45

Omg, when does the Stupid stop? New Zealand just passed a law that empowers immigration officials to compel travellers to unlock their devices. Otherwise, you pay a hefty fine. They are also allowed to copy the data and do God knows what with.

The horrible invasion of privacy aside, it also brings with it some legal hurdles. What if you are making a presentation or report to an investor or someone you have a fiduciary obligation with. You are carrying IP bound by several NDA's and other funding red tape that would end your life if it got out. Are you in breach if the data gets copied by the gov officials? Worse yet you have zero control over what they do afterwards.

I don't think any of this inspires investor confidence.

Government needs to stop touching things!

Comments
  • 1
  • 0
    @elcore it might happen in like 10 years
  • 9
    What did you expect, it's a "Five Eyes" country, i.e. officially a rogue state. Just like the US.

    The solution for business is a clean laptop. Get the data over VPN once you're in. If customs grabs the laptop, it will be bugges, so destroy it and buy a new one. Just bill the clients for that one, it's their decision to run the company in such countries.
  • 5
    Well, Not gonna to New Zeland now...
  • 2
    Mhe, such behavior is just gonna create a market for data obfuscation app.
    You know something that once running will make your phone appear blank or encrypted.
  • 4
    They copy data ? Sounds like a great way to get hacked.
  • 3
    Yup this is fucking bullshit. I remember when this law came into place in the US when a very important NASA engineer (who under no fucking circumstances is allowed to unlock his phone, not even at the US border (disallowed BY the US)) came back to the US from a visit in one of the 'dangerous Muslim countries' and he couldn't enter the country unless he unlocked his phone. No suspicion or whatsoever and he wasn't even allowed to unlock it by the government of which agents refused him access to the country if he didn't unlock it at that very moment...
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