Travel Alert: Leave Your Laptops Home

[dgridley]

Friday, August 1, 2008

Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop 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.

Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"The policies . . . are truly alarming," said Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), who is probing the government's border search practices. He said he intends to introduce legislation soon that would require reasonable suspicion for border searches, as well as prohibit profiling on race, religion or national origin.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/content/article/2008/08/01/laptops.html

Kudos to Feingold..

 

[bricio]

i sent this article to some americans i was working with in the beginning of may

somebody posted it on mobility

 

[dgridley]

Thanks.. there goes probable cause and due process out the window.

The "without any suspicion of wrongdoing" is what caught my eye.

i sent this article to some americans i was working with in the beginning of may

somebody posted it on mobility

 

[whitebark]

Between this and fingerprinting people coming into the country this bodes ill for the American travel industry. Why go to America and get hassled when you can go to Canada, Europe, Asia etc and not have to be harassed and presumed guilty?

 

[johname]

They fingerprint you, look at the girly pics on your laptop, then you get to go to Disneyland!