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EFF To Fight Border Agent Laptop Searches
snydeq writes "The EFF and the Association of Corporate Travel Executives have filed an amicus brief with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals requesting that the full court rehear and reverse a three-judge ruling (PDF) that empowers border agents routinely to search files on laptops and mobile devices. The case in question involves US citizen Michael Arnold, who, returning from the Philippines in July 2005, had his laptop confiscated at LAX by custom officials after they opened files in folders marked 'Kodak Pictures' and 'Kodak Memories' and found photos of two naked women. Later, when Arnold was detained, officials uncovered photo files on Arnold's laptop that they believed to be child pornography. In addition to raising Fourth Amendment issues, the amicus brief (PDF) reiterates the previous District Court ruling on Arnold's case regarding the difference between computers and gas tanks, suitcases, and other closed containers, 'because laptops routinely contain vast amounts of the most personal information about people's lives — not to mention privileged legal communications, reporters' notes from confidential sources, trade secrets, and other privileged information.'"
I don't see the search itself as being as much of a problem as his laptop being seized because of two (presumably legal, as the article says women, and the alleged children came later) porn images.
While I agree with the privacy infringements, I really wish it wasn't someone suspected on child porn complaining about it. It certainly won't garner much support from the general public, informed or not.
He's got NAKED PEOPLE on his laptop! Detain him!
Seriously, the ruling is un-Constitutional and clearly in violation of the 4th Amendment. Maybe it's time we start asserting our 2nd Amendment rights.
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In the past, the time before computers, you never traveled with all your personel papers, love letters, note books, and your corporate trade secrets in your luguage because the border gaurds would be searching your stuff and possible reading it. So why is storing it on a computer so different. If you do not want it looked at don't put it there.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
OTOH, a file on the HDD can't contain a real bomb, only a virtual bomb. Virtual bombs don't blow up airplanes.
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I wonder how long it will be before we hear about how the customs agents have a shared collection of porn from all the hard drives they search.
Dude, this was AN AMERICAN CITIZEN. They treat us like Bin Laden's favorite, too.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
Strong encryption is an answer, not the answer. In this particular case, there should have been no need for any encryption: computer data should not be searchable without a warrant or probable cause. And no, "I need to see if you're carrying pictures of naked kids" is not probable cause without substantive evidence of wrongdoing.
If you haven't been down-modded lately, you aren't trying.
Sacred cows make the best hamburger.
The time is coming that using a 'throw away' laptop will be needed for all foreign trips. Everyone will need a server in some 'safe' country to upload everything to, documents and pictures will be needed to be uploaded to Google Docs and Picasa respectively. Any pictures, or letters that were on the laptop will need to be deep erased.
then , just add the cost of having the mini laptop seized to every trip.
Seems simple to me.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
Anyone know the last time this tactic was used? Oh yeah, Nazi Germany.
(first Godwin!)
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Let's say you do that.
Which of the following two scenarios is more likely:
1. Government official says, "this guy is obviously a smart ass. I'd better just give him back his things and let him go."
2. Government offiical says, "this guy is a smart ass. I'd better confiscate his computer permanently."
I mean, I realize it's funny to say they won't know how to deal with a command prompt, but if you think that their ignorance will lead to them leaving you to pass unmolested, you're being hopelessly naive. You might as well suggest that if you simply put a lock on your briefcase and claim you don't have the keys they're going to wave you right through.
No. No they're not going to do that. You won't like what they're going to do.
.there is enough of everything for everyone.
Nothing. And that's perfectly ok - customs doesn't care about the security of flights, because they search your stuff after the flight is over. They're looking for things that are illegal to bring into the country (narcotics, weapons, large amounts of cash without proper paperwork, certain kinds of foodstuffs, etc).
AFAIK you're free to refuse. But you won't be allowed to enter the US.
There are lots of good reasons to encrypt the data on your laptop, but keeping it from the eyes of U.S. customs agents is not one of those reasons. Because that customs agent will say "assume the position and supply the password!" and if you refuse, he/she will just confiscate the laptop or deny you entry to the country (note: "logical or") - oh, and you might get a body cavity search too just for good measure.
________
Entranced by anime since late summer 2001 and loving it ^_^
Boot into a dummy partition containing Windows 95 or some damn thing, leave a few scattered icons of "business.xls" or "memo.doc" around, and let them search the hell out of it. Meanwhile your real stuff is safely tucked away on the rest of the drive.
"That's right officer, there is only a 100 meg hard drive in this brand-new Thinkpad. Want to play Microsoft Hearts with me, or perhaps sign up for a free trial of Prodigy?"
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...computer data should not be searchable without a warrant or probable cause... I agree completely.The traditional notions of privacy are no longer sufficient. We need a legal affirmation of privacy as a right here in America. It has thus far been assumed that one is entitled to privacy in your own home, as is reflected in the constitution, but our lives have extended WAY beyond that. In this age of instant global connections we need to attach privacy to the INDIVIDUAL - not merely that individual's home - and follow the notion through to every end of that individual's life.
Child pornography, though quite despicable, is NOT a border-control issue. I cannot imagine ANY kind of porn that would be such. In fact, I can't picture any kind of information that would fall under a border guard's purview at all. Think about it: If the same data could travel freely from state to state over the wire, what kind of restriction should one apply at the border?
No, there is no good reason for such a search, and it is only being allowed because our citizens have no right to privacy. If there were such a right, the need to respect it would greatly outweigh some bored TSA's curiosity.
If I had something illegal on my computer, wouldn't plain site be the last place I'd put it? This only catches the dumb criminals and is a problem for everyone else. My laptop takes 10 minutes to boot up now (its old), are they going to back-up the line waiting for it to boot up, then hit search for .jpg and start looking for at best naked pictures of my girlfriend that I forgot to remove years ago?
.zip file, rename the file extension, then copy it to a digital camera's memory stick and have it on the camera. What's that file? I don't know, must be something the camera needs (not that it would ever get to that point).
I mean, if I had some illegal pictures or something, I'd probably just make a
The right to keep your genitals covered is one example of this. The right to keep your laptop's content safe from prying eyes is, at least to me, similar. In either case the state may have a need that outweighs this right, either to enforce the law or uphold the common good, but in most cases your privacy is respected. The part that worries me the most is the notion that the act of crossing the border somehow voids your protection from illegal search and seizure. They wouldn't be able to stop you on the street and go fishing for porn, so why at the border? Border patrol agents are law enforcement agents: if they have a court order, or a warrant, to search a particular person's laptop, they are then authorized to do so. However, I quite agree that laptop contents should not be searchable without court authority. Border patrol agents should be primarily tasked with ensuring that no illegal imports or persons physically enter the country. Digital entry not-withstanding... Even were such a warrant issued, this IS NOT their mission. Instead they should hand such and individual and their notebook to the FBI. In cases where a hand-off to the FBI is not called for, no action need be taken at all.
Again, I suspect that this behavior is only possible because there is no presumption of protection against it.
Even for child porn, it can become a rather foggy issue. I, for one, have photos of naked kids on my HD. They are my own daughters, they are taking a bath or just waiting to get new diapers (and incredibly cute, but that's probably a father's pride talking:) and 2 years old.
*I* know they are my kids, and I also don't see anything wrong with those pictures. But what would a custom official who thinks pictures of grown up naked women are suspicious make of them?
Notice how they never say that it WAS child porn, but "that they believed [them] to be child pornography".
"DRM is like the Ford Pinto: it's a smooth ride, right up the point at which it explodes and ruins your day."-C.Doctorow
Hey Entrepreneurs...
1. Buy lots of laptops, and some insurance.
2. Set up some servers offering secure online file storage.
3. Market your new short-term laptop hire company.
There's obviously a market for this. Getting on a plane has to be one of the worst experiences of modern life. In what way have the "terrorists" not already won?
1st does not apply at customs - you can say something to raise the suspicions of customs officials and they do have the right to stop and search you and your belongings
...
4th does not apply at customs - your papers and personal effects can be searched for anything that illegal to bring into the country, and can be seized for further investigation or if found to be or contain anything illegal
5th does not apply at customs - encrypting data should raise the suspicions of customs officials and cause them to ask for the password, in the same way that if you lock you baggage they will ask you to unlock it or force the lock
By travelling abroad you tacitly agree to abide by customs regulations which include the right of customs officials to search you and your property
Puteulanus fenestra mortis
1st: still applies at customs. What you say will be interpreted carefully and it may increase suspicion, but you still have the right to say what you want.
4th: At entry into the country your personal effects can not be seized unless there is legal cause.
5th: It has already been ruled by the supreme court that the 5th amendment applies to password to encrypted data.
At least the EFF is taking this on.
.between the government and the people. . . And it became always wider. . . the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting, it provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway . . . (it) gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about . . .and kept us so busy with continuous changes and 'crises' and so fascinated . . . by the machinations of the 'national enemies,' without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us. . .
.Each act. . . is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow.
.But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That's the difficulty. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves,
How can people not see what is really happening in the US? Most of these people in charge of homeland security and who are constantly pumping fear into the populace - they do not care about the people at all - most of them would WELCOME another attack as their power would increase (obviously I am not talking about the people at the lower or mid levels of such organizations, I am sure most of them have their hearts in the right places)...basically the people are being manipulated to feel like they only way they will be "safe" is if the country turns into a gigantic jail.
Even if you think this sort of crap has any value you have to know (if you have any technical expertise at all) that any terrorst or criminal would use encryption or some other method to conceal their sensitive data.....So really the only people this affects is the general populace.
America is becoming a textbook fascist state, I don't say that as an exaggeration or for shock value - it is a fact - we meet all 14 points of fascism that Dr. Laurence Britt, a political scientist identified after studying the fascist regimes of: Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile). I am sure that these 14 points have been posted here before so I won't repeat it - if you are interested you can google "14 points of fascism" or go to a site like:
http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/britt_23_2.htm
Almost a year ago I had a chance conversation with a couple who lived in Germany during the thirties through the forties - the are terrified and cannot believe what is happening here - they came to America in the 50s convinced that what happened in Germany could never happen here, and both of them say they see the exact same incremental processes happening here.
I wish I had recorded what they told me, but it was a spur of the moment sort of thing. I came across the paragraphs below on a website today and it reminded me very much of what they had to say (although coming from them it was so much more powerful and straightfoward):
"What no one seemed to notice. . . was the ever widening gap. .
Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted,' that unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these 'little measures'. . . must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. . .
You don't want to act, or even talk, alone. . . you don't want to 'go out of your way to make trouble.' . .
QUOTE the part of the Constitution where it says the Fourth Amendment ends at the border, or SHUT THE FUCK UP!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Don't cross the border with things you don't want customs agents to find. That goes for...trade secrets...on a laptop. So if you are a businessperson, traveling for business purposes, you shouldn't be able to take information across the border that will clench the deal? Or maybe, once you arrive at your destination, you should hook up to your hotel's ultra-secure public internet connection and download the gigs of data at the cheapest fricking broadband speed the hotel could buy from the local ISP -- which, incidentally, is shared among all 200 guests in the hotel. And God forbid that the hotel's internet connection should be down when you arrive. I'm sure your business rival would be more than happy to give you a second chance to make your sales pitch to the prospective client before they make their sales pitch. </sarc>
Nack. The Bill of Rights gives us freedom from search and seizure without due process of law. If agents of the government have no reason to suspect I have committed a crime -- and by definition, crossing the border in compliance with the laws of the countries involved cannot possibly be interpreted as "committing a crime" -- then by a strict interpretation of the Bill of Rights, they have no probable cause to search my laptop at the border. All of this bunk about how the Constitution doesn't apply at the border is just that -- bunk.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?