Australia changes porn declaration requirements

[HunkyLuke]

Last time I arrived in Australia in April, they did ask if I had any porn on the entry forms (I cleaned up my computer before going), now they only ask if you have illegal porn. This is from this article on Adelaide Now:

VISITORS have been ordered to reveal illegal pornography to customs officers in a move which has been criticised as "totally confusing" and an invasion of privacy.

Justice Minister Brendan O'Connor said that illegal material must be declared on arrival, watering down recent rules that asked for all pornography to be revealed.

But he said anyone who is not sure whether they have illegal pornography should reveal it just in case. The revamped rule is outlined on arrival cards which are filled in by travellers coming to Australia.

I guess its better, but there are reports out already that its leading to confusion and people feeling their privacy rights are being violated.

[x0pa]

i cant come in with porn? can you look at porn when you get in aus ? do they sell porn there?

[FisHY]

I came back here in July from my holiday but didn't see the message about porn at all.

[zBUCKzDanny]

Australia doesn't have the same 'freedom of speech' kind of laws that they do in the US, and I have heard you can be arrested for having porn on your computer of someone that 'looks under 18' even if you have proof they are over 18. Probably a good idea to wipe your hard drive clean of any porn if you are traveling into the country.

[attis]

As a rule of thumb I always use my "travel notebook" when going abroad. It never had any kind of porn on it and never will.

It's simply too difficult to keep up with different laws of the countries I'm visiting regularly. Also having "legal" porn on your computer doesn't stop a customs officer from seizing it for further investigations.

[HunkyLuke]

When I arrived the declaration card asked if you had prohibited goods like firearms, drugs and pornography. I remember as I specifically prepped my laptop for travel and chuckled that they did indeed ask.

Yeah, I like the idea of having a travel computer, I am thinking that would be the perfect excuse to pick up a macbook air or an ipad

[HunkyBen]

you get a different experience at different airports lately as some have the old customs declaration cards and some the news ones which ask if you have porn on you. The cards are now being changed again to ask if you have illegal porn (child, bestiality, rape etc). this is the same point as US customs asking if you have ever had a criminal conviction or all the other questions. You lie and they catch you you have broke the law on top of the problem.

The issue is exactly as attis says, you can be stopped and laptop etc seized simply because they want to check more and get you to prove it.

Oh - yes they sell it there, and of course you can look at it, but it has to be "classified/approved" for sale to make sure it is not illegal stuff.

[zBUCKzDanny]

Another solution is to use an encryption software like TrueCrypt. Then you can hide folders on your computer and lock them.

[HunkyLuke]

Would encryption software work? I wonder if they would demand that you unencrypt folders or face seizure.

[zBUCKzDanny]

Well I know with some of the encryption software there are ways you can hide a folder, or even hide an encrypted folder within another encrypted folder, so that only a real expert would be able to find the hidden data.

From True Crypt's website:

Plausible Deniability

In case an adversary forces you to reveal your password, TrueCrypt provides and supports two kinds of plausible deniability:

1. Hidden volumes (see the section Hidden Volume) and hidden operating systems (see the section Hidden Operating System).

2. Until decrypted, a TrueCrypt partition/device appears to consist of nothing more than random data (it does not contain any kind of "signature"). Therefore, it should be impossible to prove that a partition or a device is a TrueCrypt volume or that it has been encrypted (provided that the security requirements and precautions listed in the chapter Security Requirements and Precautions are followed). A possible plausible explanation for the existence of a partition/device containing solely random data is that you have wiped (securely erased) the content of the partition/device using one of the tools that erase data by overwriting it with random data (in fact, TrueCrypt can be used to securely erase a partition/device too, by creating an empty encrypted partition/device-hosted volume within it). However, you need to prevent data leaks (see the section Data Leaks) and also note that, for system encryption, the first drive track contains the (unencrypted) TrueCrypt Boot Loader, which can be easily identified as such (for more information, see the chapter System Encryption). When using system encryption, plausible deniability can be achieved by creating a hidden operating system (see the section Hidden Operating System).

Although file-hosted TrueCrypt volumes (containers) do not contain any kind of "signature" either (until decrypted, they appear to consist solely of random data), they cannot provide this kind of plausible deniability, because there is practically no plausible explanation for the existence of a file containing solely random data. However, plausible deniability can still be achieved with a file-hosted TrueCrypt volume (container) by creating a hidden volume within it (see above).


Notes

* When formatting a hard disk partition as a TrueCrypt volume (or encrypting a partition in place), the partition table (including the partition type) is never modified (no TrueCrypt "signature" or "ID" is written to the partition table).

* There are methods to find files or devices containing random data (such as TrueCrypt volumes). Note, however, that this should not affect plausible deniability in any way. The adversary still should not be able to prove that the partition/device is a TrueCrypt volume or that the file, partition, or device, contains a hidden TrueCrypt volume (provided that you follow the security requirements and precautions listed in the chapter Security Requirements and Precautions and in the subsection Security Requirements and Precautions Pertaining to Hidden Volumes).

Of course if you want to be 100% safe then probably best to just wipe the drive of any porn when traveling. The thing is though, wouldn't we hear about thousands of people getting arrested every day if they were really searching everyone's computers and arresting them for having porn? I don't think I have a single friend that doesn't have some porn on their computers when they travel.