
Canadian journalist's detention at US border raises press freedom alarms - anigbrowl
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/02/business/media/canadian-journalists-detention-at-us-border-raises-press-freedom-alarms.html
======
jliptzin
Don't be fooled, Canadian border patrol proudly engages in this as well. I was
recently driving across the border to Montreal on vacation when Canadian
border agents, in addition to searching my car and personal belongings,
demanded to see my cell phone and turn over the password. I simply asked why,
since I didn't think I was doing anything suspicious, at which point the agent
angrily responded "because I can and now I'm going to search it extra
thoroughly." I asked what would happen if I didn't turn the password over and
just went back home to the US, they told me they'd seize the device and put me
in prison until they break into it. So, I gave the password, 3 agents took it
in the back for 45 minutes, came back and questioned me about some texts I had
with a friend from months ago who was talking about marijuana, and eventually
let me pass to Canada. Hopefully they didn't hold on to all my personal data
or install backdoors but just in case I wiped the phone and reinstalled from a
backup.

In any case, this was extremely intrusive and I couldn't stop thinking about
it the whole trip. I wondered what would happen if I had actually forgotten my
phone password - just weeks before I changed from a 6 digit numeric code to a
longer alphanumeric and almost forgot it since it had been a while since the
last time I restarted my phone requiring password entry. I had a lot of very
private photos and conversations on there with my SO. Definitely ruined my
whole vacation.

Edit: Also, they didn't just stick to private photos and messages, they even
opened up dating apps checking for messages there, opened up unread snap and
kik messages too.

~~~
makecheck
I’ve always found it ridiculous that the content of devices is fair game.
There is literally nothing on a phone that couldn’t be digitally downloaded
after crossing the border (therefore no “threat” by bringing the phone with
you). Similarly, there is no possible way to harm an airplane based on what is
present on a laptop; and even if there were, you could buy in-flight WiFi and
download the bits after boarding. You could cross the checkpoint with a
_blank_ device and in seconds have it populated with whatever you wanted to
have. It’s insane.

~~~
drvdevd
Right - and apparently this is exactly what you _should_ do. Always travel
with throwaway and/or wiped devices. Don't trust a device that's been seized
and returned.

~~~
toomuchtodo
I can't upvote this enough. I'm a law abiding citizen, but I still wipe my
phone and restore from iCloud after I've made my way through customs or border
control.

~~~
drvdevd
Yes and you have to keep in mind that just because someone has the legal
_authority_ to seize your posession, you have no reason to trust that what
they will do with it will be legal as well. For all you know they can do any
number of stupid and/or malicious things with your device that don't reflect
the intentions of the government they represent either (being generous here).
They are just people, after all.

~~~
AJ007
If you run a startup with millions of users it is reckless to assume you will
not be the target of industrial espionage when crossing a foreign border or
traveling in a foreign state.

------
loceng
'Agents requested access to his phones and to look through his photos so that
they could make sure he was “not posing next to any dead bodies,” he said.
When he refused, citing the need to protect his sources as a journalist, they
took the phones, he said.

The phones were later returned and showed signs that the SIM cards had been
replaced, he said. Giving up the contents of his private phone would be akin
to a doctor giving up confidential patient information, he said.

“I’m not going to open my phone for any other country,” Mr. Ou, a New York
Times contributor who was an intern for the news organization in 2010, said in
a phone interview on Thursday from Nunavut, Canada. “I can’t be expected to do
the same for the U.S.”

Jason Givens, a United States Customs and Border Protection spokesman,
declined to comment on Mr. Ou’s case, citing privacy laws.'

 _facepalm_

~~~
mmanfrin

      citing privacy laws
    

l o l

~~~
AtheistOfFail
The irony is fucking palpatable.

~~~
na85
You mean palpable?

------
nostromo
I'm so embarrassed how America treats people entering the U.S.

It's the first experience foreigners have in our country, and we make it one
of the worst experiences in the developed world.

Industries that benefit from tourism should lobby the Federal Government to
improve the travel experience to, from, and within the US. I personally would
fly at least a few more times a year if the TSA/CBP process treated people
with urgency and dignity.

~~~
TillE
It's usually a pretty grim experience even as a citizen reentering the US, but
at least we're not required to give our fingerprints. I would never travel to
a country which demanded that.

~~~
harshreality
I don't know about your state, but a few years ago mine started requiring a
full set of fingerprints for driver's license renewal.

~~~
edmccard
>a few years ago mine started requiring a full set of fingerprints for
driver's license renewal.

Is it Texas? I think they gave up on that last year:

[http://www.dallasnews.com/news/news/2015/02/06/texas-dps-
sto...](http://www.dallasnews.com/news/news/2015/02/06/texas-dps-stops-
collecting-fingerprints-drivers-license-applicants)

~~~
0xC0DECAFE2020
Texas still does fingerprints at the DMV. I'm amazed how many texans have no
clue until they renew.

------
tristor
I work remotely and travel the world. I'm also a staunch privacy advocate. My
mode for travel is to ensure any device I bring with me has a minimum of data
on it, has full encryption, and is powered off before crossing any security
boundary.

If the device is powered off it requires a complete pass phrase to decrypt and
is not susceptible to cold boot attacks. Beyond that I will adamantly refuse
to turn over my passwords to ANYONE, EVER. Anybody who has a legitimate need
to bypass my authentication has the ability to do so without my passwords (ala
SSO at work). If that ends up with me being unjustly imprisoned, I will fight
that battle when it happens.

My findings though are there are two types of border agents that ask inanely
stupid things like having you login to a device. The first are bullies on a
power trip. These guys will make spurious claims and try to hold you to them,
hopefully their supervisors are more reasonable or things go South fast.

The second type are wheedling opportunists. These guys will ask for
unreasonable things as an opening to negotiate a large bribe or because they
think you'll play along and let them display a power trip to their nearby
cronies. If you're adamant and serious, they'll usually just not target you.

The fact this sort of behavior is becoming commonplace in the "more civilized"
parts of the world is truly worrisome though. Corruption in most Western
governments tends to be at the top, not officers taking bribes. That means
this behavior has the full backing of the law (or at least some semblance) and
you play a real risk of your entire life being ruined if you don't comply.
Personally I still plan to refuse and not give in, but that's not a reasonable
choice for most people in this situation. The whole thing is disgusting.

~~~
micaksica
This guy gets it.

I have the laptop I'm currently working on, and then I have a specialized
"travel" laptop that contains _nothing_. It is pretty much a basic Linux
laptop that contains an unencrypted volume containing a basic workstation.
We're talking netbook level of sophistication. Same goes with the phone. I
have a Dual SIM device that I use when traveling, and it has no email creds or
anything on it. Both devices could get cooked and I will just be out a shitty
computer and phone. (I also have "China only" devices, but that's a special
case.) They contain basic applications I need to use when traveling and that's
all.

If I _really_ need one of my work machines and I can't get data from it in
country, I will just EMS it to my hotel before I get on the plane.

Border crossings are hostile territory. Take as little as you need for your
trip, and don't take any electronic device you will feel bad forfeiting to
border patrol or being compromised when it gets taken "in the back room".
Assume anything you have on you will be stolen from you or used against you to
get a bribe. Doesn't matter if it's North America or South America, Southeast
Asia or the Middle East.

------
ericthor
Another case from 2013...

US Citizens, Phones stolen, detained without explanation, and officers refused
to give names.

"OTM producer Sarah Abdurrahman, her family, and her friends were detained for
hours by US Customs and Border Protection on their way home from Canada.
Everyone being held was a US citizen, and no one received an explanation.
Sarah tells the story of their detainment, and her difficulty getting any
answers from one of the least transparent agencies in the country."

It's an audio podcasts, but there are transcript as well.

[http://www.wnyc.org/story/my-detainment-story-or-how-i-
learn...](http://www.wnyc.org/story/my-detainment-story-or-how-i-learned-stop-
feeling-safe-my-own-country-and-hate-border-patrol/)

More on the subject. [http://www.wnyc.org/story/on-the-
media-2014-02-28/](http://www.wnyc.org/story/on-the-media-2014-02-28/)

------
leeoniya
"Keeping America safe and enforcing our nation’s laws in an increasingly
digital world depends on our ability to lawfully examine all materials
entering the U.S.,"

What does "lawfully" even mean in this context? It's one of those words used
specifically to excuse legally questionable practices at best, and outright
illegal or unethical behavior by people in positions of authority, like
parallel construction and evidence suppression.

You can say we lawfully performed a civil forfieture. Or lawfully detained a
suspect for 8 months.

~~~
neom
Keep in mind that constitutional principles do not apply fully at US borders.

~~~
mindslight
Constitutional principles _do_ fully apply at borders, just as they fully
apply to all people, including non-citizens outside of the country.

The courts have helpfully manufactured justifications for violating them
though, just as any tyrant would.

------
NotSammyHagar
This appears to be a horrifying development. There has been similar treatment
of journalists writing about Edward Snowden. I wish there was will to change
our laws to restrict such searches, but it aint happening right now.

~~~
marricks
Notably Laura Poitras (US citizen) even before she covered Snowden was
harassed at border crossing for her coverage of the Iraq war.

It is truly scary how bad things have gotten just under Obama, someone who
campaigned for "change" and disclosure.

With Trump, a man who has been extremely litigious against journalist who
cover him negatively, it's terrifying to consider how much worse things can
get.

One can only hope our judicial system is ready to stand up to these challenges
in the next four years because I'm not sure what other support we'll have, and
they have already been pretty awful protecting press freedom...

~~~
anigbrowl
_hope our judicial system is ready to stand up to these challenges_

Even if it is, have you noticed how little regard the extreme right has for
the judicial branch? They claim to be constitutionalists while ignoring any
interpretations (or citations) that don't support their position on any given
issue.

~~~
marricks
Yep... I honestly have little to no hope.

------
colmvp
I tried arguing this persons privacy yet I got highly downvoted on /r/canada,
for points that I felt I couldn't refute, specifically that crossing a nations
border is not a right but a privilege, and that most Western nations have
similar POVs when it comes to the right for border officers to inspect
laptops/phones.

I know that the ACLU and EFF have fought to defend Americans from having their
laptops/phones inspected at the border, but I believe I read they haven't had
much success in the legal system.

I still don't understand the rationale behind being able to inspect someones
computer/mobile phone. Even in the case of say, possessing child pornography,
I would assume most people are caught by tracked websites than random searches
at the border?

~~~
ryanobjc
Canadians don't believe in absolute free speech or privacy.

In legal situations, this pops up:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace,_order,_and_good_governm...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace,_order,_and_good_government)

Don't forget Canada is very homogeneous and they are just as likely to fall
victim to "other-ing" and fear mongering.

If you are fitting in, you're ok in Canada. If you arent, well no end of
troubles awaits you. Just ask all the queer bookstores that had their
shipments endlessly fucked with by the border/customs agents.

Canada isn't quite a liberal nirvana, they just happen to have less crime and
single payer healthcare.

~~~
devilsavocado
In what way is Canada homogeneous? I've never heard anyone say that before. I
would think it was much less homogeneous than much of the western world,
especially the US. I know Toronto is usually called the most diverse city in
the world.

------
Aloha
As an American, I find this extremely disconcerting. I've long been deeply
bothered by the unlimited power the border patrol has, and the lack of
transparency it shows when it takes action. Nor am I comfortable how far
beyond the border these extended powers are claimed by CBP to exist either.

Frankly, entering the country should be a much more transparent process - and
barring something I dont know, I see no reason why this journalist should have
been denied entry, other than someone at the border got a hair up their ass
about it.

------
sqeaky
I am deeply concerned for the state of my country people say stupid shit like
this:

> “Keeping America safe and enforcing our nation’s laws in an increasingly
> digital world depends on our ability to lawfully examine all materials
> entering the U.S.,” Mr. Givens said in a statement on Thursday.

People who say this fail to realize they are the threat.

~~~
michaelcampbell
> People who say this fail to realize they are the threat.

I don't think they care, honestly.

~~~
sqeaky
Does that make them more or less dangerous?

------
yladiz
It doesn't mention in the article if he had a work visa, but I imagine he did
if he was assigned by CBC to cover the event. It's pretty terrible that a
journalist would be denied entry into a country that supposedly has high press
freedom on an official assignment because the government (or maybe just the
officer who denied him) doesn't like what's happening in Standing Rock. It's
even stranger that 1) he is a well known _Canadian_ journalist, so he's
probably as low risk as someone could be, and 2) if this would have been a
problem, I'm sure that CBC would have taken care of it ahead of time and made
sure everything was in order, but it must be so routine for journalists to
come from Canada that there wasn't any other necessary preparations besides
getting the visa (which should be enough anyway...). We might not have
"minders" while we're in the country, but it seems we now have them when
entering.

------
buildbot
Given how everything in most phones is by default encrypted these days, I
wonder how diffult I would be for someone like Apple to offer a border
crossing mode that has whatever apps you deem acceptable, while firewalling
off others in an undetectable way?

~~~
tajen
> Given how everything in most phones is by default encrypted these days

Android isn't encrypted, is it? You can encrypt it BUT say goodbye to your
pattern-based login, you'll have to type a password on the Qwerty keyboard
every time. So, I don't think anyone enables encryption on Android.

~~~
kuschku
Actually, Android is encrypted per default (required) since 5.0.

You can encrypt with different passphrases at boot and login time, too.

~~~
vinay427
You can also use a pattern login to decrypt at boot and unlock at login,
contrary to what the grandparent comment stated.

------
vijayp
If he actually flew out of YVR, he was probably in a us preclearance area --
us customs are located in some Canadian airports so flights can go directly
into us domestic terminals.

Since those screenings are on Canadian territory, us agents do not have police
powers or the right to detain people. They can deny entry but people can leave
at any time unless they have violated Canadian law.
([https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_border_preclea...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_border_preclearance))

If this was the case, he could have simply left the airport at any time.

~~~
dblohm7
I prefer going through US Preclearance in Canada due to the fact that I am
still subject to Canadian law when doing so. I don't understand why this
wasn't even mentioned in the article.

------
TazeTSchnitzel
Interestingly, even US citizens aren't exempted from this. Constitutional
rights seemingly don't apply at the border.

~~~
theandrewbailey
And CBP considers the "border" as a 100-mile strip inland around borders and
coastlines.

[https://www.aclu.org/other/constitution-100-mile-border-
zone](https://www.aclu.org/other/constitution-100-mile-border-zone)

~~~
wyldfire
> Roughly two-thirds of the United States' population lives within the
> 100-mile zone

I knew it was a lot but I didn't guess two thirds. That makes it laughable.

------
plg
Q: do customs agents (in either USA or Canada) have the right to ask for
social network passwords, even if you don't cross with a device? e.g.
Facebook? Gmail? what about Dropbox? I suppose you could try "I don't have an
account on that" but what if they know you do?

~~~
xyzzy_plugh
"what if they know you do?" \-- how?

~~~
plg
Maybe your FB identity is public even if your detailed profile isn't

------
spinlock
I'm sure the journalist would have used a burner phone if he were traveling to
China or North Korea. He just needs to understand that the United States of
America has a similar view of his human rights.

------
pasbesoin
OT but pertaining to increasing frictions at/across borders.

I'm in the U.S. Today -- for the first time in quite some time -- I went to
the post office to mail a small box to an old friend in Belgium. Five
paperback books and an inexpensive ceramic dish with a catchy/inspiring quote
on it. $38 worth of gifts. Weighed in at 3 lbs, 10 oz.

I'm used to being able to mail something like that for, I don't know, $15
-$20. Maybe $25.

Today, the cheapest option they have for such a thing is "first class". $50.
For less than four pounds, in a small cardboard box.

The postal clerk told me she herself has been shocked by the increases. The
supposed explanation: "Security."

As I commented elsewhere, it's almost like they don't want us to have
international family and friends, anymore.

------
kazinator
> _questioned about whether he had seen anyone die._

"Why, yes; that 151 foot copper lady standing between New York and Jersey,
what's'erface."

------
intro-b
search, interrogation, and intimidation are timeless and scary-effective ways
of maintaining control of narratives and perspectives

the maintenance of physical borders is not only about the physicality of
keeping people out, but ideas and expression, the conceptual border guard, too

------
huangc10
As a Canadian living in the US, I've had a lot of trouble with US Customs at
both airports (YVR, YYZ) and border crossing (Vancouver, Niagara).

However, I don't deny that it is at times necessary for Customs officers to be
more strict. I would rather the officers do their jobs correctly and prevent
incidents (drug smuggling, terrorism etc.) from happening.

Although at times they do seem to be unnecessarily aggressive.

~~~
sanswork
99% of my experiences crossing the border between the US and CA have been
pretty pleasant though I have had some stand out bad ones. At YYZ flying to
Florida my wife and I were pulled out of line into secondary screening. We go
up to the desk and they ask us how we can afford to be in the US for 3 months
without working. We tell them we have savings they ask if they can see our
bank accounts and we say sure then they say "thats ok go take a seat for a
minute". They then held us there for over an hour until exactly when our
flight was scheduled to depart then called us up and told us we could go. The
whole time we had to sit there and watch them sit behind their desks chatting.
It was infuriating and we lost our business class seats because the next
flight was nearly full.

Ambassador bridge is constantly a positive experience for us but Rainbow
bridge my wife(Australian) always gets grilled rudely.

------
nickthemagicman
Journalists should start publishing under anonymous public/private keys over
VPN's and Tor...or something along those lines Satoshi style.

I have a feeling with all this ugly Nationalism starting to rear its head in
the world, journalists publishing unpopular opinions towards the mainstream
Zeitgeist are going to be vulnerable to witch hunts.

------
refurb
_“That wall of naïveté that I had about the freedom of the press in the U.S.
kind of shattered at that moment.”_

Freedom of the press means reporters can publish whatever they like. The CBP
isn't stopping him from doing that. It certainly doesn't mean that reporters
are free from searches that the average citizen has to put up with.

~~~
uabstraction
Woah now, the average citizen shouldn't be subject to digital cavity searches
either!

~~~
refurb
First off, no cavity searches here.

Second, yes I agree the border police take things too far. However, I resent
the "but you're taking away the freedom of the press" hyperbole.

Sorry, just because you're a journalist doesn't mean you get a free pass at
the borders. Maybe that should be the focus of the story?

------
hysan
Having recently returned to the US after moving abroad 5 years ago, I was
pretty shocked by how much more security there was in the airports. Not only
that, the manner and air of the various security workers made it feel like
everyone was a terrorist threat. I felt guilty when being checked even though
I had nothing to be guilty of. Has the American populace really become used to
this level of treatment like a frog slowly being boiled alive?

Compare this to the many countries I visited on vacation and while some, for
example China, have similarly strict and high levels of security, none of them
made me feel like I was some sort of terrorist. It makes me wonder what sort
of training the security staff goes through. Are they taught to treat people
like this? Or are people skills simply not a requirement for a job that
requires talking to people all day?

------
neom
I clicked this expecting to read that they wanted to know if he was allowed to
work there or that he needed some obscure work permit or something, however
what unfolded is truly bizarre, especially the part about looking for photos
with dead bodies. Tangentially: I've crossed the border from Canada to the US
so many times, applied for multiple visas etc. Sometimes I feel like if the
enforcement officers wonder that they themselves are ignorant of the law (I do
imagine there is some complexity and nuance to approving crossings outside of
the standard tourist or B1 visa) they go into random and long checks to figure
out what they are supposed to do, but on the traveler side it feels like
they're figuring out if you are doing the right thing (if that makes sense).

------
webmaven
See Also:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13092752](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13092752)

------
kakashi19
When you're entering the U.S. or Canada, you surrender your rights by default.
The border agents can search all your belongings, including any of your
digital device. At the border, less is more; bring less, tell less. Once they
start digging, be prepared to answer a lot of questions.

------
negrit
Is there a truecrypt for iPhone?

------
fatdog
What kind of mobile filesystem wipers and SIM wipers are available?

I use Signal for txts, and while I believe it does not store plaintext txts on
the SIM card (haven't analyzed it), SSDs strew cleartext data all over the
place. Border guards using a disk imager like EnCase or something similar
would get significant fragments of browser and communications history.

Key thing is if you have an iPhone, don't use TouchID, or as I call it, "Apple
Bad Touch," because they can just hold you down and run your finger over it.

It's best to travel with a burner. Maybe we need a cyanogenmod image that
includes a "duress key" like TC had, and old RSA tokens, but if there is
anything on your phone that could be used against people you know, don't take
it across borders.

------
mzw_mzw
Disclaimer: US border control, including in this case, is in my view terrible,
unjust, and counterproductive. That being said:

There's a weird "OMG A JOURNALIST WAS HASSLED!" angle to the story that,
frankly, smells of aristocratic entitlement. Journalists aren't some superior
class entitled to swan about the world freely while us filthy plebeians wait
in line for toilet paper; at least in America, they're citizens with no more
-- and no fewer -- rights than anyone else, and that's the way it should be.
The First Amendment is for every citizen, not just those who've managed to get
credentials with someone.

Indeed, anyone advocating a reduction to border search insanity is likely
_harming their cause_ by linking it to journalists in particular, since
journalists are such a widely despised group. There's going to be a nonzero
number of people who are going to hear about a journalist being given trouble
at the border, even unjustly, and think "good," not "wow, that could happen to
me."

~~~
DanBC
> at least in America, they're citizens with no more -- and no fewer -- rights
> than anyone else

The border problems journalists have are mostly not connected to their 1st
amendment rights (which, after all, only operate for journalists inside the
US) but are about protecting sources.

Many of the US states have laws to protect journalistic materials and
journalist's sources.

------
debt
why would they tamper with or replace the sim cards?

seems like it'd be smarter these days to be more covert about your
photojournalism career; might be smart to have a cover.

also standing rock is reaching a boiling point. it's obviously becoming a
national security issue if they're stopping people at the border.

~~~
AtheistOfFail
You can clone modern SIM cards to extract the contacts later on or any data
that is stored on it (some phones save texts there)

