How often do your devices get checked my immigration. Serious question.. I have never had anything stopped.

So far never, but it's the point they can request it and punish me if I refuse which is deeply concerning.

What? The US has been pulling this crap since 9/11, so I'm not sure what you're going on about IRT the Anglo-Sphere.

The US only has privacy rights for Americans. As a non-citizen traveler, they routinely belittle, humiliate, and violate such privacy, demanding access to people's phones at risk of detention (or at best being sent back home) being exactly one of the things they do. Ask almost any Canadian what they think about the border in the last 20 years.

I've also had them mock and belittle me for no reason ("what event are you going to?" "that sounds stupid."), just petty stuff.

I wipe my personal data when traveling to the US, which I pretty much only do for work. (And likely won't even do that anymore if Nov 5 goes to Trump)

> so I'm not sure what you're going on about IRT the Anglo-Sphere.

Australia is worse than the US for this, and worse than any other anglo country.

> The US only has privacy rights for Americans.

Yes, and Australia doesn't even have privacy rights for Australians. Hence worse.

> As a non-citizen traveler, they routinely belittle, humiliate, and violate such privacy, demanding access to people's phones at risk of detention (or at best being sent back home) being exactly one of the things they do. Ask almost any Canadian what they think about the border in the last 20 years.

The Australian border force isn't any better for this, you just don't see it because I presume you're an Australian citizen. The UK and Canada can be pretty bad as well. Shitty border personal are not unique to the US.

> I wipe my personal data when traveling to the US, which I pretty much only do for work.

The difference in the US is if you are a citizen or green card holder you can tell them to go suck eggs, and the worst they can do is confiscate your device.

In Australia, even if you're a citizen, you face IIRC a $5000 fine and possibly some jail time. So that's much worse.

They need a legal basis and they are required to cite that:

https://galballyparker.com.au/can-australian-border-force-se...

In my experience and by my reading of performance stats US Border force are far more intrusive and over bearing than Australian Border forces.

> They need a legal basis and they are required to cite that:

What is the bar for a legal basis? In practice it seems equivalent to the way cops claim to smell weed as grounds for a search.

> In my experience and by my reading of performance stats US Border force are far more intrusive and over bearing than Australian Border forces.

Anecdotes will be anecdotes, but I flew in and out of the US for years before becoming a citizen and never had issues. Honestly I found UK immigration to be the rudest and most intrusive but that was just my experience.

Also stats don't mean much since IIRC Australia stopped recording or at least making public the number of devices they search.

> What is the bar for a legal basis?

See link.

> In practice it seems equivalent to the way cops claim ...

How many times have you been asked to hand your phone over exactly? In any case, you're free to challenge, etc. See link.

> Anecdotes will be anecdotes, but I flew in and out of the US for years before becoming a citizen and never had issues.

Like most people then. Whether crossing US or Australian borders.

> I found UK immigration to be

So Australia's not the worst "anglo country" then?

> since IIRC Australia stopped recording or at least making public

Do you recall correctly? Did Australia stop? Are there Australians that have access to raw stats on health, border incidents, etc?

> See link.

A blog article from a law firm isn't a great source here, especially when contrasted with the numerous accounts of people that have been forced to unlock their devices without legal basis.

> In any case, you're free to challenge, etc. See link.

Not if a 'legal basis' is claimed.

> Like most people then. Whether crossing US or Australian borders.

Yup.

> So Australia's not the worst "anglo country" then?

Is the term anglosphere such an unfamiliar term you had to put anglo country in quotes?

Australia is the worst country when it comes to searching devices without justification, objectively going by laws and user experiences.

The UK is the worst country for being treated with a lack of respect and being asked intrusive questions in my experience.

> Do you recall correctly? Did Australia stop?

You're being overly defensive, lad.

Maybe put your patriotism/tribalism aside while having this discussion?

I read a few articles recently that said Australia had stopped recorded, so yes, fairly certain I am recalling correctly but not about to go and look it up either.

> And likely won't even do that anymore if Nov 5 goes to Trump

Lol you post was quite reasonable until that reveal.

What kind of thing do you have on your PC they’d care about?

Actually, I guess if you don’t want them to know you won’t tell me now either xD

I don’t like the idea of handing out my password any more, but wiping my PC is too much effort.

> What kind of thing do you have on your PC they’d care about?

You get that's not the point, right?

This seemed to be a fairly explicit case of “I hate traveling to Australia because of so and so”.

Sure, it’s retarded in general, but that was not what I was talking/asking about.

They apparently both have a need to travel to Australia, _and_ data on their PC that requires wiping. That makes me curious what kind of data that could be.

> _and_ data on their PC that requires wiping.

All data requires wiping because no government has a right to it without a warrant or as part of an investigation, no matter what the data is.

Yeah, no. If my 5 year old can look at it without worry, so can random airport guy number 34.

You continue to miss the point. But if you're happy handing over your personal data, and your stance is representative of most Australians, that's probably why privacy protections are so weak in Australia - most don't understand why they should care.

This. The old "if you've got nothing to hide then you've got nothing to worry about".

It's all good until the leopards start eating their face, then suddenly they understand the problem.