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Homeland Security: We can seize laptops for an indefinite period
news.cnet.com ^ | August 1, 2008 | Declan McCullagh

Posted on 08/01/2008 12:07:42 PM PDT by southlake_hoosier

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has concocted a remarkable new policy: It reserves the right to seize for an indefinite period of time laptops taken across the border.

A pair of DHS policies from last month say that customs agents can routinely--as a matter of course--seize, make copies of, and "analyze the information transported by any individual attempting to enter, re-enter, depart, pass through, or reside in the United States." (See policy No. 1 and No. 2.)

DHS claims the border search of electronic information is useful to detect terrorists, drug smugglers, and people violating "copyright or trademark laws." (Readers: Are you sure your iPod and laptop have absolutely no illicitly downloaded songs? You might be guilty of a felony.)

This is a disturbing new policy, and should convince anyone taking a laptop across a border to use encryption to thwart DHS snoops. Encrypt your laptop, with full disk encryption if possible, and power it down before you go through customs.

Here's a guide to customs-proofing your laptop that we published in March.

It's true that any reasonable person would probably agree that Customs agents should be able to inspect travelers' bags for contraband. But seizing a laptop and copying its hard drive is uniquely invasive--and should only be done if there's a good reason.

Sen. Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, called the DHS policies "truly alarming" and told the Washington Post that he plans to introduce a bill that would require reasonable suspicion for border searches.

But unless Congress changes the law, DHS may be able to get away with its new rules. A U.S. federal appeals court has ruled that an in-depth analysis of a laptop's hard drive using the EnCase forensics software "was permissible without probable cause or a warrant under the border search doctrine."

At a Senate hearing in June, Larry Cunningham, a New York prosecutor who is now a law professor, defended laptop searches--but not necessarily seizures--as perfectly permissible. Preventing customs agents from searching laptops "would open a vulnerability in our border by providing criminals and terrorists with a means to smuggle child pornography or other dangerous and illegal computer files into the country," Cunningham said.

The new DHS policies say that customs agents can, "absent individualized suspicion," seize electronic gear: "Documents and electronic media, or copies thereof, may be detained for further review, either on-site at the place of detention or at an off-site location, including a location associated with a demand for assistance from an outside agency or entity."

Outside entity presumably refers to government contractors, the FBI, and National Security Agency, which can also be asked to provide "decryption assistance." Seized information will supposedly be destroyed unless customs claims there's a good reason to keep it.

An electronic device is defined as "any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form" including hard drives, compact discs, DVDs, flash drives, portable music players, cell phones, pagers, beepers, and videotapes.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Government; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: borders; bordersecurity; computers; fourthamendment; homelandsecurity; search
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Apparently they want our whole lives, not just the part they already have.
1 posted on 08/01/2008 12:07:43 PM PDT by southlake_hoosier
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To: southlake_hoosier

Think of it as the “fairness Doctrine” for computers.


2 posted on 08/01/2008 12:09:16 PM PDT by MCCRon58 (Freedom does not mean you are free from the consequences of your own freely made decisions.)
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To: southlake_hoosier

My kid downloaded a dozen songs illegally to my laptop to put on his ipod. I am now at risk.


3 posted on 08/01/2008 12:09:44 PM PDT by spyone
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To: southlake_hoosier

Well at least they should snag the foreign laptops coming across to do the computing American laptops refuse to do.


4 posted on 08/01/2008 12:10:15 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: spyone; southlake_hoosier
My kid downloaded a dozen songs illegally to my laptop to put on his ipod. I am now at risk.

You are at risk if you can not prove that every piece of software on your notebook computer, iPod, or other digital device, as well as every music file, every movie clip, and every piece of digital data in your possession is legally licensed, that you are in full compliance with the applicable licenses, that you are the legal owner of the licenses, and that any and all applicable data is acceptable for export subject to U.S. law.

5 posted on 08/01/2008 12:14:28 PM PDT by rabscuttle385 ("When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat." Ronald Reagan)
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To: southlake_hoosier

More police-state fascism from DHS “for our protection”. Meanwhile, they cannot rustle up their army of highschool dropouts to take a momentary glance at 95% of the shipping containers entering the country.


6 posted on 08/01/2008 12:15:35 PM PDT by M203M4 (True Universal Suffrage: Pets of dead illegal-immigrant felons voting Democrat (twice))
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To: rabscuttle385

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures , shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue , but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.


7 posted on 08/01/2008 12:15:46 PM PDT by DaveyB (Either we will be ruled by God or by-god we will be ruled - Ben Franklin)
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To: southlake_hoosier

“would open a vulnerability in our border by providing criminals and terrorists with a means to smuggle child pornography or other dangerous and illegal computer files into the country,”

I hope nobody tells this guy about the new fangled internets thing.


8 posted on 08/01/2008 12:16:26 PM PDT by happinesswithoutpeace (You are receiving this broadcast as a dream)
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To: southlake_hoosier

I think I’d rather lose my computer for awhile than have a bunch of innocent Americans killed in a terrorist attack.


9 posted on 08/01/2008 12:17:13 PM PDT by popdonnelly (Boycott Washington D.C. until they allow gun ownership)
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To: southlake_hoosier

This is starting to get a little ridiculous. Tomorrow it’ll be a little worse. The day after that a little worse. Eventually we won’t recognize our liberties and when we want them back, it’ll be too late. I pray I’m just being paranoid.


10 posted on 08/01/2008 12:17:44 PM PDT by djsherin
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To: southlake_hoosier

You’ll get my laptop when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.! ! ! !


11 posted on 08/01/2008 12:17:53 PM PDT by DeaconRed (NO BOMA --NO RINO --- WE WOULD BE BETTER OFF WITH NUTIN-HONEY)
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To: popdonnelly
I think I’d rather lose my computer for awhile than have a bunch of innocent Americans killed in a terrorist attack.

Laptops can be used to kill Americans?

12 posted on 08/01/2008 12:18:35 PM PDT by Citizen Blade ("Please... I go through everyone's trash." The Question)
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To: southlake_hoosier

If they want to snoop, make it hurt. Fill the laptop up with weird sounding file/doc names and dump the foulest shock imagery the world has ever seen into it. Make sure everyone who actually looks at it doesn’t sleep for the next 10 years.


13 posted on 08/01/2008 12:19:16 PM PDT by happinesswithoutpeace (You are receiving this broadcast as a dream)
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To: popdonnelly

DHS claims the border search of electronic information is useful to detect terrorists, drug smugglers, and people violating “copyright or trademark laws.”

Those dang music downloading terrorists /sarc


14 posted on 08/01/2008 12:19:35 PM PDT by kms61
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To: djsherin
I pray I’m just being paranoid.

You just made the list, buddy.

15 posted on 08/01/2008 12:23:19 PM PDT by gdani (Polls show half the country can't name the Vice President.......)
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To: rabscuttle385

None of which I can prove...although none is in violation as far as I know.


16 posted on 08/01/2008 12:23:34 PM PDT by spyone
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To: kms61
DHS claims the border search of electronic information is useful to detect terrorists, drug smugglers, and people violating “copyright or trademark laws.”

Those dang music downloading terrorists /sarc

The RIAA Check cleared.

Nice to see the McDonald's employees in uniforms can go gift shopping. Guess who will be getting laptops for Christmas?

17 posted on 08/01/2008 12:25:11 PM PDT by Gorzaloon
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To: gdani

Is this good or bad?


18 posted on 08/01/2008 12:25:16 PM PDT by djsherin
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To: southlake_hoosier

“It reserves the right to seize for an indefinite period of time laptops taken across the border.

And just what part of personal property and unlawful search and seizure do they not understand??


19 posted on 08/01/2008 12:26:20 PM PDT by CodeToad
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To: djsherin

It would be nice to know the justification for seizing laptops at border checkpoints. It sounds arbitrary and bureaucratic to just say that laptops will be searched and seized without a warrant, without probable cause.

Searching for copyright infringement and illegally downloaded songs and software should not be a concern of those guarding our borders.


20 posted on 08/01/2008 12:28:03 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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