No to passwords for Customs

The Herald reports:

Powers that would require a person to provide a password or access to their electronic device will be useless if their material is instead stored online, Customs Minister Nicky Wagner admits.

However, Ms Wagner insists such a change to legislation is necessary and will still enable Customs to catch people with illegal material.

Customs’ preferred option is to require passwords for electronic devices without meeting a threshold, such as suspicion of criminal activity.

Ms Wagner has indicated a “two-tiered” approach could be taken with some sort of threshold met before a password was required.

My threshold is a search warrant or court order.

She would not say what that could mean for travellers.

“We are premature to be able to say where we have landed … We want to manage it in the least intrusive way, but we need to catch the baddies.”

I don’t understand what baddies this is meant to catch. Customs needs to be able to search physical goods, but why does it need to be able to access your electronic info, just because you are going through an airport?

This power grab by Customs should be resisted vigorously and loudly.