More Courts Saying That Customs Officers Can Look Through Your Laptop
from the don't-keep-anything-secret-there dept
We first discussed this a while back, but it appears that more US courts are agreeing that customs agents have every right to snoop through your computer before letting you into the country. This issue is getting some people concerned, as they point to the vast difference between bringing tangible goods into the country (which, reasonably, can be searched) and all of the information you contain on your laptop (which, increasingly, is like a backup brain). Of course, since most of the cases testing this theory involve people who were found with child porn on their laptop, it's no surprise that there hasn't been as much discussion of the cases. People generally don't want to be seen as siding with child porn. However, it is a much larger issue, especially considering how much personal and private information most folks have on their laptops these days. If these searches are allowed (as it appears they will be), how long until the process is abused? How long until some confidential or embarrassing information is leaked just because a customs official snoops through someone's laptop?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: border crossing, customs, laptops, privacy
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
How much are they willing to actually look
I can't remember where I put the vast majority of the files I don't regularly use. What are the chances your typical customs agent will know how to search through complex file systems to find files someone really wants to hide.
I would imagine that unless they train teams of highly specialized personnel to accomplish these digital snoops the very idea is bordering on preposterous.
How do you determine who to search? Or do you search everyone? Thousands of people with, nowadays, hundreds of gigabits of data...
Maybe just limit the inspection to people coming from high risk areas...but then isn't the vast majority of the internet readily accessible from much of the world?
I think that this will soon spin either way out of control or fizzle into the background only coming up when a lawsuit does. (refer back to why are they picking on me question)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Depends on what you put in your luggage
There are limits to what's searched and why. I suppose that anything you don't want the customs people to see should be encrypted. This isn't the UK where you have to provide your encryption key. Yet.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Sincerely (and unofficially),
TSA
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
My question is what do Customs feel they'll find on a laptop that is within their jurisdiction?
EtG
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
That begs the question...
If we're not legally required to provide decryption keys to US authorities, does that mean that we can install Full-disk encryption on our laptop and when they are unable to even get the laptop to boot they'll just have to wave us through? Somehow I doubt it. But if we don't use FDE and instead set up an encrypted directory or partition would we be likely to slip through?
For that matter, should we be legally required to provide a password to allow someone to log onto our laptops?
Regarding Jerry's suggestion to store confidential/personal data on a thumb drive instead of a laptop hard drive, that's easy if you only have a couple of gigabytes of data. But what if you have 50GB of data?
With the prevalence of open/free WiFi, I'm wondering if it doesn't make sense to just store everything on a server at home (where it's encrypted or whatever) and then open a VPN tunnel from the laptop to home any time you need something.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9834495-38.html
this sounds mildly reasonable. anything on my computer not encrypted is treated as being in plain view, just like if you kept your stash on the dashboard of your car. keep your stuff hidden and the cops need to show they have a good reason to be looking there.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
We travel to Europe a good bit for work and I have a lot of proprietary stuff on my machine. The whole hard drive is encrypted.
I have a feeling that telling the Border agent, "Sure you can look through my laptop, but can you sign this NDA first?" wouldn't go over so well.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Seaching laptops will only catch out stupid people, like those willing to have child porn in the first place, so no biggie I say.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
The more of us who voluntarily abdicate our rights for the sake of convenience or safety, the faster will find those rights disappearing.
Rights - like muscles - have to be exercised regularly or they atrophy.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I often travel internationally for work with my laptop, and my laptop carries several versions of my resume. I suppose I should now be worried at every port of entry around the world.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
i get the child porn thingy, but i really doubt thats all they are concerned in? will they ask me to provide invoices for the software installed on my system?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
this is stupid
This has nothing to do with child porn or security. Just yet another excuse for governments to invade our privacy and violate our freedom. It's B$ and it does need to be protested. Hell, if I ever go across the border again and they search my laptop, when they ask where the HD is, I'll tell them the truth. I'm hiding it because I do not want my privacy and rights violated. If they don't let me cross, fine. I don't want to visit a country who treats all their visitors like instant criminals. Fuck that shit.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
can they go through my notebooks, address books, sketch books, essays, texts?
yes, they can, but up until now i cannot be arrested for their contents.... usually
seems the laptop is a chance to increase the potential for being caught with something wrong.... in your mind
lucky we all read kafk when young, we are prepared for what is coming
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
We are only to OBEY, not question or think.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Encrypt your data
Or better, use your favorite Linux distro and an encrypted file system.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Encrypt your data
Same tired old bs.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Encrypt your data
I'm tired of hearing about lacking Winblows security and the many strengths of the Linux kernel. This is getting to be a dead horse. Yes Windows sucks. Yes Linux is better on all fronts (ahem, not gaming, almost all fronts).
Please let's move on.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I've solved it..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I've solved it..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
@Da_ALC - go one step further
Anyone with anything to hide and half a brain can circumvent the search. It is another instance of criminalising the innocent. Remember DRM and the pointless problems it caused the innocent?
This is a waste of time/money/resources. Further more, it shows how poor the technical understanding of the legislators is.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Face the facts
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Security screener funny
"About two years after 9/11 I was selected at random by a TSA agent for additional security screening at an airport checkpoint. I was asked to remove my hat, shoes, belt and jacket, after which I was told to spread my arms and legs for electronic ‘wanding’.
When I asked why I had been chosen for the extra attention, two more agents quickly appeared and their unsmiling faces emphasized that airport security was, indeed, very serious business. “We need to be sure you don’t have anything you can use to take control of an aircraft”, the screener told me. I will never forget the absurdity of his words.
You see, I was, in fact, about to take control of an aircraft, an Airbus A320 to be precise, and fly it up the Potomac River to LaGuardia. That’s what airline Captains like me get paid to do. That’s why I had showed up at the airport in full uniform, properly credentialed and ready to go.
Security was then, and remains now, largely a sham. It’s all about politics and the appearance of vigilance. It’s about collecting pocket knives from forgetful, but otherwise law-abiding people."
Source for this clip: http://jetlagged.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/the-airport-security-follies/index.html#comment-3747
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Doesn't federal law prevent this?
If so, I may have finally found the one good thing about HIPAA.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Doesn't federal law prevent this?
The TSA are the underpaid fools who supposedly will prevent terrorists from making it onto a plane but really just make air travel all that more annoying.
Customs and Border Protection are the people who supposedly will prevent terrorists from entering the US (we'll forget the whole 'we let the 9/11 terrorists in' thing) but really just add an hour or so to your travel time at the Canada-US border.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
You talk like there is no abuse of personal info p
The days of secure data are long long gone, and even more so with wireless. All that is left is to rub it in our faces, rather than being secretive (doublespeak) about it.
The only reason your bowel movements are not monitored is because the government is not interested. It is not about rights any more, about the rights of government to protect itself from (itself) its citizens and any human or noun.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Here is the solution
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Dead Battery
Oh yeah. And so's the hard drive.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Dead Battery
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
GOVERNMENT SNOOPING
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Precedence to inspect, will be precedence to copy
Precedence is the true problem here, not searching for kiddie porn.
It's quite reasonable to say that customs inspectors do not have time to dig through someone's laptop. In the future, as the number of international flights continues to rise, the time a customs inspector has to look over your luggage will drop significantly.
Therefor, it's quite reasonable to presume that at some point in time in the future customs officials will have at their disposal a mechanism to quickly backup the hard drive for "inspection" by a third party. Of course this will be made easier with some new standard that is required in all "portable computers."
The problem then is not if the customs agent is reading your personal documents. The problem becomes what does the third party, contracted to review all data, do with that data while they have posession? Share your love letters with the FBI? Share your medical data with your insurance companies? The possibilities are endless, and it all starts with the expectation that customs officials have the "right" to view all data on your person.
Shane
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Who can access your company computer?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Passwords
AFAIK, its not technically encrypted, but it is protected.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
linux...
you will either get a bit of paper to say it has been checked, probably with a sigh. or investigated more.
this almost makes sense though, since I dare say it will mostly be used as a legal method of searching electronic devices of people being watched anyway.
of course it will also be used by the board to target the annoyed.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This is the TSA we're talking about not tech suppo
windows Me on the first partition
Whatever OS of choice on the 2nd
Hide OS selection menu
Or you could just leave a Knoppix cd in the drive or boot off of a SD card that was left in the laptop.
Regardless of the work around this needs to be fought.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
computer search
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Automated Harddrive Search
Heres where I read it;
http://chat.extremetourist.com/index.php?showtopic=249&st=0&p=1243&#entry1243
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Automated Harddrive Search
Very scary if they indeed are using Encase.
http://www.itourist.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=249&st=0&p=1243&#entry1243
Fro m what I understand Encase not only makes an image of your hard drive, but it makes a true image where they can locate items that have been deleted.
I don't carry anything illegal on my laptop, but I do have personal data (finances) and work material (proprietary) that I wouldn't want anyone else to have, including US Customs.
I'm now using a clean hard disk when I go overseas just because of this.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
on this
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Dont get into what you dont understand
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Dont get into what you dont understand
You worthless worm, how bout to suffice to you invasive ways, after i take a dump in the bathroom i won't flush, and you can go stick your long jewish nose in it and dig around see if you can find any 'threatening' information. which i'm sure you will since you can make up any BS and still come out fooling the naive people that nod and agree with everything.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
46 Comments | Leave a Comment..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Stolen Technology
Companies should establish policies to ensure such information does not travel internationally on a laptop or other media for that matter. If a laptop is needed, issue a sanitized one. However, never travel with protected technology unless appropriate licenses (Departments of State, Commerce and etc) are in place.
See more @ http://www.amazon.com/dp/1439803714
[ link to this | view in chronology ]