All your data are belong to us
This is not a new policy but one that is getting people’s attention because Homeland Security is now admitting it publicly. It seems that anyone travelling into the US, and that includes US citizens, can have their laptops, PDAs or phones confiscated upon entry into the country. They can be held for a "reasonable" period after which they must be returned to the owner. They can search all of the data looking for anything suspicious and the sad part is that they do not need to have any suspicions of wrong-doing prior to the equipment confiscations. It’s sort of like if you tick off the govenment employees they can take your stuff. Homeland Security assures us that they will destroy any data they searched during the confiscation but they can keep any notes they took while looking at it. Ouch, once again it appears that we’ve already lost that war.
(via Yahoo News)
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Yep, this has been going on for a while now. Security theater at its finest. If someone really wanted to get data into the country, they could just connect to a server once they’re in. Or, at the very least they could store the information on a micro SD card and stick it in their sock/under a shoe insert. Sheesh.
Anything or anyone coming across the boarder is subject to search, just because its coming across the boarder. This had been in place for years.
Jason
I remember someone way back when suggesting a way to prevent the officials from grabbing one’s computers and wrecking a work project or, worse, college work prior to graduation (as I remember the context of the suggestion.) If there is “pre-publish” material on the computer, they are allegedly supposed to at least allow you to make a copy of it before confiscation. The idea is that by not allowing that, they run into First Amendment issues, as a seizure like that could be used to prevent publication. It wasn’t cited as a way to prevent the removal of your equipment, but at least you still had use of the data on it.
Not sure if this is still a viable tactic. Anyone know better?
But if you believe the mythical stories that Europe is still relatively “free” as in free-from-government-intervention-from-personal-privacy, your wrong. While progressive left-winged politicians are well-represented, more conservative factors in the Europian parlement have made significant in-roads in privacy invading anti-terrorist measures. Though, in all fairness, the situation is far less worse than in the US, the sad truth is that Europian Airline corporations are simply forced to hand over personal information to the US government or they cannot fly to the US. National Governments can complain all they want, it simply doesn’t seem to help.
@Jason: border searches aren’t new, but until a few years ago laptop searches weren’t common. Or cellphones, for that matter (I suppose the increasing capabilities of phones led to this).
TrueCrypt version 6 has a way of making a fake partition. CNet has a video on how to do it, and while it can take some time to do it, it is possibly worth investigating if you want or need to protect your data. (Please note that IANAL-I Am Not A Lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, so I do not know if this is legal.)
To see the CNet TV show, go to the Insider Secrets section and look for the show titled “Create a hidden operating system”.
Woadan
You do realize that the ‘terrorists’ have achieved their purpose, don’t you?
Sounds like an argument for cloud computing and/or encrypted removable storage to me. They can’t search what they won’t find, and if they start grabbing at random, I’d rather they pick me, find out that my computer has seemingly NO relevant data on it, and be stuck dead in the water.
(Now, what I would give for 80mm Blu-ray discs and affordable burners, so that I could walk through a metal detector with 15GB of data in my pocket.)
It is interesting to note that mail can’t be opened (without reasonable cause) at the security checkpoints.
To me the real issue here is not keeping them from your data. Sure, that’s important. But the way this happens is was it devastating. You’re traveling to the US on business (or returning) and with no provocation they just confiscate your laptop or phone. That’s the real issue here.
We read every day of cases getting thrown out of court because of illegal seizure of real evidence. They don’t need any reason at all to take your stuff.