Indonesian moving to Australia soon, I’m just concerned my laptop/phone will be checked for pirated content.
The general rule of thumb I’ve seen around the internet is “encrypt your drive”, which is easy enough. But the other approach typically says “bring a burner phone / laptop” which of course isn’t viable in my case.
Can anyone confirm on the legitimacy of these claims? I know I pirate light (““light”” compared to the vets here), but I’m just so paranoid that I could be held up and sent back home, because this might be my only shot.
Veracrypt and use a hidden encrypted partition so you have plausible deniability. Remove the app after. If it’s encrypted it’ll be fine so long as it doesn’t look obvious.
I’ve never heard of border guards checking devices, ever… and definitely not randomly. If you’re paranoid the cloud is a safer option of course, as others have said. Backblaze is great for cost etc… but definitely encrypt before upload imo.
I’ve never experienced or heard of any airport checking the private contents of people’s devices. Wouldn’t that be a massive breach of privacy?
Also how would they know it’s pirated or not. Wouldn’t they have to check for licenses… Wouldn’t that be incredibly time consuming for staff to be checking?
Aussie here. They have the right to go through all your devices if they suspect you of smuggling or working or wanting to work illegally in Australia. They will read through all your private messages and have them translated if not in English. Even then I’ve never heard of airport security giving a rat’s ass about pirated stuff.
Your odds of getting caught are extremely low, but if you are you will be deported and have your visa cancelled (as an Aussie our border guards really do suck I’m sorry). I genuinely wouldn’t risk if it you’re moving here. If it was just a holiday and you didn’t care too much about getting banned then sure, but definitely not worth risking a work visa on.
The lowest risk way is to put it on a cloud drive and download it on arrival in Oz.
Anecdotal, and obligatory from the US, but I’ve never heard of airport security searching electronic devices for illegal content, even when I’ve travelled abroad. Hell, nowadays we just stick our weed in a carryon bag and TSA doesn’t bat an eye, most security agents in any airport I’ve been through are more concerned about weapons and explosives. Maybe if you get flagged for a deep inspection, but their more likely to inspect your bum than a hard drive in my experience. But that this with a grain of salt from a rando on the internet.
I worked within an international terminal (KORD) and have taken hundreds of people through customs. I can safely say there has never been an instance where digital media is accessed, even in secondary which you’re brought to for further assessment when under suspicion. Only thing I’ve seen is accessing recent calls for passengers suspected of lying on their visa and being in contact with relatives; but if their phone is locked they can’t do jack.
Without rambling too much, unless you’re like actively commiting some type of criminal import activity, no border agent will care what you have.
Kiwi here, been to Oz couple of times. Never heard of them checking for pirated content.
But if it’s stressing you, you may appear stressed when checked at customs and that’s never good. So for peace of mind I’d just delete it and redownload when you are in.
Don’t be daft. Suspicious is not irrelevant when you’re trying to clear immigration after a long flight.
Suspicious behaviour is, not surprisingly, a criteria which law enforcement considers when deciding whether detainment and more invasive searches are appropriate under the circumstances.
After a long flight who want’s to be stuck in an interrogation room for hours debating the finer points of personal liberties and privacy… all because you don’t want to decrypt your pirate collection of the marvel cinematic universe, which is not illegal to have in your possession anyway.
Is it a crime not to provide access to encrypted data? I honestly don’t know, I imagine it’s a complex legal question which depends on the circumstances. Even if you may lawfully decline, they could lawfully detain you while obtaining a court order.
Damn, didn’t think this would gain this much traction. Thanks for the suggestions and help everyone.
Judging from the fact that I’m going with a Student Visa, I guess my best course of action is just uploading it to a cloud service. Might not be the most bandwidth efficient, yes, but sure as hell has the best chance of succeeding.
Again, many thanks for the suggestions, seafarers! May your ship sail smooth, mateys.
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Do you have an address you can just mail it to?
Veracrypt and use a hidden encrypted partition so you have plausible deniability. Remove the app after. If it’s encrypted it’ll be fine so long as it doesn’t look obvious.
I’ve never heard of border guards checking devices, ever… and definitely not randomly. If you’re paranoid the cloud is a safer option of course, as others have said. Backblaze is great for cost etc… but definitely encrypt before upload imo.
The hidden volume part is important. Key disclosure laws are a thing in multiple countries
Listen to him, this man speaks truth
If you’ve got a light amount of content, it may be easier to just delete it, then redownload at the other end?
If you’ve got a visa on the line, it’s probably not worth it.
I’ve never experienced or heard of any airport checking the private contents of people’s devices. Wouldn’t that be a massive breach of privacy?
Also how would they know it’s pirated or not. Wouldn’t they have to check for licenses… Wouldn’t that be incredibly time consuming for staff to be checking?
Im in serious doubt this would be a thing.
Aussie here. They have the right to go through all your devices if they suspect you of smuggling or working or wanting to work illegally in Australia. They will read through all your private messages and have them translated if not in English. Even then I’ve never heard of airport security giving a rat’s ass about pirated stuff.
This is my understanding. They can review devices, buy pirate materials are not illegal, so I don’t think they would care.
Wow, that is insane, i didnt know Australia does that.
True that.
Good lord. That’s kinda scary I’m from the EU and that sounds to me like a major violation of privacy.
Your odds of getting caught are extremely low, but if you are you will be deported and have your visa cancelled (as an Aussie our border guards really do suck I’m sorry). I genuinely wouldn’t risk if it you’re moving here. If it was just a holiday and you didn’t care too much about getting banned then sure, but definitely not worth risking a work visa on.
The lowest risk way is to put it on a cloud drive and download it on arrival in Oz.
Anecdotal, and obligatory from the US, but I’ve never heard of airport security searching electronic devices for illegal content, even when I’ve travelled abroad. Hell, nowadays we just stick our weed in a carryon bag and TSA doesn’t bat an eye, most security agents in any airport I’ve been through are more concerned about weapons and explosives. Maybe if you get flagged for a deep inspection, but their more likely to inspect your bum than a hard drive in my experience. But that this with a grain of salt from a rando on the internet.
Yeah, this is good advice for US domestic flights, but customs is a whole different ballgame.
I worked within an international terminal (KORD) and have taken hundreds of people through customs. I can safely say there has never been an instance where digital media is accessed, even in secondary which you’re brought to for further assessment when under suspicion. Only thing I’ve seen is accessing recent calls for passengers suspected of lying on their visa and being in contact with relatives; but if their phone is locked they can’t do jack.
Without rambling too much, unless you’re like actively commiting some type of criminal import activity, no border agent will care what you have.
Sure put I wouldn’t take weed on an international flight.
Depending on how much content you have you could just encrypt your content and upload it to a cloud storage service somewhere.
After its encrypted and safely stored in the cloud delete your local copy then redownload it at your destination.
Kiwi here, been to Oz couple of times. Never heard of them checking for pirated content. But if it’s stressing you, you may appear stressed when checked at customs and that’s never good. So for peace of mind I’d just delete it and redownload when you are in.
Id recommend putting the stuff on a online drive like from Proton and not having it on a physical drive.
Hey, I am thinking of moving to Australia soon as well. I’ve been there once and the security doesn’t check any personal devices
Don’t encrypt it.
If you have an encrypted partition they will just force you to open it. It’s also suspicious which will turn a 5 minute search into a 2 hour ordeal.
Thats a pretty wild claim given how most OS have default encryptions enabled or atleast available. Also file encryption is a thing.
Perhaps I wasn’t clear.
Refusing to decrypt data on request is suspicious.
Is it a crime though? Suspicious is irrelevant if no laws are being broken
Don’t be daft. Suspicious is not irrelevant when you’re trying to clear immigration after a long flight.
Suspicious behaviour is, not surprisingly, a criteria which law enforcement considers when deciding whether detainment and more invasive searches are appropriate under the circumstances.
After a long flight who want’s to be stuck in an interrogation room for hours debating the finer points of personal liberties and privacy… all because you don’t want to decrypt your pirate collection of the marvel cinematic universe, which is not illegal to have in your possession anyway.
Is it a crime not to provide access to encrypted data? I honestly don’t know, I imagine it’s a complex legal question which depends on the circumstances. Even if you may lawfully decline, they could lawfully detain you while obtaining a court order.
You don’t even have to talk to the police in the first place. If they ask about an encrypted drive, just don’t answer
Sure mate, you try that next time you’re going through immigration.
The police don’t care.
Damn, alright I never thought this post would gain this much traction. Thanks for everyone’s suggestions and help.
Judging from the fact that I’m going there on a
Damn, didn’t think this would gain this much traction. Thanks for the suggestions and help everyone.
Judging from the fact that I’m going with a Student Visa, I guess my best course of action is just uploading it to a cloud service. Might not be the most bandwidth efficient, yes, but sure as hell has the best chance of succeeding.
Again, many thanks for the suggestions, seafarers! May your ship sail smooth, mateys.
Thats silly