We should frame this story with what the actual end result of 'unlocking your phone' is when discussing it. The government routinely claims that it is no different than asking a traveler to open a physical briefcase. It is very different.
If you're treating the phone as a 'good' as indicated in the quotes on this story, you can inspect my phone as a good. You can look at the phone. You can xray it. You can open up the back cover to ensure it's a real battery inside and not something more sinister. All that would be fine and fall within what the law was intended for.
What the government is actually asking you to do is unlock your digital key to your entire digital identity for them to do with as they wish. Your phone has direct access to all your email accounts, all your personal and work files within the cloud (Dropbox, Box, iCloud, Google Drive, etc), your entire address book, your chat history, all your personal photos, your private PGP you use to sign communications to prove they came from you, etc, etc.
Asking to inspect your phone is fine. Asking to have complete access to your entire digital life, history, and identity is not. If I'm asked for the former, go ahead and inspect it, I put it through the scanner on every flight. If I'm asked for the latter, the answer will be no.
Right. No one needs to import data via physical presence, so customs simply doesn't need to inspect the data on devices. If someone wanted to bring contraband in, they simply can download it over the Internet, no customs searches needed.
This is vastly different than physical goods inside boxes or briefcases, which all physically pass through the border in an inspectable manner.
Just harassment of a guy crossing the border. Any truly malicious person could just wipe and restore the phone/computer before and after the crossing either from the internet or locally so it is a waste of everyone's time and invasion of privacy.
As an aside I am not surprised this happened in Canada. I lived in Canada for a few years and then returned to the UK. It's not obvious to people who have not lived in both places, if you only visit you would not see this but Canada carefully cultivates an image of itself abroad and there is a stark difference in how authoritarian Canada is compared to the UK. I still know people who live there and the way the authorities at all levels treat even their own Canadian citizens would not be tolerated in the UK. Often times you cannot talk about this with Canadians as they will defend the way things are done and say the infringements on freedom are for a good reason. The citizenry is generally happily compliant and only outsiders who are used to more freedom notice it.
I think the compliance reasons are why they also put up with government restrictions on business in telecoms, air industry and even the dairy industry, look up the Canadian cheese smuggling arrests made a couple of years ago :-)
Canadians also rejected the UK style totalitarian blanket surveillance and internet filters so not sure what 'freedoms' they are missing out on compared to the UK. All those same kinds of gov interference and regulations in airspace and dairy exist in the UK too, and every other country.
Border guards demanding your phone will likely happen in every country soon if not already. They take mine at US border and France.
Telecoms in Canada are just as corrupt as the US where they established monopolies long ago and now squat on spectrums to prevent any new competition. Huawei almost bought their way in to Canada then the Americans panicked and the deal was lost http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/politics/canada-at-risk-from-chines...
Of course regulations exist in every country but it's the extent to which they limit competition resulting in poor service and high prices that affects Canada particularly badly. For example, tv/internet services Rogers/Bell provide are abysmal compared to the likes of Sky and they charge many times more too. Same with cellular plans. Really though we're getting side tracked, I do not think border guards demanding your phone will become commonplace in every country like you say because of both privacy concerns and because of the fact that people with malicious intent are not going to be caught out. This is not like a car where drugs may be hidden inside the trunk, you can completely wipe the phone and just get data back as soon as you exit the airport.
Some countries (China/Israel) they disappear with the phone likely to load it full of nation state spyware I would never trust that device again even after flashing a new application OS.
The show Border Security has a case like this on pretty much every episode. It shows the officer going through a persons text messages and they usually find that either the person sells drugs, or that they intend to work illegally in the country. I've always wondered if the persons phone wasn't locked, or if they willingly gave up their passcode.
Even with the worst phone you can buy from most carriers, these would still apply: "your entire address book, your chat history, all your personal photos"
Just factory reset your phone before going through, and restore it after you've completed your TSA adventure. Though, do NOT brag about your tactic to them or they will likely try to force you to restore it on the spot.
I've showed my Nokia 5110 with prepaid couple of times when checked at border. Usually the first question they come up with is: "Is this really the primary phone you're using." Just smile and say yes. I don't have any other phones with me. That's all I need to contact someone to pick me up.
If you need new identity & SIM card, you can just pick one using cash from SIM card vending machine. Someone said that getting anonymous phone is hard, lol.
If you're treating the phone as a 'good' as indicated in the quotes on this story, you can inspect my phone as a good. You can look at the phone. You can xray it. You can open up the back cover to ensure it's a real battery inside and not something more sinister. All that would be fine and fall within what the law was intended for.
What the government is actually asking you to do is unlock your digital key to your entire digital identity for them to do with as they wish. Your phone has direct access to all your email accounts, all your personal and work files within the cloud (Dropbox, Box, iCloud, Google Drive, etc), your entire address book, your chat history, all your personal photos, your private PGP you use to sign communications to prove they came from you, etc, etc.
Asking to inspect your phone is fine. Asking to have complete access to your entire digital life, history, and identity is not. If I'm asked for the former, go ahead and inspect it, I put it through the scanner on every flight. If I'm asked for the latter, the answer will be no.