Many of these supposed security laws are made for reasons other than the ones stated. Media copyright infringements are an obvious target. No doubt there are others such as industrial espionage.

Even if it is not feasible to prosecute piracy cases on a wide scale, it has the net result of making every one a bit paranoid about it and thus avoid ripped media altogether. It will only take a couple of well publicized cases for people to get the message. In the end people will avoid hassle where ever they can.

Of course if you encrypt or obfuscate your data in some way, this just means it will take that much longer to get your stuff back as they will have to run a brute force decryption if you don’t provide the passwords, plus you get added to a “suspect” or “trouble-maker” list for your efforts.

Cloud computing sounds like a good idea too, unfortunately Uncle Sam already has it covered and you won’t even know about it!

Myself, I will avoid travelling to the US unless I really have to, and will only take those devices I have to take for my job. Certainly not my UMPC which is a real shame. Let me know when your country’s government rejoins the 21st century and civilization. :)

Oops, I think I reversed the land and the home. Ah well. :)

There was a notice that customs can now search through any devices for copyright infringing material on devices passing the border. Don’t recall where I read it. One thing is sure, anyone passing the US border would be wise to make sure they have no entertainment on there they haven’t paid for, and certainly make sure all personal data is fully backed up and available at home if they do swipe your devices. Personally I’d truecrypt my entire freeking laptop to the hilt… at last make them work for it.

Land of the brave and home of the free. (insert helpless belly laugh here.)

After being eyed-scanned and fingerprinted even for a simple transit, this sounds like another fine argument to avoid usa during their middle-age century…

btw, Asia seems to be pleased to welcome all tourists and money of the world

;-)

@bluemonq
OK, I have a dark sense of humor. But is anyone really surprised about this? This kind of stuff has been going on for the last 7 years (warrentless wiretaps, for example) . The only thing different now is that is isn’t taking place behind the scenes and that everyday Americans are being affected.

I dislike this and ideas of such ilk.

Here (Australia) there’s discussion between our foreign minister and the USA to allow specifically for searching of digital devices for pirated movies and mp3s. Suggesting criminal charges for those found guilty.

Clearly the foreign minister is a luddite and has no idea about the logistics of such a choice.

Oh well, have fun differentiating between ripped mp3s, pirated mp3s and purchased mp3s. Then have fun digging through the myriad of other media formats.

THEN have fun sifting through these cases and attempting to kludge together some kind of criminal case against the people proving this beyond reasonable doubt.

@Joel: …and you find the funny because?

I can imagine that the Dept. of Homeland Security isn’t really concerned about discovering illegal activity like possessing pirated movies or even worse. By searching mobile phones or email programs they could quickly identify if the person being searched has any known ‘dangerous’ contacts.

I suppose if you have the wrong name, or someone on your contact list has the wrong name you could be in for an experience that would put a dentist visit to shame :)

What am I missing?

If I were going to try and sneak data into or out of the country, the last thing I would do is put it on a physical device on my person or in my possession.

The hardware would be barren; better yet I would get to my destination and THEN buy or steal a computer, and secure FTP an encrypted file from a server back in my country of origin or a third country.

Given the borderless nature of the interweb, why would anyone ever have sensitive data on their person? What are these searches and confiscations supposed to catch other than the dumbest N% of the terrorists?

The “they can look at it all they want, just don’t take my hardware” argument sounds a little bit like “you can search my home all you want as I have nothing to hide, just take off your shoes and don’t break down my door in the process.”

I can easily protect myself from data loss. And the hardware is replaceable. But having random people snoop *though* my data for no good reason is an unacceptable loss of privacy. I am not a criminal, and while snooping through my stuff will not reveal any evidence of crime, I still don’t want this to happen. It’s a matter of principle.

By the way, encrypting your files is only going to help you if you also hide the files. Just like they’ll ask you to unlock your Windows account by entering the userid/password, they’ll ask you to decrypt a file/drive if they find it. And if you choose to refuse… well, as someone pointed out, you’re not yet in the country, so good luck getting a lawyer to help you from your little holding cell :(

Here is the thing that will spur Cloud Computing.

If not that, then Dear God, the Revolution!!

Encryption doesn’t help unless you’re intent on hiding something. Personally, I’m much more afraid of LOSING my data by having it seized. They can look at anything they want…just don’t take my business devices and personal/professional data from me.

Maybe it’s time to invest in that 32GB flash drive disguised as a stick of gum. ;-)

One more reason why I am happy with an online backup solution (I personally use Carbonite). If my laptop gets stolen/lost/broken/confiscated I can restore all content onto another computer quite easily!

If they want to look at your data, fine. Image the drive and give it back to me. If they find anything that could be a security issue, arrest the person. I’m ok with that. Pirated movies are not a security risk. If someone was arrested because of pirated data that be utter crap, in my opinion. Customs might be able to police that since you are illegally importing content. I only bring up pirated data because I can see it causing the first arrest.

With that said, anyone that is going to get data into the US wouldn’t use a laptop or a thumb drive. That’s was FTP or e-mail are used for.

You can encrypt your data and they will not be able to look at it. they would have to get a court order. Sounds like it would be a good idea to have a online encrypted backup aswell. Of course them taking your laptop would not be good.