Police blotter: Laptop border searches OK'd

Cnet News.com ^ | 27 July 2006 | Declan McCullagh

[M1 Garand 30-06]

Now can we enforce our borders against illegals?

[singfreedom]

Jeez, to bad all judges don't feel the same way!

[dennisw]

Deleted photos? The guy should not have agreed to a search but this still is a very harsh sentence. I wish we were as vigorous in deporting illegal alien criminals.

[Gondring]

Border Thread PING!

This ruling might actually have a major effect on me. My client is preparing a lawsuit against the US, and has provided me with a laptop that contains many confidential documents--including many developed under attorney-client privilege. Does this mean that I have to curtail my international travel with this laptop? Even if I set up an FTP site and store files remotely, if the Feds are allowed to do warrantless forensics, they could conceivably obtain privileged information.

Meanwhile, we are not enforcing border law against known violators.

Very interesting implications in this ruling.

[Gondring]

That analysis and a subsequent one found some 42 child pornography images, which had been present in the cache used by Romm's Web browser and then deleted. But because in most operating systems, only the directory entry is removed when a file is "deleted," the forensic analysis was able to recover the actual files.

During the trial, Romm's attorney asked that the evidence from the border search be suppressed. The trial judge disagreed. Romm was eventually sentenced to two concurrent terms of 10 and 15 years for knowingly receiving and knowingly possessing child pornography.

Yes, and you can be convicted if you get e-mail spam that contains it and you delete the message as soon as you see what it is. Not saying that's what this case was, but based on others I've looked at, that's happened. :-( Even those who were activists against (e.g., CyberAngels) were in danger of felony convictions. Watch what links you click or what URLs you type--you may become a felon in an instant. :-(

[bad company]

Romm was denied entry by the Canadian authorities because of his criminal history.

What kind of criminal history does this guy have for canada to keep him out? They let hamas set up shop there.

[DB]

Well I have a problem with convicting people of child porn simply because there are deleted images in their browser's cache.

Numerous times while doing a Web search using Google (or another search engine) I've landed on a porn site with no way of knowing that's where the link was going to take me.

It happened recently while searching for a specific model of compact fluorescent light bulbs of all things... The link said it was a supplier. The actual site was not.

So if that happened to be child porn site instead of adult porn, I could lose 10 to 15 years of my life???

That's ridiculous. I strongly disagree with that. I think to get a conviction there should be evidence that the person in question paid for the images. The server side is a different matter. Paying for the images proves intent. It also is what actually causes harm to the children. On the server side, if they knowing host child porn, let them rot in jail.

[DB]

Considering data traffic crosses the border over the Internet constantly, virtually anything connected to the Internet could ultimately be searched without a warrant...

Not much difference between carrying a hard drive over the border and FTPing the data across the border.

[Gondring]

FTPing over the border doesn't allow for viewing of deleted files or the secret hidden cache that many don't realize is created by Internet Explorer.

[DB]

Why can't they just raid the FTP site where the data landed without a warrant? The data crossed the border. That's all they claim they need to know.

[Gondring]

So if that happened to be child porn site instead of adult porn, I could lose 10 to 15 years of my life???

Yes, it has happened. (Well, I can't confirm 10-15 years since it hasn't been that long and I think one person got out after losing only 3 or so by getting it overturned.) The problem is that many bad police and prosecutors are concerned more with scoring a "conviction" than actually stopping criminal behavior. :-(

[Gondring]

President Bush required an exemption for his DUI conviction, IIRC.

[Gondring]

I realize that the case had to do with whether a border was crossed or not, but it was the forensic analysis without warrant that I was unaware of.

[Gondring]

http://www.drunkdrivingdefense.com/consequences/bush-dui.htm

Note that Clinton and Gore are also banned for admitting marijuana use.

[dennisw]

What you say is true ...... Though in this case this man had a criminal past thus more likely was savoring degenerate kiddie porn photos. But they were deleted which indicates a wish to flush them.

[Gondring]

They'd need a warrant to obtain logs from an FTP site. These are warrantless searches and analyses.

[Blue_Ridge_Mtn_Geek]

A short time ago, my company enforced a new security policy of PGP encrypting every laptop hard drive in the inventory. The concern was preventing theft of confidential information in the event of a lost or stolen laptop. Happily, this should also be a good defense against such government over-reach as this. For those who are managing their own laptop, this might be a good precaution to consider. Some users have reported performance problems with their installation, but I've had no difficulty, and it's nice to know that my data is secure (or at least "PGP secure" - - - who knows what tricks NSA and similar agencies have up their sleeves, but at least most thieves will be unable to get at the data, and probably border guards as well).

[Marius3188]

I remember using PGP long ago and it was basically, public enemy #1. The Feds hated it. That was years ago, when it was shareware and BBS days.

[USF]

Hmmmmm..... I'm actually with you on this one.

I travel in and out of the US with my laptop on numerous occasions, and some of the information on it could be interpreted in different ways.

Besides the point you and other have made about spam email from porn sites, and unknown links that have been clicked in the past there are probably 1001 other things you would prefer the DHS not to see.

Case in point.... I have posed as a jihadi loving muslim to infiltrate islamic sites in the past, and had downloaded and saved some of their material to report to their hosts to get the sites shut down under "acceptable use policy." I've also had a copy of an Al Qaeda training handbook (readily available on the net, and been posted on FReep several times), among other varied terrorist related material, stored on my laptop hard drive as I fly back into the US thru Dulles / Washington DC.

With hindsight, it was probably not the smartest thing to do and I have already removed such material before subsequent trips, but with numerous recovery programs available, we know the chances of any material being rediscovered are high unless I wipe and rewrite over my HD at least 8 - 12 times.

BTW, I also use a couple of commercially available encryption programs to encode and transmit crucial files in email etc, and some files are stored on my computer in heavily encrypted from, which would probably raise even more eyebrows if border checkpoint peoples suspicions were aroused.

Sure, I would expect to be cleared by DHS - eventually - but could really do w/o the hassle it could have caused.

On the other hand, as you travel in and out of countries, most nations border agencies expect to be able to go thru your belongings (even paper files etc - the Dutch and some muslim countries often to inspect paper and cards looking for paper LSD tabs) unless you have a Dip passport and can claim diplomatic immunity from searches. Some nations search thru your belongings with considerable vigor (try China and some of the ex-Soviet 'stans) and will even be prodding the lining of your luggage and inspecting your reading material for verboten/banned "subversive" material.

So basically this problem is one you will encounter at most international borders, it applies to both hard copies and information that's digitally stored.... what's the solution here besides "just don't bring it on you if you don't want the hassle?" Its easier to transmit any info to yourself in other ways using encryption, or take precautions like use a laptop with a clean backup hard drive (mines easily removable for swapping, and I do have a regularly updated, clean, spare).