Suit: Airport searches of laptops, other devices intrusive – CNN.com — If I was doing the searches you can be sure I’d want to get a look inside the laptops and briefcases of every investment banker who passed by. You betcha!
The Customs and Border Protection defends the searches, saying the agency does not need to show probable cause to look inside suitcases or laptops.
“We have broad search authority at the borders to determine admissibility and look for anything that may be in violation of criminal law,” says agency spokeswoman Lynn Hollinger.
Hollinger says electronic devices could contain evidence of possible ties to terrorism, narcotics smuggling, child pornography and other criminal activities.
Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, equates searches of electronic devices to those of papers in briefcases.
“You forgo your right to privacy when you are seeking admission into the country,” he says. “This is the kind of scrutiny the American public expects.”
Actually, no.
#16 & #20 And you wonder why they want to monitor international phone and internet access.
Can they go through all 4,000 messages in my Outlook folders? I need them cleaned out, will they do that for me while they’re looking at messages I sent to my patent attorney and my psychologist?
How about a roll of that cool yellow tape that says “Notebook is Attorney – Client Privilege” and a faxed court order attached to your notebook? Works every time. Let ‘em call the judge. (No, I’m not an attorney, but I just might be a courier).
Or an AES-256 encrypted hard drive right down to the boot sector? Free software here: http://tinyurl.com/ysgrb8
You know, Big Bro knows what is best for you.
#21 And you wonder why they want to monitor international phone and internet access. yes, i wonder why indeed.
consider the great firewall of china:
the chinese government, who has the largest police force, who employs thousands of mathematicians, engineers and scientists and intelligence personnel, the best equipment money can buy, who has bottomless pockets, the collusion of every foreign company drooling to do business there, and zero moral/ethical qualms about spying on its own people and/or torturing them, etc, etc, etc
and guess what? THEY CAN’T MAKE IT WORK!!! THE INTERNET STILL ALLOWS PEOPLE TO SPEAK FREELY!!!
WHY?!?!? BECAUSE BLANKET SURVEILLANCE OF ENTIRE POPULATIONS IS MATHEMATICALLY UNFEASIBLE AND DOESN’T WORK!!!!!
YOU WILL ONLY CATCH STUPID PEOPLE THAT POSE NO REAL THREAT THAT WAY!!!!
this is just like the liquids at the airport: a showboating, expensive waste of everybody’s time and money that protects no one, but destroys the individual rights that conservatives once stood for but now are standing in line to abandon like lobotomized lemmings heading off to the cliff.
it just goes to show you how lazy and stupid americans are in general — they actually believe you can just sit there on your fat lazy ass and listen to billions of phone calls and e-mails and snoop through everyone’s computer and somehow terrorist plots are going to magically appear
imagine how easy criminal activity would be if all the cops did was listen to phone calls and e-mails and look through people’s computers.
counter-terrorism is hunting, not fishing, you have to actually learn your prey, his language, his culture, earn his trust, walk undetected among his own people, to root him out.
walking around like you think you’re clint eastwood is a good way to get made, or worse, killed.
wake up, chief.
bobbo said:
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I say there is too much confusing a wish for anonymity with the right to privacy. You basically have a right to privacy in your private affairs. That doesn’t include crossing an international border.
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So one’s private affairs are no longer private when one attempts to cross an international border? I guess that means they can compel you to answer any and all questions they can think of to ask you about your life, your business, your politics, your sexual likes and dislikes and history? “Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the Democrat party?” How about “Have you ever stolen anything or cheated on your taxes or lied to your spouse/significant other?”
I suppose since “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects” is abridged at the border, all the other provisions of the Bill of Rights are void as well?
Oh, wait….
#26–Patso==you say: “So one’s private affairs are no longer private when one attempts to cross an international border?” /// Thats correct, with the minor correction that its not new, thats the way it always has been. You’ll see repeated posts above confirming this. So, your attitude falls directly into what you quote from me. No right to anonymity when crossing the international border.
Now, more specifically, this is about what your are bringing into the country with you. I don’t think that goes to what citizens private thoughts are–different subject, but nice try at conflating unrelated things.
I guess you want GOUSA to be open to terrorist operatives or you think there is some magic wand the Border Agents just aren’t using?
Patso–how would you protect our borders?==let everyone in without question or search at all -OR- as you suggest, just let everyone know ahead of time what will be searched and what won’t be?
Knock, Knock===is anybody home?
Ok, so I agree with the policy of “turn on that electoronic device to verify it’s not hidden bomb”. but I draw the line at “I have to look thru all your files to make sure you’re not a thought crime person”.
That irks me. But were I traveling, I’d put the files I *needed* on a website somewhere, with encryption. That still leaves upwards of 20 GB of OS files and programs.
So Mr/Ms TSA min wage drone is going to stand there, running my battery down looking thru all the OS and application files? So now instead of showing up a couple hours before flights, we should be there what, a day before?
Way to earn your wages I guess…
if they are using a software to scan it, it will most likely be CD based, and Windows dependant.. How would it handle Macbook Air, or a Linux notebook with no optical drive?
*sigh*… I can’t believe how many people on this post are belittling the TSA about this. This is US CUSTOMS, not TSA.
Now back to the matter at hand. I wonder how long it will be before customs simply ghosts your hard drive for later analysis? That way you can get on your merry way and they can send the ghost image to the lab for analysis.
How hard it is for customs to get some sort of high-speed ghosting machine they can plug into directly into hard drives?
Olo Baggins
Are they going to look through my books, too? My magazines?
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LOL!!! Where have you been? TSA agents ALREADY look at what reading material you have, in order to see if there is anything suspicious about your interests…
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/09/20/airport-cops-databas.html
bobbo said
#1 and #2–Could you two post something other than your adamant naivete that somehow the world should revolve around your infantile desire to keep secrets as you cross international borders?
Man caught crossing border with cocaine hidden in ice cream bars. Why that horible that they would search my food!!! I don’t like food once someone else has poked around it.
So because of YOUR personal desires, you want the border to be wide open to anyone who wishes to cross over with whatever information he wishes to bring and be free from challenge?? And yet I’ll bet you think Bush is doing a poor job of protecting us too?
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You are completely and utterly INSANE.
grog said, on February 11th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
THIS IS SO EASILY CIRCUMVENTED IT DEFIES BELIEF THAT ANY THINKS IT WOULD WORK
1.) put files in encrypted zip file on private, web-connected file server.
2.) enter u.s. without computer
3.) buy $1000 laptop
4.) download
BONUS? you get through customs FASTER than law-abiding citizens
UNBELIEVABLY STUPID!
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Yeah, that’s the problem. There are dozens of ways, that anybody with a bit of computer savvy, can circumvent these searches. How about encrypting the file, that you’re trying to sneak in, and then renaming the file, and it’s extension, to look like a system .dll file, and then burying it in your Window folder?
Now that the bad guys are aware of these sorts of searches, I’m sure that they will take such imaginative measures.
As usual, these rules are about fascism and not protection. Anybody that thinks otherwise, is a completely brainwashed moron.
#31–JPV–why so?
#10 – OFTLO should get after me on this.
You caught me on a day when I was taking a break from giving a rat’s ass about your right to privacy…
But now that I have a new laptop (just bought a spiffy new Toshiba over the weekend) I think I’ll take my old one, format it with a fresh OS and encrypt some tasteful hi res shots of my glorious ass, then make a hobby of passing it through security until someone finally decides to crack the code and get an eyeful.
#34–OFTLO==just label those pics “Old Faithful” and you might get by.
Well, Bush/Cheney and the Repukes never did like the Bill of Rights !!! Who needs 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.” – when the JACK-BOOTED REPUKES ARE ON THE CASE !!! Your PAPERS – OR ELSE !!! Lady Liberty Weeps !!!
#9, Calin,
cocaine in ice cream is nothing like information on a hard-drive. One is a harmful substance, the other is a series of 0’s and 1’s.
Alright. But the same logic that allows computer data to be 0s and 1s can also be used to suggest cocaine is only a collection of various atoms.
It is not the individual constructs that make an object. It is the combined construction that give an end product. A 0 and 1 by themselves are meaningless. As are a single Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen atoms. It is when you string them together into something recognizable, be it a cocaine molecule or a picture, they become what is outlawed.
And yes, you have made your position on this clear. Although I don’t agree with profiling, I respect your measured response.
OFTLO,
BTW, congrats on the new laptop. I hope you’re happy with it