Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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?"

10 of 940 comments (clear)

  1. You could. by FireStormZ · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Use a clean install and email the photos to yourself while you are there... or put them on an encrypted thumb drive / cd and snail mail it..

    --
    "Ahh! Arrogance and stupidity in the same package, how efficient of you!" --Londo Molari
  2. Well, who are you... by nweaver · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Are you a middle eastern looking young male? A white male returning from Thailand? If so, be paranoid.

    If not, no worries.

    --
    Test your net with Netalyzr
    1. Re:Well, who are you... by commodoresloat · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I am a middle eastern looking young male ... well, not so young anymore, but still well under 50. And as I said in a previous post, I've never had any real problems with bringing a laptop past airport security on domestic or international flights. And I have had problems before -- big problems -- with airport security (and US Marshals) on a domestic flight. But none of those problems focused on a laptop, and I've never been asked to show what was on my laptop other than once I had to open it up and show that it actually did run. I suppose if someone looked like a child sex tourist flying from Bangkok they might be interested to see what photos are on their hard drive, but by and large their scrutiny is going to focus on whether you're a threat to the other passengers, but do you really think they are looking for vacation_photo_with_osama.jpg?

  3. Easy Solution by multipartmixed · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Send it to your hotel DHL overnight before you leave, and do the same to get it home.

    Problem solved.

    --

    Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
  4. Re:Boot to BSoD by jbeaupre · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Or have it "crash" on boot and you'll be sent along your way with a sympathetic shrug.

    --
    The world is made by those who show up for the job.
  5. Re:If you're that worried... by Mike1024 · · Score: 3, Interesting

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

    Most keen photographers - myself included - have a story or two about being hassled by security guards or police for photographing public buildings. Check out this article for examples. It's for security reasons, you see. I might be planning a terrorist attack.

    You wouldn't want the TSA goons to decide that your photographs seem odd and to give you a full-body cavity search "just in case".

    --
    "Goodness me, how unlike the FBI to abuse the trust of the American public." -- The Onion
  6. Re:If you're that worried... by FictionPimp · · Score: 3, Interesting

    No they will not get the password, but they will see bits changing in 'Empty space' that will alert them to the presence of a hidden container.

  7. Re:If you're that worried... by The+Faywood+Assassin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Actually its even easier than that.

    If you can, set the BIOS to set the CF or SD card slot as the first boot device, and the hard drive as the second.

    Thus, without a card in the slot during boot up, you get a normal Windows session, with the card in you get a Linux session.

    Also, if the Linux session does not auto mount the windows disk, then the simpleton inspecting your computer will never see your files on the hard drive.

    Puppy Linux and Damn Small Linux are perfect for this

    Beny

    --

    "I'm a humble person really,

    I'm actually much greater than I think I am"

  8. Re:If you're that worried... by kesuki · · Score: 3, Interesting

    close, they can beat you up and shoot you and of course, you did it to yourself. http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig9/higgs-e1.html

    i was actually looking for a story about an army private who was shot in the leg, and all record of his ever being shot were erased, it made the local news... but this story was better, so...

    btw i realize this has only happened (reportedly, anyways) to 'army' privates, and of course, Iraqis and Afghanistan people, but it's amazing how some people with pull in the military can abuse the system.

    --
    https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
  9. Re:If you're that worried... by LandruBek · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I seriously doubt he knows what entropy is . . .

    lol. Von Neumann advised Shannon to call his measure of information 'entropy' because, as he put it, "no one knows what entropy really is."

    --
    $META_SIG_JOKE