Judge Says DHS Can't Hang Onto Travelers Laptops To Search Much Later Without A Warrant
from the a-bit-of-good-news dept
We just had a story about a court ruling saying that it was okay for customs agents to take a laptop away and search it somewhere else if they had reasonable suspicion. This has followed a string of controversial court decisions, which say there are no 4th amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure at the border. On top of that, the Department of Homeland Security has made it pretty clear that it feels it can do whatever it wants at the border.However, there may be some limits. Another recent court ruling has told Homeland Security that it cannot seize a laptop, hang onto it indefinitely and do searches on it many months later without a warrant. It's not entirely clear where the line lies here. The court basically says that earlier searches of the same laptop were fine, but there was no reason to hold onto it for so many months and then do another search.
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Filed Under: 4th amendment, border, customs, laptops, privacy, searches, warrants
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So here's my question, if the lappy is locked down, fully encrypted and protected...can you be forced to give up the passwords? and if not, do you get your lappy back?
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Re:
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Stalemate
Sadly, at the UK border under RIPA they can demand passwords. What exactly is supposed to happen if you genuinely cannot remember or don't know (eg if you were transporting the laptop for someone else) is not clear. Also, if you use Truecrypt and they believe that there are more layers than you admit to then it is not clear what follows.
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Re: @1 In all seriousness, depends only on their whims.
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We are the DHS
You have no rights.
We own all your bases.
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Re: We are the DHS
All of your base belong to me.
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Re: Re: We are the DHS
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Re: Re: Re: We are the DHS
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Re: Re: Re: Re: We are the DHS
...............please???
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Re: We are the DHS
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Remind me...
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Re: Remind me...
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Re: Remind me...
http://www.forbes.com/2007/06/11/urban-surveillance-security-biz-21cities_cx_cd_0611futu recity.html
or to quote the great Robert Anton Winston: "National security is the chief cause of national insecurity."
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Lock it down
Police Lie. Politicians Lie. Lawyers Lie. This is their job, to defraud, to stretch the truth, to lie. So if Homeland Security tells you a thing it is either a lie or a partial truth. The time has come to decide who to trust. The battle lines have been drawn and now more than ever it is THEM or US.
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Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE)
http://www.microsoft.com/industry/government/solutions/cofee/default.aspx
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2. Anybody calling their laptop a "lappy" doesn't deserve to get it back.
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C'mon! You can't take away Strongbad's email responding abilities!
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So same basic deal.
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