In what was presented to the public this week as a clarification of its privacy policy, the US Dept. of Homeland Security published a paper referring to new guidelines for its immigration and customs agents regarding how they may conduct border searches of travelers’ computers and electronic media. Clarifying the existing law, both sets of guidelines reiterated the department’s policy created during the previous administration: Agents may seize, detain, and/or retain individuals’ PCs and media without having reason to suspect that those people or those machines and devices are connected with a crime.
This is ridiculous. But my advice, smile a lot and tell these idiots (if it is an idiot in which you have to deal with) that you appreciate the fact that they are protecting you from terrorists.
I bet the RIAA and MPAA are behind this….
“its for our children” You can perform a lot of atrocities against civil liberties in the name of protecting children.
Well put John
“This is ridiculous. But my advice, smile a lot and tell these idiots (if it is an idiot in which you have to deal with) that you appreciate the fact that they are protecting you from terrorists.”
You would think Obama would at least require first a legally demonstrable reason to suspect that those people or those machines and devices are connected with a crime.
I guess, Obama is just not the Peoples person he claimed to be during his campaign.
Agency Number of Battles won:
Homeland Security 24
Obama 0
This is nothing new and perfect Legal. There is no 4th Amendment rights crossing the border and never have been. This is not just for terrorist but will also cover import and export of legal and illegal items.
#3 I sort of thought you had the right to property unless you were doing something illegal. Heck according to this they don’t even have to suspect you were doing anything illegal. They want it they can take it.
I know organizations like the KGB have other views but I thought we did a little better than that. My mistake.
Hey John Dvorak
Maybe there is hope after all.
Dated:: Wed Aug 26, 2009 at 10:02:31 AM PDT
By Suzanne Ito, ACLU
Today the ACLU filed a lawsuit against U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) demanding records about the CBP’s policy of searching travelers’ laptops without suspicion of wrongdoing. The lawsuit was filed to enforce a Freedom of Information Act request we filed in June, when we requested the criteria used for selecting passengers for suspicionless searches, the number of people who have been subject to the searches, the number of devices and documents retained and the reasons for their retention.
#4 This is not the KGB. It’s actually a requirement if you look at it correctly. This only applies to boarder crossing. They have been searching everything else and have the Constitutional right too. Their just now doing it to Electronic forms of storage. I bet they been doing it for a long time and some is just making a stink about it now.
The only question I would want to know is how they safe guard devices and documents retained and what happens if nothing is found and the time frame they have to find something.
How is this not like living in prison? Oh, right, we are paying for our own room and board. Where I to travel abroad I would drop off an encrypted thumb drive with noting in it just to add to their work load. Peckers.
Let’s see now, Bush started this shit all in the name of security and now the Obomba administration is taking it to new heights.
Change we can believe in.
They will be stealing that change later to pay for healthcare.
Pretty much common practice around the world.
Some tips…
* Don’t travel abroad with your everyday PC. Use one that’s blank except for the OS and normal apps.
* If you need documents that contains secrets (such as business documents), upload them to a server on the net (files being encrypted). Download them when you arrive.
* Use file shredder software to obliterate the files when you’ve used them.
CNET story found via the dreaded Drudge Report
BILL WOULD GIVE OBAMA ‘EMERGENCY’ CONTROL OF INTERNET
a bill that would allow the president to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” relating to “non-governmental” computer networks and do what’s necessary to respond to the threat.
(italics used to quote from the article)
“They can have my computer, when they pry it from my cold dead hands…”
I apologize for all caps in the link. I was in a hurry and not paying attention.
#9 Bush did not start this. This is common practice. This perfectly legal and only applies at boarder crossing, no where else.
#14 This is not denying anyone their rights.
Just do what #12 says if you want this info when you cross borders.
# 7 Jetfire,
The may have been searching, but not the “seizing” with out cause.
The only thing that changed last fall was the name of the liar.
It just keeps getting gets worse every day, Thanks President Obama…I thought you were going to undo some of this crap. I voted for you you worthless POS.
How about PDA’, memory sticks, iPhones, iPods, anything that takes a battery or is electronic?
They are leaving the door wide open on that one!!!
MY DOG!!! a cell phone can send out a radio signal!!!
Romulans would never do this to us.
# 12 Jägermeister,
Face it America, the U.S. Government owns the Internet and it’s contents.
You can run but you can’t hide, between the NSA/CIA/FBI/DoD/HLS they can crack/hack/take anything they want.
Uploading it, to download it to your favorite computer is not going keep your stuff safe.
I hate to keep harping on this same issue — but we need to have security built into all our computers.
The (personal) data on every computer should be powerfully encrypted — transparently, by default.
It is inevitable that computers are going to be stolen and/or confiscated.
How many stories have we heard about a laptop being stolen out of a trunk with thousands of credit card numbers on them? This just will not do.
# 22 Greg Allen said,
“(personal) data on every computer should be powerfully encrypted — transparently, by default.”
What the heck does “POWERFULLY ENCRYPTED – TRANSPARENTLY” mean??
That statement sounds like an inbreed oxymoron if ever there was one!
Just store all your sensitive information at a remote location. Website space is cheap these days.
Travel with a NetBook. That way if they want it, it is really no BFD. Or better yet, give them some Microsoft Mobile piece of shit.
# 25 Special Ed,
Please explain to me, why are you lugging around something you don’t really want?
If you don’t really want it, why carry it?
As a rule, I would assume that any government agency that take possession of your computer for more than 15 minutes has cloned your hard-drive and/or memory. This is true for any government, not just the US.
Once they have cloned it, they can take their sweet time analyzing the data, or attempting to decrypt it.
They could also install spyware on your computer before returning it to you. This would allow them spy on you in the future.
Specifically for the US, there are no rules that I know of that control how long they can retain their copy of your data. Nor are there rules about what they do with your data. And even if their are rules, I would not expect them to follow them.
So in summary: Assume that any data you carry with you crossing a border can end up in the hands of a government agency. Expect that data to be used against you in any way they can think of. If you don’t want that, then don’t have that data on your computer.
#9 / Mr Diesel —
“Let’s see now, Bush started this shit all in the name of security and now the Obomba administration is taking it to new heights.”
>>This isn’t new. Look back, under the Bush administration, basically this same article was posted to this very blog. And we were about as unhappy about it then as we are now.
When you think about it, it makes perfect sense in that everything you physically bring across the border is subject to search. The annoying thing is, there’s essentially no chance that your suitcase is going to be held for months at the border crossing if they suspect you’ve got something in it they don’t like, because they can search it completely in a few minutes. The laptops might take them that long to fish through, so they retain that option, and the fear that they’re going to keep it indefinitely is seriously off-putting.
#20/bill — This policy applies to iPods and Cell phones, too. The article blurb isn’t entirely clear about what “media” is, but the previous stories on this made that clear.
I’d hoped that Obama would have changed these types of policies by now. However, there’s a lot to undo, and a day doesn’t go by that Cheney rattles his tired sabre that every reversal puts us at risk, and makes it more and more difficult politically for Obama to take the risk that some random attack gets politically blamed on one of those reversals. (You know it would, regardless of reality, if there was a major attack on US soil).
The issue is not the search, but the lack of any need for any reasonable suspicion. I mean, how hard would it be to create a damn secret court like the FISA courts that they could present evidence to, that an affected person could appeal to in order to provide some kind of oversight to keep the government honest on not taking your iPod just because you got irritated with an agent after a 13-hour flight in a middle seat, or your digital camera because the agent thinks you’re hot and might have nude pictures of yourself on it they’d like to copy, or whatever? Not like it would be a high hurdle to cross, but SOME reasonable suspicion standard ought to exist.
For the record, I’ve crossed the border multiple times since this policy was in effect, stood in the lines and watched as people entered and exited the country, and I’ve never seen anyone be subject to any screening of their belongings beyond the level that we all go through for domestic flights these days. The only time I’ve even seen someone really get grilled was the couple who tried to re-enter the US and claim they didn’t have passports for their two kids when they left. (I didn’t get to see the resolution, but it was pretty clear the agents felt he would have needed that to get OUT of the country, and thought they might be smuggling kids into the country for adoption or something.)
So? Don’t take your computer traveling.
#21 – noname
If NSA wants to spend some years worth of super computer time on it, so be it… but you don’t have to hand over your decryption key at the border.
>> noname said, on August 28th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
>> What the heck does “POWERFULLY ENCRYPTED – TRANSPARENTLY” mean??
>> That statement sounds like an inbreed oxymoron if ever there was one!
No need to get pissy. What’s your problem? But I’ll answer anyway — it’s pretty standard terminology.
POWERFULLY = strong enough so the government can’t easily break it.
ENCRYPTED = I think you get this
TRANSPARENTLY = It’s a transparent process for the user – (CRC checks on downloads are an example of this.)