But part of me just wants to tell the civil libertarians that if they’re going to be paranoid – justified or not – then bloody well adjust how you live your life rather than expect the world to adjust to your personal desires. Here’s the trigger:<\/p>\n
\nTravelers who refuse to surrender passwords, codes, encryption keys and other information enabling access to electronic devices could be fined up to $5,000 in New Zealand (about US$3,300), according to new customs rules that went into effect Monday.<\/p>\n
Border agents were already able to seize digital equipment, but the\u00a0Customs and Excise Act of 2018<\/a>\u00a0newly specifies that access to personal technology must be handed over as well. The law provides, however, that officials need to have \u201creasonable cause to suspect wrongdoing\u201d before conducting a digital search \u2014 cold comfort for civil liberties advocates, who have sounded an alarm about the measure.\u00a0[WaPo<\/strong><\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
It’s a personal choice on my part to avoid having too much data on my phone. Sure, I could figure out how to completely encrypt all access and all data so I could use my phone to do my personal banking, lending, mortgages, all my software development for my employer, run a small, indie bank on the side, build a complete photography portfolio, manage half a dozen mistresses, AND store all the nuclear secrets I may or may not have stolen over the years.<\/p>\n
And then lose the damn thing in the river, so of course now it’s de rigeur<\/em> to save it all in The Cloud<\/em>, except The Cloud<\/em> is nothing more than an old-fashioned time-share system from forty years ago, meaning someone else controls the computer you just put all your vital information on.<\/p>\n
And no matter how much you encrypt that data, if those computers are told not to let you access it, there’s not much you can do unless you’re a world-class hacker. And, of course, an EMP or possibly a really big solar flare could turn your data into a big old bang of dinosaur flatulence.<\/p>\n
That’s<\/em> paranoia. Unless your backup system is punch-cards.<\/p>\n
In fact, and perhaps it’s already well-known, but I suspect many of us are more prisoners of our phones than find them truly beneficial. But trying to find a metric for that suggestion will be a challenge.<\/p>\n
Sort of like the challenge Satan had with Saddam Hussein. If you don’t understand that one, it doesn’t really matter.<\/p>\n
In any case, I keep some pictures of cats on my phone. And of some totally awesome orange lilies that has completely charmed me. I can read my mail, if I really want to – hint: more than half my mail is political spam from BOTH SIDES. There, now no one will steal my phone.<\/p>\n
The rest is either not computer-bound, or is on my computers. I tend to be conservative about this crap.<\/p>\n
And maybe I’m just crabby.<\/p>\n
\nYeah, crabby. I’ll grant that the New Zealand move could be a step along a path to a world with no privacy, or of government officials surreptitiously collecting information on you for their personal gain.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, the New Zealanders think they’re safer with this law in place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
But part of me just wants to tell the civil libertarians that if they’re going to be paranoid – justified or not – then bloody well adjust how you live your life rather than expect the world to adjust to your personal desires. Here’s the trigger: Travelers who refuse to \u2026 Continue reading