The news is just in … US customs has the right to confiscate any portable computing device from departing, arriving and even travelers in transit … for search of files on your HDD or other storage devices that can endanger national security … and of course to satisfy the media industry …
The Belgian radio news just put this in today’s news report but as it seems it’s going on for a long time …
The story and another one
[quote]Warning: US Customs and Border Protection may confiscate your laptop and PDA
by Ned Levi
The Fourth Amendment may prohibit “unreasonable searches and seizures” and require “probable cause,” but not at the border, according to the 9th Circuit US Court of Appeals, which has ruled that Customs and Border Protection agents could conduct random, warrantless searches and seizures of laptops without probable cause.
The Los Angeles Times tells the story of Bill Hogan, a freelance journalist, who recently returned home from Germany. At Washington’s Dulles International Airport, a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent pulled him aside, and said he could reenter the country, but seized Hogan’s laptop for inspection. He had been chosen for the CBP’s “random inspection of electronic media.” They kept his computer for about two weeks.
Since 9/11, CBP agents have been searching and seizing laptops, digital cameras, cellphones and other electronic devices at the border, without search warrants, or probable cause. CBP agents can subject these devices to extensive forensic analysis, according to the courts.
Maria Udy, a UK citizen working for a US global marketing firm, had her company laptop seized by a federal agent prior to flying from Dulles International to London, in December, 2006. The Washington Post reports Udy said the agent told her he had a “security concern” with her. Fourteen months later, Udy’s laptop had not been returned, nor had she been able to find out what happened to it.
In the 21st century, people worldwide keep many of the most intimate details of their lives on their laptops, PDAs and cell phones. Some laptops have become de-facto electronic diaries. You can’t get more personal than that.[/quote]
More Bush spying. Yay.
They’re looking for child porn.
^ They are looking for anything that could incriminate you.
Guilty until proven innocent.
They’re looking for child porn.[/quote]
As if shit like that can’t be emailed across international boundaries in encrypted files. So check people’s private info on laptops instead. 
oh yeah that’s frightening… what it’s a laptop not your mom’s bedroom. if you can’t hack it don’t take it across the border and stock up on hankies i guess.
I enter the US with my laptop on a regular basis. It’s never been taken out of a bag, let alone seized.
Bear in mind this seizure of laptops by US customs happens about once a day in the US, about 300 times a year. Most are returned within a week.
For the vast majority of travellers, it’s a non-issue.
[quote]I enter the US with my laptop on a regular basis. It’s never been taken out of a bag, let alone seized.
Bear in mind this seizure of laptops by US customs happens about once a day in the US, about 300 times a year. Most are returned within a week.
For the vast majority of travellers, it’s a non-issue.[/quote]
Well I guess its just fine then. When did people start completely dropping their principles? Why is it fine for some people to have their personal possessions confiscated for not doing anything wrong?
Welcome to Bushamerica. Guilty until proven innocent. People are to be suspected, not trusted.
[quote=“sulavaca”]
Well I guess its just fine then. When did people start completely dropping their principles? Why is it fine for some people to have their personal possessions confiscated for not doing anything wrong?[/quote]
When you enter a country, their customs authority has wide leeway to do pretty much anything they want to check for dutiable or contraband items. CBP isn’t doing anything that they haven’t been doing for years. Believe it or not, it’s constitutional (Article I, Section VIII).
I don’t like it, nor have I “dropped my principles”; it’s just the way it is.
Searches of people at border crossings are not subject to the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits search and seizure without reasonable cause. This has been upheld in several courts.
Well that’s just fine then. Yet another reason I can add to the list reminding myself why I should never go to the “Leader of The Free To Do Whatever Our Government Likes World” again.
Arseholes!