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Laptops Searched and Confiscated at U.S. Border
An anonymous reader writes, "According to an article in the New York Times, the Association of Corporate Travel Executives is asking the U.S. government for more detailed guidelines on when and why a laptop gets confiscated at the U.S. border, which, anecdotally, is happening more often. The story includes a report from a business traveler who had her laptop confiscated over a year ago and has yet to have it returned." According to the article, a knowledgeable lawyer said: "[Border guards] don't need probable cause to perform... searches under the current law. They can do it without suspicion or without really revealing their motivations." And an ACTE exective is quoted, "Potentially, this is going to have a real effect on how international business is conducted."
Captain Encryption!
What are you trying to hide? Why do you hate freedom!?
I crossed the border twice on Sunday. They didn't care about my laptop. There's your anecdotal evidence.
Years ago, on a ski trip to Searchmont (in Canada near the Soo*) a friend and I were returning to the US and had pulled into US Customs. "Are you bringing anything into the country?" "Um.. just these doughnuts"
Bad. Very bad. They nearly tore the car apart (apparently looking for more doughnuts.)
Still a sore point to this day when I visit my friend and his wife and go to Canada. "Do not mention doughnuts!"
*Sault Saint Marie
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Whether a laptop is seized or not depends on size and brightness of the screen, and if it might have DVD rom and good speakers.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
> You need to search where?
> That doesn't even make sense!
It does, for a USB thumbdrive.
~wavy lines, a bombed-out shack in post-Civil-War-II America~
This USB keychain I got here was first purchased by your great-grandfather to hold pictures he took during the First Gulf War. It was bought in a Best Buy in Knoxville, Tennessee. Made by the first company to ever make USB thumbdrives. Up till then people just carried floppy disks that was read by magnets. It was bought by private Doughboy Ernie Coolidge on the day he set sail for Iraq. It was your great-grandfather's USB thumbdrive and he carried it everyday he was in that war.
When he had done his duty, he went home to your great-grandmother, took the thumbdrive out of his pocket, put it an empty dresser drawer, and in that can it stayed 'til your granddad Dane Coolidge was called upon by his country to go overseas and fight the Ay-rabs once again. This time they called it The First Global War On Terror. Your great-grandfather gave this watch to your granddad for good luck. Unfortunately, Dane's luck wasn't as good as his old man's. Dane was a Marine and he was killed -- along with the other Marines at the battle of Baghdad. Your granddad was facing death, he knew it. None of those boys had any illusions about ever leavin' the Green Zone alive. So three days before the Ay-rabs retook the Green Zone, your granddad asked a gunner on an Air Force transport name of Winocki, a man he had never met before in his life, to deliver to his infant son, who he'd never seen in the flesh, his USB thumbdrive. Three days later, your granddad was dead.
But Winocki kept his word. After the First Global War on Terror was over, he paid a visit to your grandmother, delivering to your infant father, his Dad's USB thumbdrive. This thumbdrive.
This thumbdrive was in Daddy's pocket during the Second Civil War when he was flyin' to Canada. He was captured at the airport, which was a place that was sorta like bein' in a Halliburton prison camp. He knew if the TSA ever saw the thumbdrive it'd be confiscated, taken away. The way your Dad looked at it, that thumbdrive was your birthright. He'd be damned if any bureaucrats were gonna put their greasy hands on his boy's birthright.
So he hid it in the one place he knew he could hide something. His ass. Five long hours, he wore this thumbdrive up his ass. Then he died of a perforated colon, but before he did he gave me the thumbdrive. I hid this uncomfortable hunk of plastic and silicon up my ass two more hours. Then, after a total of seven hours in secondary inspection, I was sent on home to my family. And now, little man, I give the watch to you.
- With apologies to Tarantino
Prolly out of fear of sony batteries....added with a hint of plutonium....Badum *ching*
The greatest revenge in life is massive success.
A laptop for filling in some paperwork? Sounds like a good deal to me. Where can I sign up to become a border guard?
I realize that Aussies love their vegemite, and Brits love their marmite, but for those of us who didn't grow up eating it, it's a substance worth confiscating at the border.
That stuff is just nasty.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Everyone here on slashdot is smart enough to keep backups anyways, so why is this even a problem?
h aha*
*hahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahhahahaahha
i rofled
So, why wouldn't I just have two partitions, dual-boot, and on the plane make sure it's setup to boot the 'boring' partition?
Think the customs guys will notice that dmesg shows the drive has more space than df -k does?
They _are_ comfortable with emacs in a text window, right? That's what _I_ boot into
Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
It goes well with Vodka??
In the "long search" case they apparently also spent most of their time browsing the iPhoto and Photoshop albums and asked me a lot of questions about other places I had been.
That's because terrorists like to keep cheerful photo albums on their computers about their various exploits.
"Here's me and Al Mohammad Abied mixing plastic explosives! Look! There's mom in the background with pie! Hi mom!"
Red Bull and vodka tastes worse than gasoline.
You are so boring that when I see you my feet go to sleep.
You haven't heard Homeland security's new slogan?
"Welcome to America. All your laptops are belong to us."
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Red Bull and vodka tastes worse than gasoline.
Ah. But what octane?
maybe, but it's a far more powerful fuel source.
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
2- What? No.
1- You're banned from the US for a year!
2- Oh my God! Fine, take my laptop! Don't ban me!
1- I don't even want it now.
[PA:2005-10-01]
coding is life
Oddly enough the laptops get convinscated when the border patrol has a birthday or anniversary coming up. They call it the Homeland Security Special Discount.
Can I bum a sig?
Either the Thug Classico, which is a Pint Glass with ice almost to the top, Absolut Mandarin poured in just over half way, then Red Bull to top the glass off (About 2/3 of a can.)
Funny, when I was in the Army we used to drink the same thing, only with unflavored vodka.
And without the Red Bull.
Or the ice.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."