US Airports: laptops can be seized by authorities at any time

CptStern

CptStern

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Travelers' Laptops May Be Detained At Border - No Suspicion Required Under DHS Policies

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..... officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons... an increasing number of international travelers have reported that their laptops, cellphones and other digital devices have been taken -- for months, in at least one case -- and their contents examined.
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" ...aaaaaannnnnd the laaaaaaand of the freeeeeeeee" ...."oh wait we better take that last part out as it's no longer applicable"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/content/article/2008/08/01/laptops.html
 
Christ, America, we get it. The terrorists won. No need to go into overtime.
 
WTF is wrong with America. Even the courts held this constitutional....
 
delusional said:
WTF is wrong with America. Even the courts held this constitutional....
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We are prisoners to terrorism either way it seems. There won't be any Americans left to protect if these ridiculous privacy violations continue, as the population around here will surely decline while people who are able search for better countries to live.

If it was under circumstances that didn't vilolate our fourth amendment, then maybe I wouldn't have any issues with it. Giving authorities the power to search anyone without even the slightest bit of suspision though doesn't sit well with me. They should at least be made to do tons and TONS of paper work per search to deter the possibility of some jerk wanting to ruin someone's day just because they hate their jobs or had a bad day.

I wonder if the law applies to illegal immigrants/immigrants or everyone? If it only appiles to the former, then I feel sorry for any of you people planning to come over here in the near future.
 
Three Points:

1) We didn't loose the war on terror, we got our butts handed to us. These policies don't prevent planes from blowing up from our skies, they only raise my blood pressure.

2) This scenario is only likely to happen to you if you have a name that sounds like it is from the middle east. (which doesn't make this policy anymore right)

3) Encrypt your information if your are paranoid about the government looking at your information. EFS in XP Pro does a decent job, but if you want to go uber paranoid there are standalone encryption programs that make it impossible for them to access your drive without a key.
 
blahblahblah said:
3) Encrypt your information if your are paranoid about the government looking at your information. EFS in XP Pro does a decent job, but if you want to go uber paranoid there are standalone encryption programs that make it impossible for them to access your drive without a key.
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Hate to burst your bubble but they'll then seize your laptop until they break that key. Meanwhile down here in Australia it's actually an offence to refuse handing over an encryption key to the authorities if they've detained your equipment with just cause. If you want security use an online file storage system and encrypt the data you put on that. Alternatively use the hidden OS feature of TrueCrypt.
 
basically.


Besides, I'll bet there are back doors for authorities in more programs than we'd like to imagine.


'FBIMasterPass123' lol


OK, maybe not. idk
 
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