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FISA and Border Searches of Laptops
With the recent attention to the DHS's draconian policy on laptop searches at borders, a blog post by Steven Bellovin from last month is worth wider discussion. Bellovin extrapolates from the DHS border policy on physical electronic devices and asks why authorities wouldn't push to extend it to electronic data transfers. "...it would seem to make little difference if the information is 'imported' into the US via a physical laptop or via a VPN, or for that matter by a Web connection. The right to search a laptop for information, then, is equivalent to the right to tap any and all international connections, without a warrant or probable cause. (More precisely, one always has a constitutional protection against 'unreasonable' search and seizure; the issue is what the definition of 'unreasonable' is.)"
so.... please let me know either at admin@scareports.com or at the website ( oblig. link : here ) . You can post anonymously as well if you want....
There's a few interesting ones, a few boring ones but I NEED MORE !!!
Mod parent up. Only 2 years ago it was impractical to sniff all traffic and identify P2P and insert reset packets. It was unreasonable to record all phone conversations. It was unreasonable to have thousands of cameras around the UK monitoring everything. It was unreasonable to have cameras that recognize license plates and automatically bill you for running red lights.
My laptop has a sticker on it that says "Property of Exxon-Mobil" and a bar code that looks very official. It has never been searched at the border.
TANSTAAFL GIGO Acronyms to live by!
Experience, sonny. I've watched them tear apart my car more than once. I've been flagged for not having a credit card and checked luggage. I've bought my tickets less than 24 hours before departure, with, god forbid, cash! Evidently I fit a "profile". While all their smuggler and "terrorist" buddies wizz on through for answering all their questions "correctly". They are goons. I don't care if you think it's troll. It's the truth. And it ain't pretty.
What?
I would say sooner. What a lot of people have suggested to me is that the Bush administration wanted spending up to make it look like the economy was healthy, just until he got out of office. That is why they looked the other way whilst people were tossing out cheap credit. I think the Republicans want to lose this election so the bomb drops on a Democrat's watch.
Basically, he deliberately maxed out Obama's credit card for him and remortgaged the house, with the plan to later on call him fiscally irresponsible.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
I'd be surprised if the government here in GB plays along for long. Privacy, surveillance and the database state are becoming big issues here right now, both legally and politically, while support for the US throwing its weight around is a pretty universal vote-loser, all of which are bad news for a government so weak it can barely stand up. I expect a significant change in approach in time for the next general election in a couple of years, if not sooner if they give their current leader the boot and find yet another one after the summer recess.
In any case, the government doesn't have much choice about European data protection rules, which our businesses are bound to follow regardless of the government saying nice things to the US. There are already concerns in the business press about issues such as more distributed data storage and processing facilities, which can't be set up in locations that don't adhere to the same data protection standards as European law requires without jumping through hoops with customers and/or incurring negative PR. The US is one such location.
And even without legal obligations, the costs and risks associated with travel to the US are reaching the point that a lot of businesses will no longer make the trip. There have already been reports of business people being refused entry for the most stupid of reasons because of so-called anti-terrorist measures, and as I said before, it probably won't take more than a few high profile leaks after business laptops went missing while containing confidential data to start a serious backlash. Make it impossible to transfer data securely via the Internet as well, and the US just became one of the most business-hostile countries in the Western world, and no amount of sucking up by European governments is going to make European businesses run risks they don't need to in the current economic climate. Many of those that don't have well-established, substantial operations in the US will probably just give up on it until sanity returns.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.