The part that stood out to me, copying from the automatic transcript:

> they're sitting there with these like blank A4 Bits of Paper writing down everything I'm telling them like you know bits of interest and it's exactly the same thing the Russians did when they interrogated me [...] to be honest interactions with the Russians have been pretty much the same as inter with the British government

I didn't do my research before going to the UK for the first time two months ago and just went with my gut feeling, that is, deleting files from my phone that I don't want to end up in a government system through Cellebrite's "accelerated justice" or whatnot. Never done this for any other country before (I cross borders on a weekly basis). Seeing this video and the Ugandan article from the sibling comment, that was definitely the right move

I get bagged and tagged at least once a week when I go shopping in the UK in the last 50 years. You don’t want to come here at all. I’d rather hang around in Russia these days.

Facetious comment aside the only time I’ve had problems with border security anywhere is getting a large carpet back home from Azerbaijan. This was very interesting and required them to examine every square centimetre of it. China, US, UK, Europe all really boring. Russia was incompetent. They didn’t even check anything at all (2012)

I don’t know of any country where border guards don’t have the authority to seize your device if you’re trying to cross.

I just use devices with ephemeral storage for crossing borders to save myself from having to do any research on any particular country’s device privacy practices.

Then I'm not sure what we're criticizing China for, if no country has such fundamental rights for the people under its control. The warrant system exists for a reason. I'm not more likely to be carrying something illegal when going between countries than within the jurisdiction where my registered place of residence is; less if anything because there might be spot checking indeed

Some firms routinely forbid carrying company data (including encrypted data) across five-eyes and PRC borders, this is why.

Imagine you're a citizen and say no.

Are they arresting you?

Because they have to let you in.

This depends on who the Border Agency officer is:

An Immigration Officer may search you until they are satisfied you are a citizen. As long as you have a passport (or emergency travel document) listing you a citizen, this should be straightforward and they're unlikely to have grounds for any further search. At that point, you have been let into the country.

Customs Officers are much more likely to have grounds for a search — if they believe you are bringing prohibited material on the electronic device into the country (and "reasonable grounds" is low, as it typically is for customs — "you're acting kinda sus" is a reasonable ground), they can search your device. It is an offence to refuse a search, so while you've been admitted to the UK, you could be arrested for that offence.

This is all broadly comparable to most other countries immigration and customs laws; the UK is not an outlier here.

The problems with the UK are primarily things that apply to everyone, not just at the border — for example the Terrorism Act 2000 and Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. But again, in the border case — that's basically all going to be _after_ you are admitted to the UK.

You don't have the right to say no or even stay silent. If you refuse to give up your passwords they will charge you with the whatever the legislation around it is, it's 2 years behind bars for refusing.

God this is scary. What if this "authority" figure is abusing their position? Do you have any recourse?

Probably not, just a waste of money and time, but hopefully someone can provide a reasonable recourse.

What if you say you forgot? I actually had times (after not having used my phone for a month or two) that I (& my muscles) forgot my PIN (not for the SIM card) and I had to do a factory reset.

Well it's not automatic 2 year prison sentence. The state charges you with a crime, it goes to trial, and then you have to defend yourself - if your argument is that you forgot, then it would be an interesting case - ultimately the prosecutor would need to prove that it's unlikely you forgot, say if they had proof (say CCTV recording at the airport) showing you using your phone 5 minutes before it was confiscated - it would be pretty hard to argue that in the space of those 5 minutes you forgot the password. But if you had a device in your suitcase and could successfully argue that you haven't used it in ages and the password was long and complex then yeah, I guess you'd be found not guilty - up to the judge/magister/jury depending on where exactly in the justice system you end up. But yeah, while stopped at the border saying "I forgot" is not a good card to play.

It probably won't end well but I'm curious what would happen if you give them a password that resets the device. Theoretically it unlocks it, it's just that it takes a minute and it's factory new at that point.

They'd charge you with destroying evidence, or "perverting the course of justice". They aren't stupid, they would know that you gave them a password that wiped the device.

They would image the device and try the password against the image, if possible.