Alian Philippon, a 38-year-old citizen from Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec, will be facing up to 24,000 Canadian Dollars fine and one-year jail time for refusing to unlock his BlackBerry smartphone during airport security checking.

Reportedly, Philipon has been charged with ““obstructing border officials” for obstructing a detailed and intensive security screening by Halifax airport’s border service officials.

The Canadian has been detained since he did not let the security officials check his phone data by refusing to provide its password to Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers. He arrived this week from the Dominican Republic.

https://www.hackread.com/canadian-jaile ... e-airport/

That's a boot rough, aye?

wonder if it was this phone;

https://blackphone.ch/phone/#privatosvsandroid

What could they be looking for in his phone? I could see having to power it up before boarding a plane, to prove its a working phone and not just a phone case packed with C-4...but they demanded access to his data? Are they in the habit of cross-checking people's stored numbers and contacts against a list of possible terrorist numbers or something? Sounds like a lot of work.

Since they don't do this with everyone, I'm guessing this particular individual was on some sort of "watch list".

Interesting expose of the differences between US and Canadian search laws here: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense ... anada.html

StroppyChops wrote:Interesting expose of the differences between US and Canadian search laws here: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense ... anada.html

The last time I've been to the US (2013 if I remember right) my laptop was searched by the security at the Berlin airport as well - not just only switched on, they wanted me to enter the password so they can have a look at my files. I kept asking for the "why" and if there's a specific reason in my case to do so, but the answer was "just a routine check, if there's nothing you worry about just let it happen."

Wasn't actually in the mood to start an argument with them as it was my 24 days years-holiday and I don't wanted it to be blown up because of that. They went through a few folders - mainly with music and movies - and found out I had a seperate password protected folder for my army stuff (mainly insurance, schedules - nothing confidential or whatever). They wanted access to this folder as well, which I didn't agree to while showing them my military ID card <- huge mistake from my side, cause they became even more interested in it.

My back then gf knew what was coming now and had already her "well done, we gonna miss that flight now"-look on her face. I asked for the guys supervisor who arrived around 30 minutes later, provided him with the contact number of my own supervisor. They had a quick talk for less then 3 minutes within it was clarified I surely don't have any confidential information on me (would be hard anyway as this was only my private and not work laptop) and they please should just let me have my holiday.

Security supervisor checked with the guy searching my stuff, they had a look into their notepad and I was told: "That's not what we're looking for. Have a safe trip."

Was just about to open up my mouth again when my gf ungently boxed me and told me to cut it the fuck off.

Never found out what or for whome they were looking for - pretty sure I haven't been on any "watch list" or similar.

I'm sure it's not the case for any posted stories, but I predict we'll see a rise in this as media production houses try to rein in IP "losses"

There was a reported incident a couple of years ago where a traveller had his disk copied by border agents with the reason that he had "visited Thailand too much". He wasn't on a watchlist but they made sure to put him on one once they were finished with him.

The other day he flew back to the States. His problem occurred at the DHS office in Canada. These are run and owned by the US Customs. They took one look at his passport and were immediately suspicious. They basically told him that he had been “visiting Thailand too much”. In fact he had only been here twice, but he had done a side trip to Cambodia so I guess that didn’t help. Then he also had a Nepalese visa in his passport. What they then did was do a thorough search of both his clothes and bags. They even went through his laptop and copied his hard disks. They told him that he “may be human trafficking or smuggling drugs”. After going through all his pictures and also his bank books that he had on him, they finally let him go. But they made it clear to him that they had put his passport on a watch list now. No apology or anything for stopping him. No apology also for making him miss his connecting flight.

http://www.richardbarrow.com/2013/08/de ... -too-much/

I personally encrypt all and any data that I store. Not because I have anything to hide but because I am the only intended recipient of my private data. I don't travel much but if I ever encounter this problem I will much rather sit in jail than co-operate in a conspiracy against myself.

The entire situation is fucked. But I would much rather rot in a cell for protecting what is mine. Just my personal approach to this problem, I understand very well that others may care more about missing connecting flights and freedoms. It's a shame what our countries have turned into because terrorism and unicorns.

With that said:

It is also worth noting that the victim in the OP would have gone to jail for astronomical noise on his drives, too. Falkvinge said it better than I could:

We knew that this was the next step in the cat-and-mouse game over privacy, right? It starts with the government believing they have a right to interfere into any one of your seven privacies if they want to and find it practical. The next step, of course, is that the citizens protect themselves from snooping – at which point some bureaucrat will confuse the government’s ability to snoop on citizen’s lives for a right to snoop on citizen’s lives at any time, and create harsh punishments for any citizens who try to keep a shred of their privacy. This is not a remotely dystopic scenario; as we see, it has already happened in the UK.

But it’s worse than that. Much worse. You’re not going to be sent to jail for refusal to give up encryption keys. You’re going to be sent to jail for an inability to unlock something that the police think is encrypted. Yes, this is where the hairs rise on our arms: if you have a recorded file with radio noise from the local telescope that you use for generation of random numbers, and the police ask you to produce the decryption key to show them the three documents inside the encrypted container that your radio noise looks like, you will be sent to jail for up to five years for your inability to produce the imagined documents.

http://falkvinge.net/2012/07/12/in-the- ... noise-too/