Simon's Burners

Privacy Crossing Borders

I carry two phones when I travel, to have a local device and a roaming one. They're securely wiped before crossing borders and restored from the cloud on the other side.

The border officials of many countries are entitled to search a traveller's devices without a warrant and without any sort of justification. This is particularly true for New Zealand where the Ardern Regime imposed a draconian surveillance apparatus as part of her war on Free Speech. Remember the Right to Silence? There isn't one: refusing to give a border official (or the police) your access passcodes is a criminal offence.

Customs officials are entitled to search the device but they routinely exceed this authority and search everything your device has access to: all of the data in your online accounts. They habitually capture everything and store it as part of the electronic profile the state builds for every citizen.

All without a warrant or a reason, because Ardern.

This authoritarian, police state imposition upon civil liberties is relatively easy to circumvent, at least crossing borders. I factory reset and secure wipe the devices and happily divulge the passcode - knock yourselves out searching this blank phone, dicks. Then I restore the data from the cloud when I'm on the other side using a passcode only I know and that currently, I can't be compelled to divulge.

Domestically it's a different story. Judith Collins shepherded through the legislation that compels speech and removes the right to silence. If the police in New Zealand want access to any of your data you have to provide it or you're going to gaol, and that includes absolutely everything: all data stored anywhere, even outside New Zealand’s jurisdiction. You don't need to worry though: Ardern and Mrs. Collins have your best interests at heart and you can of course, trust the NZ Police to operate with integrity and abide by the law.

Right?

-SRA. Auckland, 9/vi 2025.