Travel to New Zealand: Fines for tourists who won't unlock secure electronic devices

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Travel to New Zealand: Fines for tourists who won't unlock secure electronic devices

Updated
Under new laws, visitors to New Zealand can be fined for refusing to unlock their electronic devices.

Under new laws, visitors to New Zealand can be fined for refusing to unlock their electronic devices.

Visitors to New Zealand can be fined $NZ5000 ($A4575) for refusing to provide passwords to unlock electronic devices and allow customs officials to examine them under a new law that a civil liberties group on Thursday condemned as a grave invasion of privacy.

The law came into effect on October 1 as part of an update of 22-year-old customs legislation.

It also gives customs officials authority to copy data found on searched devices.

"The travelling public is unlikely to notice much difference at the border," the New Zealand Customs Service said in a statement last week.

But the New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties said the law gives customs officials the power to force travellers to unlock their smartphones without justification, and without legal options for travellers to challenge an order to enter a password.

"Modern smartphones contain a large amount of highly sensitive private information including emails, letters, medical records, personal photos, and very personal photos," council spokesman Thomas Beagle said in a statement.

"Allowing customs to be able to demand the right to examine and capture all this information is a grave invasion of personal privacy of both the person who owns the device and the people they have communicated with," Beagle said.

Beagle questioned whether the intrusion would catch criminals, who would prefer to pay the fine than expose evidence that could lead to prison.

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Criminals could also store their data in the cloud, travel with a wiped phone and restore the data once they passed customs, he said.

Customs Minister Kris Faafoi said the power to search electronic devices was necessary.

"A lot of the organised crime groups are becoming a lot more sophisticated in the ways they're trying to get things across the border.

"And if we do think they're up to that kind of business, then getting intelligence from smartphones and computers can be useful for a prosecution."

Border officials searched roughly 540 electronic devices at New Zealand airports in 2017.

Sophie Piearcey, who is from the UK and now lives in Queenstown, has mixed feelings about customs officials' new power.

"I can't say I'm 100 per cent pro the new law as your phone is a private place, hence why the majority of people do have the password feature installed.

"But if this law helps to crack down on crime, then I would rather feel safe in this country."

Piearcey said she would like to believe officials will not abuse their new power and that only "persons of interest" will be targeted.

Canadian Lauren Kostrom, who now lives in Canterbury and has travelled "quite a bit" between New Zealand, Canada and the US, can understand the rationale behind the new law, but would expect customs officials to explain why they wanted to look through a phone and what they were checking.

"Part of me feels like, if customs are suspicious enough to have to check your phone then maybe you are hiding something.

"I personally don't keep my phone locked. If I did though, and an official asked me to unlock it, I feel like I do deserve an honest explanation as to why and what they want to look through, whether it's banking, emails etc ... It would help with mutual respect."

Provided the official gave such an explanation, Kostrom said she wouldn't have a problem unlocking her phone.

"At the end of the day, I know I am just a girl travelling across the world with nothing to hide.

"There are a lot of shady things going down in airports with "travellers" and if this is something to help keep everyone safe, I can't fault that."

AP

See also: Best things to do in New Zealand

See also: Where to find New Zealand's best wines

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