My mom, who is 83, was going through airport security recently. She was in a wheelchair and they asked me if she can walk. I said yes but can she just go on through. They were basically jerks about it, smarted off to me like I asked a stupid question and made her stand in line and make sure she had no explosives on her I guess. Fortunately I kept my mouth shut because I am not sure what they would have done.
Very scary how these privacy eroding developments seem to take place under the radar with very little press coverage. It's as though we're frozen in a state of complacency...Sad!
I can't see the DHS having any luck getting this one to hold up in court after the first lawsuit is filed.
It's a constitutional violation from the get-go, depending on the material contained on the drives there could be violation of copyrights (among other things) as well, and if the material is encrypted - breaking the encryption would also be a violation.
And the only people they will ever catch are complete morons - who they won't even be able to convict because any evidence they have will have been obtained illegally.
And anyone wise to this new tactic will simply upload whatever they need to an encrypted server, mail/courier hard copies to their destination or use any of a multitude of workarounds.
... for the business traveller. But I must also say that in all of my travels over the last few years (both Asia and Europe) I have never had an issue of any kind and I know of no one who has had a problem.
So, while I agree that this is unconstitutional, I don't see it as an real and immediate issue for the business traveller.
After hours of a demeaning search and questioning of her laptop and other things she was told in no uncertain terms to get back to her home country and never set foot in the USA again.
This is a person I had seen and looked forward to seeing again, so this time, it's personal.
This loophole is brought to you by the "Patriot Act"... apparently they are compelling persons to give up passwords or encription keys... upheld in court, so far! It would seem to be unconstitutional and goes far beyond what ordinary LE can do.
I have heard of business travelers who remotely access their information, condunt their business, then delete & clean the drives before the flight.
Deleting materials & history may keep a SO from becoming suspicious... but it is necessary to note again, that it's fairly easy to recover deleted materials unless over written by a cleaning program to prevent it. It may actually be harder to protect other devises. If hobbying overseas, I'd be tempted to get a hobby phone there & destroy it before I left.
Somebidy with more tech knowledge than me comment? skb
CDs, DVDs, Phones, Ipod, Flash drives, removable hard drives and of course laptops! they can take it for an undetermined amount of time with out warrant and taken off site. which means confiscate to me.
wow i remember when i was a kid America was the land of the free. un-freking-real...
My mom, who is 83, was going through airport security recently. She was in a wheelchair and they asked me if she can walk. I said yes but can she just go on through. They were basically jerks about it, smarted off to me like I asked a stupid question and made her stand in line and make sure she had no explosives on her I guess. Fortunately I kept my mouth shut because I am not sure what they would have done.
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