U.S. Government Seizes Laptops Without Suspicion of Wrongdoing and Shares Personal Data Files with Private Companies
August 1st, 2008Breathtaking.
Via: Washington Post:
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, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.
Also, officials may share copies of the laptop’s contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“The policies . . . are truly alarming,” said Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), who is probing the government’s border search practices. He said he intends to introduce legislation soon that would require reasonable suspicion for border searches, as well as prohibit profiling on race, religion or national origin.
DHS officials said that the newly disclosed policies — which apply to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens — are reasonable and necessary to prevent terrorism. Officials said such procedures have long been in place but were disclosed last month because of public interest in the matter.
Civil liberties and business travel groups have pressed the government to disclose its procedures as 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.
The policies state that officers may “detain” laptops “for a reasonable period of time” to “review and analyze information.” This may take place “absent individualized suspicion.”
The policies cover “any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form,” including hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. They also cover “all papers and other written documentation,” including books, pamphlets and “written materials commonly referred to as ‘pocket trash’ or ‘pocket litter.’ ”
Reasonable measures must be taken to protect business information and attorney-client privileged material, the policies say, but there is no specific mention of the handling of personal data such as medical and financial records.
When a review is completed and no probable cause exists to keep the information, any copies of the data must be destroyed. Copies sent to non-federal entities must be returned to DHS. But the documents specify that there is no limitation on authorities keeping written notes or reports about the materials.
“They’re saying they can rifle through all the information in a traveler’s laptop without having a smidgen of evidence that the traveler is breaking the law,” said Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Notably, he said, the policies “don’t establish any criteria for whose computer can be searched.”
Customs Deputy Commissioner Jayson P. Ahern said the efforts “do not infringe on Americans’ privacy.” In a statement submitted to Feingold for a June hearing on the issue, he noted that the executive branch has long had “plenary authority to conduct routine searches and seizures at the border without probable cause or a warrant” to prevent drugs and other contraband from entering the country.
why am i not surprised ? !!! the simple truth here is that americans are getting precisely the sort of government that they deserve. Many others far wiser than myself have stated a sincere diesire that the framers could have been just a bit less wordy, to whit:
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.
would it not have ben so much better were this the actual text:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against 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.
one little word. result: one mountain of fedgov bs.
cybele
@dagobaz: I’m not a Constitutional scholar (by a long shot), but I think they were trying to describe what it would take for a search or seizure NOT to be “unreasonable” in the text that followed, i.e., “probable cause”, supported by Oath or affirmation, etc.
My take on the Constitution in general is, if you don’t approach it in “good faith”, i.e., you’re a scumbag looking for an excuse to do scumbaggish things, you’ll find a way. In other words, the Constitution relies on the basic decency of the People who subscribe to it; if that basic decency is missing, the Constitution can’t, by itself, reinstitute it.
On frequent-traveler related forums, it seems that any one of the travelers worth his salt is either skipping bringing their laptops, or bringing sanitized laptops through customs. I’ve heard reports of other countries starting to do this as well – China, and Indonesia supposedly (though in Indonesia it’s supposedly only to look for ‘porn’, which presumably is illegal there).
Keeping in mind that the US CBP agents can go through any media – sd cards, your iPod’s memory, the tiny micro SD card in your cell phone – the smart thing to do here is to not travel with any data that you consider personal. Just keep your computer on at home, VPN/remote into it when you get to your destination and access your data that way.