Homeland Security Says Laptop Border Searches Will Continue
(AP / CBS)
It didn't help that the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals already had blessed the practice -- meaning that anyone, even U.S. citizens, can have their tangle of gadgetry seized at borders or at international arrivals even if there's zero evidence of illicit activities. (It won't happen to everyone in practice, of course, but DHS nevertheless reserved the right to do it.)
On Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced new guidelines for searching and seizing electronic devices at the border. In a press release, DHS claimed that they would "enhance and clarify oversight for searches of computers and other electronic media at U.S. ports of entry."
Rhetoric aside, in reality, not much has changed. Laptops and electronic gear can still be seized and held indefinitely; there's no requirement that they be returned to their owners after even six months or a year has passed, though supervisory approval is required if they're held for more than 15 days. The complete contents of a hard drive or memory card can be perused at length for evidence of lawbreaking of any kind, even if it's underpaying your taxes or not paying parking tickets.
This kind of open-ended scanning should worry anyone who travels internationally, not just privacy advocates. When we have laws like the No Electronic Theft Act, which makes sharing a sufficient number of MP3 files a federal crime, how many college students are unindicted felons? File this under the show-me-the-man-and-I'll-show-you-the-crime department.
Harvey Silverglate, a criminal defense attorney in Boston and co-founder of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, has a forthcoming book on this point called Three Felonies A Day. "When a statute is so broad that it catches so much ordinary activity, it's very problematic," Silverglate told me in an interview for CBSNews.com this week.
Here's an excerpt from the Homeland Security directive to U.S. Customs and Border Protection: "An Officer may detain electronic devices, or copies of information contained therein, for a brief, reasonable period of time to perform a thorough border search. The search may take place on-site or at an off-site location, and is to be completed as expeditiously as possible."
Once the examination is complete and you have not been deemed a criminal, according to Homeland Security's privacy impact assessment: "CBP will contact you by telephone when the examination of the electronic device(s) is complete, to notify you that you may pick-up the item(s) during regular business hours from the location where the item(s) was detained. If it is impractical for you to pick up the device, CBP can make arrangements to ship the device to you at our expense." (Who's responsible if it's damaged in transit is anyone's guess.)
Homeland Security said on Thursday that it performed approximately 1,000 laptop searches from October 1, 2008 through August 11, 2009. One way to protect yourself from these searches is to use whole disk encryption from a company like PGP and make sure your laptop is completely powered down when crossing the border.
It's true that under the Obama administration, Homeland Security is trying to discourage agents from adding copies of your digital photos or other private files to their personal collections, and it has warned that trade secrets, journalists' notes, and medical records should be handled carefully. These are improvements over the Bush administration's policy.
But a better rule might be a simple one: Require some evidence of wrongdoing -- at least a tiny suspicion of illegal activity -- before agents begin to poke through your PC and myriad other gadgetry. This is what a bill introduced last year by Sen. Feingold would have done. The problem the Wisconsin Democrat wanted to address still exists; let's hope his desire to fix it does as well.
Declan McCullagh is a correspondent for CBSNews.com. He can be reached at declan@cbsnews.com. You can bookmark the Taking Liberties site here, or subscribe to the RSS feed.
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The Pico flash drive is the size of a piece of Trident gum. and is available in up to 16GB. I keep mine on my key ring. Odds are no one will even notice it on your key ring.
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Tell me I should vote for Obama's Health Care Reform which will have many of the same loose interpretations that will allow the government deep into your personal life and maybe control you death. Think that is the kind of government you might have in Africa or South America, not here.
You were not elected to create a Democratic majority.
You were elected to restore this country.
You were not elected to serve the corporations and the trusts who the government has enabled for the last eight years.
You were elected to serve the people.
And if you fail to fufill this agreement, the full wrath of the progressive and the moderate movements in this country will come down on your heads.
Explain yourselves not to me, but to all of us.
We elected you, and in the blink of an eye, WE will replace you.
If you will behave as if you are Republicans - as if you are the prostitutes of our system - you will be judged as such.
And you will lose not merely our respect. You will lose your jobs!
So be warned, we are not tolerating the NANNY attitude and disreguard of our liberties, safety and privacy ANYMORE!
The extremists barked and barked recently when a proposed law banning texting while driving was brought up. Of course, they claimed government interference too. But think about it, texting while driving is dangerous and people are too stupid to not do it and since it endangers the many, the government feels the need to do its job, step in and protect its citizens.
No matter what the issue, responsibilities run concurrent with freedom.
My 1st Amendment rights do not give me the right to accoust your wife, your daughter. That would be an abuse of that right. I am sure you would not let me get away with that. Or are you're saying that it would be okay with you due to my right to free speech? I don't think so.
America does'nt need hate groups in it under any pretense. But their existence is being brought to national attention due their lack of reasonable use of their rights. Under you're logic, the anti-gang legislation is wrong. But of course you would be the first one to kill a gang member for violating your family or yourself.
Can't you see your contradiction? Most of America does. We already have many laws which regulate free speech such as slander and libel and others. The hate campaign of the republican extremists, the threats against our elected officials, the threats of assassination and insurrection all have laws that make them violations of free speech and for good reason.
We don't live in the wild west anymore. You guys want anarchy. America is about through with the hate campaign all extremists groups are espousing. Let me give you one more example from recent actions of your party.
If a militia extremist decides (using common sense) that a meeting where the President of the United States is speaking on a heated subject is probably not the best place to bring a gun, by not bringing the gun, is he denying that he has the right to bring it? No. He/she has decided to temper his right with common sense.
The problem with extremism is that it cares only for its OWN extremist views and cares not about those of the public at large. It is a selfish, self-centered movement. And its design is to create mayhem in America. No matter how you slice it, extremism sucks and you guys are WRONG! This thinking is not a violation of the Constitution, this thinking is born FROM the Constitution that all men are created equal and have the right to live in peace, unmolested by their government OR groups like you represent.
If you guys don't want the attention from law enforcement, stop abusing your rights and drawing attention to yourselves. When we have a citizen, who on national television stands and proclaims boldly that he is proud to be a republican terrorist and a congressman responds by praising him and referring to him as a "great american", free speech has become as deluded as you and the groups you represent are.
You never have made much sense with your extreme partisan BS and you still don't. And you are certainly no match for me. But thanks for trying.