Travelers' Laptops May Be Detained At Border

[johnastovall]

Travelers' Laptops May Be Detained At Border


International travel just got harder.

"Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed."

Wonder if they frown on DriveCrypt?

[Steelsun]

Cnet has this great bit of advice: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9892897-38.html

I just envision the lawsuits now for tortuous interference with business. If they take a businessman's laptop as he is trying to depart for business work, they are interfering with his legitimate right to practice legal business.

Oh and "other electronic devices" include memory cards and possibly even cameras.

Draconian and uncalled for.

I love one of the explanations DHS gave "in order to stop the importation or exportation of electronic data that may be illegal like child pornography, restricted files, and copyrighted or trademarked works".
Duh!?! Have they ever heard of the INTERNET?
For $5 or less a month you can set up a private website with passworded directories for storing and transferring data.

[Howard Barlow]

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Not really, we're just joking, hand me your laptop.

[NathanJK]

We REALLY need to get rid of the DHS...then again, I've been saying that since before it was even created!

[ShutteredEye]

Very frightening, the sweeping powers they've granted themselves.

A system of checks and balances doesn't work if there are no checks, and there is no balance.

[Rson]

And to make matters worse....some of the people working are one IQ point above Corky from "Life Goes On"

Sad

[110240]

Nothing new here, its been in the customs info for a long time.

[andyz]

We do a little e-newsletter at work and I included this story, along with one where the IG said the DHS security is not yet what it should be. So is this really something we want? I can see them cloning hard drives, saving data for analysis and losing it in a security breach. Suddenly your customers want to know why their credit cards are being used, pictures are on the web, etc.