New Zealand customs officers now have the power to demand passwords to digital devices

Digital-savvy Chinese tourists have flocked to New Zealand to see sights that include a 1,250 acre sheep farm that became Hobbiton, the home of the hobbits in JRR Tolkien’s fantasy land Middle Earth

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A sculpture of Gollum, the villainous Lord of the Rings hobbit, stands in front of a welcome sign in Hobbiton Town, Matamata, New Zealand. Photo: AP

Published: 1:00pm, 2 Oct 2018Updated: 11:24pm, 2 Oct 2018

When you think of countries with aggressive border security, the bucolic land which provided the backdrop for the Peter Jackson-directed Lord of the Rings trilogy may not come to mind.

But this week the New Zealand Customs Service received new powers at the country's borders, including the ability to demand passwords from travellers to search their electronic devices if they are suspected of committing a customs offence, in what amounts to a digital strip-search.

Travellers who fail to hand over passwords to their phones and tablets will be hit with a fine of NZ$5,000 (US$3,300). Customs officers have always been able to search a passenger's laptop or phone, but the Customs and Excise Act 2018 – which comes into effect this week – specifies that passengers must now hand over their password.

The legislation states that a customs officer now has the power to make a “full search of a stored value instrument”, including power to “require a user of the instrument to provide access information and other information or help that is reasonable and necessary to allow a person to access the instrument”.

The news may come as a shock to digital-savvy Chinese tourists on their way to New Zealand during China’s week long National Day public holiday, known popularly as “Golden Week”.

In recent years tourists have flocked to New Zealand to see sights that include a 1,250 acre working sheep farm on North Island that became Hobbiton, the home of the hobbits in JRR Tolkien's fantasy land, Middle Earth. New Zealand’s Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment said in May that China is poised to become the nation's dominant tourism market in the next five years, projecting visitors from the country will spend about NZ$4.3 billion a year, accounting for just over half the total spend.