U.S. agents given powers to seize and search laptops at borders
The Vancouver Sun -- Sat 02 Aug 2008
WASHINGTON -- Visitors to the United States face having their laptop computers and other digital devices seized after federal agents were given new powers to protect America's borders. The Department of Homeland Security will be allowed to carry out seizures without suspicion of wrongdoing and can hold devices for a "reasonable period of time." Customs and border staff have also been empowered to share the contents of seized computers with other government and private agencies for decryption and translation.
We've contemplated taking our laptop with us when crossing into the US, for checking email, doing banking, and looking at RV-related info I've bookmarked over the years. Now, we'll just leave it at home. There's absolutely nothing on it that I'd be afraid to let Homeland Security look at, but the thing that disturbs me is that (as stated in a previous post) .....The Department of Homeland Security will be allowed to carry out seizures without suspicion of wrongdoing and can hold devices for a "reasonable period of time."
When we cross the border, we're generally heading south to escape the winter cold, so hanging around in Buffalo, New York, for example, waiting for our laptop would not be pleasant!
If they keep it for the reasonable period of 5 years then there is no reason to give it back to you because by then it would be obsolete anyway.
Keep your data on a memory stick. Let them seize the laptop, which only contains the OS. Keep the memory stick in your pocket. Keep all data on it encrypted.
Keep a large quantitiy of worthless harmless data on the laptop and encrypt it. That should keep hem busy for awhile wondering what you are hiding. Use simple encryption for the grocery list. They will decode that first. They will scratch their heads wondering why that file was encrypted.
Next they will start seizing the diaries of teen aged girls, because, after all, that book is locked so they must be hiding something. Only for a reasonable period of time, of course.
Wayne in San Jose
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I just finished reading SENATOR FEINGOLD'S STATEMENT regarding this law, and it appears that only US citizen's laptops are subject to this DHS procedure. However, being a "judicious Canadian", I still think I'll probably leave the laptop at home.
Quote: It also include any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form" including hard drives, compact discs, DVDs, flash drives, portable music players, cell phones, pagers, beepers, and videotapes
....and even digital cameras.
But don't worry, it is "Only for a reasonable period of time"
Soon, we'll have to "reformat" our own memory brain cells before crossing the border.
* This post was
edited 08/05/08 05:24pm by JackD *
What galls me is that not so much the intent of the law but the execution. Any terrorist or criminal worth catching wouldn't dare keep sensitive data on a laptop while crossing a border. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of places on the net I could stash data that nobody would bother to look at and then access at the nearest Starbucks hotspot.
what will happen is some innocent or dumb person will be unnecessary detained while the border services chase their tails over some small data. Probably just legalizing what they've been doing illegally for years
No I'm no a conspiricy theorist but Xfiles was filmed in my backyard Once again Government is closing the barn door but leaving huge holes in the wall right next to it wide open.
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