Slashdot Mirror
The Failing Right of Laptop Privacy
davidwr writes "Wired has an interesting editorial on laptop searches and seizures. It raises some interesting issues, including employee rights against police searches in the workplace, routine vs. non-routine searches at ports of entry, and police use of unrelated data found in a database search. The article ends saying: 'Of course, there's a chance that the courts will not recognize the different scope of privacy interests at stake in computer searches, or will not be adept at crafting a rule that gives enough leeway and guidance to law enforcement, while also protecting privacy. At that point, the Constitution may fail us, and we will have to turn to Congress to create rules that are better adapted for the information age.'"
The constitution certainly left the building back in the age of the new deal, possibly even as early as aliens and sedition.
When the day comes that the Constitution can no longer protect us in the information age, we have a Congress actually interested and willing to step in on behalf of the people.
Message contains 1 attachment: spam.gif
"we will have to turn to Congress to create rules that are better adapted for the information age.'"
Turn to congress for help in protecting our liberties? Haha, that's a good one. He must be new here.
So keep your sensitive personal data on a server at home, where the protections against warrantless search and seizure are more clearly defined, and take with you on your laptop only what you need. Also there are all sorts of ways to remotely access your at-home data securely (DNS Forwarder/VPN, etc). That way your data is there when YOU need it and not sitting on your portable when you are crossing borders or sitting in your employer's office.
I have made it quite clear to contractors that their laptops will be subject to scrutiny prior to their being permitted to access our corporate LAN, as well there my be periodic spot-checks, especially if I suspect that a laptop might have become infected with something nasty.
You're using her as bait, Master!
Disk encryption. You can get TrueCrypt for free and encrypt a partition with a hidden partition inside. Keep it on a USB drive or external hard drive. See you in about five years after the NSA's supercomputer has been trying to decrypt it.
Of course, in the US today they'll probably just disappear you to GITMO while they work on it.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Many countries, such as Britain, criminalize witholding encryption keys from law enforcement to the extent that unless you are actually a terrorist with detailed and executable plans of action labeled 'evil plot' stupidly stored on your laptop, you are probably better off (in the criminal liability sense) just giving it to them. Sadly, I don't think that the US is far behind on this one, either.
All the techniques ever used to make men moral have been themselves thoroughly immoral... (Nietzsche)
It doesn't matter if you're worried about a snooping government, script kiddies, nosy roommates or family members, or anybody else you don't want looking at your data. In this day and age, there really is no substitute for encryption, and there's also really no excuse to not be using it, given the amount of options (many of them free, as in speech and beer) available today. There's no reason to leave things like tax returns, sensitive work projects, etc. sitting out in the open.
One of the best things that I've done recently is to wipe and randomize a 40-gig partition on one of my drives and set up a 256-bit AES-encrypted ext3 filesystem. Unless I enter my lengthy passphrase, there is no way to mount the volume, much less look at its contents. Barring some unforseen weakness in AES, this is now data that nobody but me will ever see (unless I do something silly like forget to unmount it).
It is, in many ways, a brave new world, but people need to know that there are things they can do to protect themselves. This, of course, is not news to the Slashdot crowd, but it is something that the less-clueful public needs to hear about.
We're going down, in a spiral to the ground
My airport must really not like me. They not only said, "take your laptop out of its bag", they decided to say "turn it on". I did, flipped to FreeBSD, and as soon as they saw a command prompt they called in the dogs.
wow, can she whine any more? Laptop is owned by her employer... It was bought for her use, NOT for her as a personal item. So now she gets her panties in a bunch when she realizes her employer has the right to do whatever they want with that computer. Guess what, it is theirs! Just because you scattered your useless garbage all over the HD doesn't make it yours. If you want privacy, buy a personal laptop, and then it becomes much, much harder for someone to take a look at it.
Here is someone who could easily afford their own computer. She should keep her private data on her own computer, not her work computer. What's so hard to understand about that?
Even if her own computer is too expensive for her, how much does a USB key cost these days? Combined with Firefox Portable and Thunderbird Portable (and others) this provides a simple and elegant solution.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
At that point, the Constitution may fail us, and we will have to turn to Congress to create rules that are better adapted for the information age.
... I'd not hold your breath. When they passed the DMCA and the Patriot Act I lost all hope of Congress ever being willing or able to legislate us out of this mess, given that they're most of the reason that we're in it.
Nonsense. The Constitution hasn't "failed us", it is our commitment to honoring its provisions that has wavered. The Constitution is just as relevant and meaningful now as it was two centuries ago. Furthermore, I would argue that it is more important than ever that we observe Constitutional law and hold our elected (and unelected!) officials accountable for their deviances from it.
So far as Congress crafting better rules for the Information Age is concerned
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
That's what a steganographic filesystem is for: plausible deniability. You have multiple layers of data encryption, none of which know about the lower layers, each of which stores data in the free space left behind by the upper layer. They ask you for the password, you provide the password to financial records at the first encrypted layer. For that matter, you could have an unencrypted layer on top so that there's no proof that any encrypted data even exists. In the unlikely event that they find the crypto tool, though, you have financial records at the first encrypted level. Say that there's nothing else, but under duress, admit to a second level with something a little more embarrassing (e.g. your porn collection). Keep anything that has to be kept secret at the third level.
There are two big problems, though: 1. Writes to the upper layer overwrite data at the lower layers, so the redundancy at the lower layers is pretty crucial to avoid data loss, and even then, beyond a certain point, you'll start losing data. 2. All the implementations I've seen out there are Linux-only (or at best UNIX/Linux), which makes them less than useless for most of the general public.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Why bother with naughty websites when, if you're implanting stuff anyway, you could just put in an artificial gland that would release endorphins (or whatever) on command?
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
1 - Separate work and private laptops
I carry mine to work and don't plug it into the network
I don't use the work machine for any internet searches, I use my laptop through cell card
2 - Separate your data sets
Carry your sensitive data on something other than laptop
I carry mine on a CD, they can't call that a bomb
3 - If they want to search it...
Ask "What exactly are you looking for?" and write down the answer!
If they say its just a routine inspection let them look, don't let them open files
If they want to see a file ask for the warrant
If they insist ask (don't) demand to see a supervisor
4 - Be nice, calm, and ask the supervisor to witness
Any search (with understanding you are under protest) as there is no warrant.
Ask the supervisor for a full accounting of all files opened/accessed prior to boot/power on
(this is critical as they cant log all files accessed during boot)
5 - Best of all, don't give them a reason to search it
-- I am the NRA, enough said...