a boarder, bro. I'm a boarder AGENT. Shyaw! So, like... ya gotta give me yer password, bro. Cuz, if you don't, I will TOTALLY fine yer ass, dude.
sig: sauer
Can we put the phone in a mode that refuses to unlock when near a border?
It was a Blackberry, don't they already have the password? That's what everyone is led to believe by the phone fetish trolls.
If you have anything that you need to keep away from prying border patrol eyes, leave it at home. If you need to access it while abroad, put it on your home computer, set up a VPN server on your router, and while you're abroad just VPN in and use remote desktop or VNC to access it.
The entire rights situation is very murky at the border because technically you're not yet on U.S. soil until you pass Customs and Immigration. The SCotUS has ruled multiple times that U.S. Constitutional protections do not apply outside of U.S. soil (which is why Bush put a prison at Guantanamo - it is a U.S. base but on Cuban soil).
If you try to play cute tricks with CBP like your encryption key thing, even if they let you in they'll probably flag your file in their database. From then on, EVERY TIME you try to enter the country again, you'll get to enjoy a 1-3 hour delay while they scrutinize everything about you because of the flag. A German friend of mine was dating a U.S. citizen so was visiting frequently and spending a lot of time here. One of the border guards suspected the dating was a cover story and he was secretly working in the U.S. and flagged him in the database. From then on, every time he tried to enter the U.S. it was a multi-hour circus as they put him into an interrogation room and questioned him. It finally ended when he married the girl and became a U.S. citizen.
... is ask the Canadian Mounted Police.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/4...
But hey, 5000 bucks bonus.
Dang it!!!!1 Foiled again!!!1
This is like that one time at band camp when Apple wouldn't give the FBI their passwords.
All we need is more Slashdot FBI news. This will fix everything. Get them all into black Escalades ASAP and don't forget the cheap sunglasses.
Sale @ Nordstrom Rack too.
If you assume he is an evil cocaine dealer, the only impact is a $500 fine!??! Ya, that's a very effective deterrence.
Like I was with our IT guys. Fools thought I'd just give them my password when they asked for it. Told them to go screw themselves.
They respected me for standing my ground. Why the very next day when I couldn't get logged into my computer they were very understanding and reset my password for me even after I'd been so harsh with them the day before.
Snow bunnies have Canadian Rights too!
That said, if you were a Canadian, you'd be entitled to tell them to stuff it.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
1. Backup phone
2. Wipe Phone
3. Travel
4. Restore phone from backup.
Repeat on the return trip.
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
A much better summary is found here:
/. fights me on this.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/alain-philippon-phone-password-case-powers-of-border-agents-and-police-differ-1.2983841
Apologies for the poor formatting of the link, but for some reason
Most police field tests are utter bullshit and will product a positive result off of air.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
If you really need your phone, spend the cash and FedEx it to yourself each direction.
Otherwise, get a prepaid phone at your destination and discard it before you leave.
boarders! or is it borders?
You need 2 passwords to your phone. Both log into your phone, but the second one lets you see/use a private folder. You give them the first and everything looks real because it is- file dates look good, games get played, email is there, texting files ok- except that some stuff is missing that they don't know about. Better than a duress password, because there is no way to identify it as a duress password.
It is unclear if he provided the password while agreeing to the fine.
Like anyone ever does?
It's legal to take cash across the border. Traces of cocaine isn't the same as possessing cocaine. If he had originally crossed to traffic drugs, they missed their rightfully chance to detain him. For all they know, a coke fiend sneezed on his luggage.
No doubt this person works as a Sales agent for some medium-large size corporation. They all have addictions of one sort or another and cling to their Blackberry's due to how easy it is to reply to email and maintain their own contact lists.
As others have said, even when they are legally in the wrong border security agents can still ruin your day or your entire trip—they can easily make you miss your domestic connecting flight. They can also keep your equipment for years—as they are doing in this very case. The simplest strategy is to not have any kind of valuable data on your electronic devices when you cross the border. You can send all of your data via the internet. Don't carry it on your person where you have to suffer harassment to protect it.
Your devices should look completely normal while containing no personal information about you. You should be able to hand them over to a border security agent and give a working password that has no relation to your usual one. When they log in, they should see a device with no personal information of any kind. No photos, no incoming text messages, no emails, no documents, no web browser history, etc.
A few people have suggested a dummy password that logs into a restricted access dummy account. That's risky. If they take your phone or laptop into another room for an hour they may discover that it has inaccessible data on it and the usual harassment will ensue. Setting your phone to wipe itself after three failed password attempts may work, but only if they can log in with the correct password after it’s been wiped and see what looks like a normal, working phone.
You have to do it every time, but wiping and preparing your devices before crossing the border is the most effective solution.
On a side note, my phone is a bit of a problem. So long as the SIM is in it, it will receive any incoming calls or text messages. I can wipe those just before I go through customs, but the agents can read anything that comes in while they have the phone. I could hide the SIM somewhere in my luggage, but then I'd have a suspicious phone and they might find the SIM and get angry. I guess the best strategy is to leave your SIM at home and buy a temporary phone plan and SIM at your destination.
Canadian border agents can say fuck off to a returning Canadian citizen? That's new to me...
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
Geez, why does always this 'Bubba' turn up in law enforcement discussions?
Is that another type of godwin, a bubba-win or so?
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
...are prohibited items. Mere possession can bring you in big, very big trouble.
Gee, I wonder why they enacted *that law...
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
"Relax! You motherfucker! RELAX!"
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
Twice I noticed in the newspaper that someone coming from Amsterdam and travelling through airports like Dubai, Qatar, had to stay there for a few years for that very same reason. In prison, that is.
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
It would be much less complicated to back up your phone to a trusted, secure and only known to you, location and wipe it before you enter oppressive countries like the USA, Canada, and then re-sync it once you're out of the constitution free zone. My God what a mess. You still call it 'the land of the brave and the free'?
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
I used to find this site interesting and amusing, now it's seems to be a bunch of smart alecs trying to out bullshit each other good bye