Hacker News Reader

Comment by signed0 | Hacker News Reader

Encrypt the files you take with you. For good measure make a full backup and leave it behind with someone you trust.

Yes, I have multiple backups, and I intend to leave copies in places where they are retrievable through various means. However the issue isn't losing the data, although losing my expensive hardware (to which I have an irrational emotional attachment) would definitely leave me quite irate.

The issue is my privacy. It's not even that I have things which I feel some strong need to hide, but that my devices are inherently personal to me. Having gone through so much effort to fit yet more of my life into them has only strengthened this impression. The thought of having them forcefully confiscated and rifled through is makes me visibly agitated and angry.

If you come to my house and rifle through my underwear drawer, I don't care that you've seen my underwear. I care that you've invaded a place which consider to be private and exclusive to me and me alone.

Customs can request the encryption keys from you and did in this case. So not only encrypt everything, but use a hidden volume as well.

http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/plausible-deniability

Another way is to provide part of the key to someone that's not travelling. This person should not release the key to you until they're satisfied you've successfully completed your trip. You don't know the key, so you can't release it, and you'd have good proof to that effect.

At which point customs would permanently confiscate my things and perhaps deny entry into the country for my wife and me. The latter wasn't a threat for Mr. Blackman as I assume he's an NZ citizen. We're not NZ citizens, we're US citizens.

My understanding is that if you do not supply the key they can confiscate and destroy the media, though it will obviously vary from country to country.

The idea behind the hidden volume is that you can provide a key that works for the volume (and hopefully satisfies whoever is inspecting your data) while keeping your information private.

Reading the link supplied by patio11 above (recommended), I wonder if using a hidden volume would constitute an obstruction of customs investigation.

"Don’t Obstruct an Agent’s Investigation

Once it’s clear that a border agent is going to search your device or other possessions, don’t take any steps to destroy data or otherwise obstruct that process. Like lying, knowingly interfering with a border agent’s investigation is a serious crime."

https://www.eff.org/wp/defending-privacy-us-border-guide-tra...

It's entirely unclear in NZ whether there's any legal obligation to furnish your passwords. See: https://twitter.com/GraemeEdgeler/status/411040201062895616 (Graeme Edgeler is a well-known NZ law commentator).

Don't carry any encrypted data on your person, download it over the internettubes which pass right through customs.

Hardware can easily travel separately from bits.

1. Encrypt all of your backups.

2. Test your backups, or they are not backups (99% of people never test their backups.)

But encrypt it as strong as possible, with password + private-key.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com