Habeas Corpus was part of the Magna Carta during the time of King John of England in 1215. What it said is that government officials could not imprison people without just cause. Prisoners had the right to go before a judge to determine whether incarceration was justified.
Just because the government in its wisdom accused you of something didn’t mean they could do whatever they wanted to you.
The government is to serve the people and they have to have a justifiable reason for incarceration, or you are free to go.
Now some governments have taken it upon themselves to violate your rights of innocent until proven guilty.
Take New Zealand as an example of guilty until proven otherwise. These folks now have a Customs and Excise Act of 2018. It just went into effect on October 2018. Here is the kicker. The new law allows Customs agents to collect biometric data from anyone entering the country. So now they can take your fingerprints, photo, or iris scans, store them and share them in addition to body scans.
If you go to New Zealand’s Customs website it explains:
“Making an arrest without a warrant can now be done with no limitation to a timeframe.”
So now you have no rights at their border crossings.
Agents are able to search your electronics without cause and fine you for refusing to give them your password. Any information they decide to keep they can share with other governments and agencies.
Since 9/11 the US has been searching travelers’ electronics at the border. It was kept small for some time but has now grown. Because of 9/11 folks didn’t mind but now it has gotten out of hand. They felt security was important.
In 2017 Customs Agents searched 30,200 travelers.
New Zealand agents do not get warrants for searches. They don’t even require probable cause. Even if they did I am sure they could cook up one in a hurry.
In January of this year, US Customs sent out new guidance about phone and laptop searches at the border. It says they can search anyone’s electronic devices “with or without suspicion.”
What if you are a business person and they seize your computer with confidential company information which they can share.
Suppose you have a program like Quicken and you have your family finances on it. Now you have to control how this could be shared. They could extract your credit card and bank account numbers.
Keep in mind they can do this with electronic devices whether a laptop, or hand-held device or your Apple Watch.
You now have fewer rights and Habeas Corpus is dying very fast.