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Tips For Taking Your Laptop Into and Out of the US?

Posted by timothy on from the hug-a-tsa-agent-with-fervor-and-passion dept.

casualsax3 writes "I'm going to be taking a week long round trip from NYC to Puerto Vallarta Mexico sometime next month, and I was planning on taking my laptop with me. I'll probably want to rip a few movies and albums to the drive in order to keep busy on the flight. More important though, is that I'm also going to be taking pictures while I'm there, and storing them on the laptop. With everything in the news, I'm concerned that I'll have to show someone around the internals of my laptop coming back into the US. The pictures are potentially what upsets me the most, as I feel it's an incredible violation of my privacy. Do I actually need to worry about this? If so, should I go about hiding everything? I've heard good things about Truecrypt. Is it worth looking into or am I being overly paranoid?"

14 of 940 comments (clear)

  1. If you're that worried... by daveschroeder · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...encrypt it. Full disk encryption is relatively cheap, easy, and unobtrusive.

    You gave one such example in your post.

    But uh, mind if I ask: exactly what kind of pictures are you planning on taking on your vacation? ;-)

    1. Re:If you're that worried... by asdir · · Score: 4, Informative

      According to briefing my boss gave me recently, Truecrypt would not help: If they really wanted to see your content they could ask you to show it to them or alternatively confiscate your laptop and decrypt it themselves. The latter would mean you would probably not see your laptop again.
      Let me tell you: As a European scientist I am even more frigthened now to go or even move to the US.

    2. Re:If you're that worried... by daveschroeder · · Score: 5, Informative

      No, they cannot "sieze your laptop" if you don't give them the encryption password; a strict reading of the policy is that the laptop can be seized in any event, encryption or no. There is NO REQUIREMENT to provide anyone with an encryption password under any circumstances. The existing policy doesn't even speak to encryption. In fact, leading privacy advocates recommend encryption as the most deisrable solution.

      You guys do realize that customs agents at the border have ALWAYS had the right -- without a warrant -- to perform reasonable search and inspection of all physical objects and persons coming into the United States; this policy was designed to expand those longstanding inspection rights to electronic data.

      In its current state, it's a poorly written policy. The fact is, no one is going to look at the contents of your laptop, much less be seizing it. (Do you guys actually travel internationally?)

    3. Re:If you're that worried... by martinw89 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yes, I was going to recommend plausible deniability as well.

      Here's a little more info about how it works. Basically, you set up a container and a hidden volume. Each has its own passphrase. To open the hidden volume, you use its passphrase when opening the container. To open the container with dummy data, you type its passphrase. It's very simple and quite hidden if done correctly. To be safe, it's best to access the hidden volume from a live CD so the OS doesn't break your deniability by storing temporary files or "recently accessed documents" etc.

      However, there is one big note of caution. Do not back up the container. Ever. An attacker could look at the change over time and determine there is a hidden volume. That's probably too paranoid for your case but it's worth mentioning.

    4. Re:If you're that worried... by OmegaBlac · · Score: 5, Informative

      If your laptop gets seized and searched, and they discover it's encrypted, couldn't they just order you to give them access to the files?

      No, they cannot order you to provide the keys to decrypt or force you to decrypt the hard drive/files yourself. There was a recent case (I think it was United States v. Boucher) regarding this issue, but here in the U.S. (for the time being) you are not required to aid law enforcement officials in essentially self-incriminate yourself. In the U.K. you are required to hand over your encryption keys if law enforcement demands it, I think--someone correct me if I am wrong there.

    5. Re:If you're that worried... by nahdude812 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually it was recently demonstrated that you can positively identify a hidden volume exists within a TrueCrypt volume, defeating plausible deniability. In addition, it was also recently demonstrated that regardless of the encryption algorithm used, it's possible to get a silhouette of high contrast encrypted images.

      So if they really wanted, they could identify the hidden volume exists, then apply this second technique to identify that images exist on it. To border agents, this is probably tantamount to admitting on the spot that you're smuggling kiddy porn across the border, and you may find that it's more than your laptop which is detained.

      Your best protection is to transfer the images separately from your laptop. Store them on Amazon S3 with a tool such as JungleDisk, and download them when you get home (this is a good idea in case something damages your laptop while traveling too).

      --
      Slay a dragon... over lunch!
  2. mail it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    problem solved.

  3. don't take data across the border by Aurisor · · Score: 4, Informative

    Throw a clean install on your laptop, and put your critical data on a server so you can just log in and download it when you arrive.

    When you're about to fly back, re-upload your data and wipe the drive.

    You could also just mail encrypted DVDs with substantial insurance.

  4. Re:Put the dunce cap away by HBI · · Score: 4, Informative

    OK, i'm not AC and I can tell you that they don't have time to check out laptops at most international airports beyond the aforementioned bomb check.

    Yes, i've passed into and out of the country several times during the last year. No search.

    --
    HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
  5. The Supreme Court agrees by daveschroeder · · Score: 4, Informative

    Darned border search exception.

    "travelers may be stopped [and searched] at . . . the border without individualized suspicion even if the stop [or search] is based largely on ethnicity[.]" United States v. Montoya de Hernandez, 473 U.S. 531, 538 (1985), United States v. Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. 543, 562-563 (1976)

    and

    "may [...] conduct searches of the traveler's body -- including strip, body cavity, involuntary x-ray, and in some jurisdictions, patdown searches -- if the Customs officer has reasonable suspicion" to do so. United States v. Flores-Montano, 541 U.S. 149, 152-53 (2004), United States v. Johnson, 991 F.2d 1287, 1291-92 (7th Cir. 1993)

  6. Re:Boot to shell by Foofoobar · · Score: 4, Informative

    Everyone has seen a shell prompt and knows that computer professionals use it. If you tell them you are a developer, system administrator, etc. They don't even want to HEAR you talking over their heads. You obviously know more about that machine than them and they send you on your way.

    --
    This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
  7. Re:Seriously by klausner · · Score: 5, Informative

    You aren't paranoid if you really have enemies.

    While having someone look at my vacation pictures wouldn't especially bother me, having some Homeland Security dweeb who can't find the power switch impound my PC because he thinks that maybe, possibly, there is a chance there is something questionable scares the hell out of me.

    Customs (and others?) can seize laptops, disks, media, etc, FOR NO REASON AT ALL, and there is little or no legal recourse to get the stuff back. If that's not worth being paranoid over....

  8. Re:Seriously by C0vardeAn0nim0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    because you didn't visit argentina during late 70s or early 80s when our neighbors (well, we too, and ALL the rest of south america) were under a ruthless dictatorship that used to load anyone they didn't like into C-130s and drop them in the midle of the ocean.

    BTW, that regime ? sponsored by the US, with CIA's planning. as were all the dictatorships in the continent.

    --
    What ? Me, worry ?
  9. photographing landmarks by falconwolf · · Score: 5, Informative

    One lesson from an incredibly expensive joke of a "terrorist" case in Australia is that a photograph of a landmark is proof you are going to blow it up. Be careful with those holiday snapshots!

    I don't know if there's anything like it in Australia but in the US we have this handbook, "The Photographer's Right", photographers started to carry. In a photography class in college I was taking when 911 happened, we heard about how photographers started to go through questioning when they were taking photos. One student there was working on a class assignment when police or private security personnel tried to confiscate his camera. It was a bizarre tyme for photographers then.

    Falcon

    --
    Should there be a Law?