Australian Border Force searched 822 phones in 2021 despite having no power to demand passcodes

In January, Sydney software developer James told Guardian Australia that he and his partner were stopped on their return from Fiji by border force officials who asked them to write their phone passcodes on a piece of paper before taking the codes and their phones to another room to examine for half an hour. The phones were then returned and they were allowed to leave.

Border force confirmed the practice was allowed under the Customs Act, but declined to expand on how often it was used, or what officers did with the devices once unlocked.

In a written response to questions raised by the Greens digital rights spokesperson, Nick McKim, border force has confirmed there is no legal obligation for people to hand over their passcodes.

McKim said there needs to be more transparency from border force about what data had been collected from the searches, who has access to it and how it is stored.

Border force said devices were scanned by another device, rather than manually checked by officers.

James, and others who expressed concerns about having their phones searched at the border, raised questions about border force officers going through their work files, or other items stored in the cloud and not on their device. Border force confirmed it does not have the power to access these files without a warrant.