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Homeland Security Changes Laptop Search Policy
IronicToo writes "The US Government has updated its policy on the search and seizure of laptops at border crossing. 'The long-criticized practice of searching travelers' electronic devices will continue, but a supervisor now would need to approve holding a device for more than five days. Any copies of information taken from travelers' machines would be destroyed within days if there were no legal reason to hold the information.'"
So, now they will just take away my laptop for 4 days. Good thing my flight is in two hours, and I am not back for 6 weeks...
-EL
-EL
And since the Constitution only protects against *unreasonable* search and seizure, there is nothing wrong here.
It's just a goddamned piece of paper.
I believe 'em. I mean, they wouldn't lie to us, would they?...
If any of the "information" was over 18 at the time of photography, they have a "legal reason" to keep it, am I right?
I, for one, definitely trust the letter and the spirit of the law to be upheld on this one. We've never had trouble with illegal intelligence gathering here, especially not when the agency involved is opaque and largely unaccountable. It should be fine.
Dear Sir or Madam,
Please enjoy your stay in the United States of America, we have searched your laptop and destroyed our copies of your vacation bikini pictures after looking at snapshots of your fine fine body projected onto the conference room wall for an emergency assessment meeting. We did not find anything that would indicate that you might be dangerous outside of the bedroom, so we have kindly loaded your laptop with a government issued keylogger and trojan. We hope you enjoy your time here as much as we enjoyed your pictures. Please take more, we'll be waiting.
Sincerely,
the Department of Homeland Security
but a supervisor now would need to approve holding a device for more than five days. Any copies of information taken from travelers' machines would be destroyed within days if there were no legal reason to hold the information
.
"A supervisor." Not a judge or someone who has had formal training in law, but a coworker.
"if there were no legal reason to hold the information." They'll just claim they haven't had time to investigate it yet. Or "national security reasons", which is the same as not giving any reason at all. Legal reasons can be manufactured as needed -- our laws are sufficiently complex and vague that a reason can always be found to arrest, detain, and then jail someone. Laws exist to enable authorities to silence or remove people they don't like -- YOU can't enforce the law on someone else, after all.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
There's no "legal" reason to keep files stolen by the uneducated border minions unless:
1. You are not an American.
3. You have "trade secrets" that can give American companies a competitive advantage.
And that's one reason why business travel across the Atlantic / Pacific to the US has declined.
Take Nobody's Word For It.
Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
"Between Oct. 1, 2008, and Aug. 11 of this year, Customs and Border Protection officers processed more than 221 million travelers at U.S. borders and searched about 1,000 laptops, of which 46 were "in-depth" searches, the Homeland Security Department said."
I wonder if the other 954 laptops required passwords for login...
0 = 1 + e^(Alt something)
Unless there are nuclear bomb plans on the desktop, why would we be holding these devices for any days? Why are searching people's data anyways, when any serious criminal could simply upload their data to a server, drop it in a Dropbox account, or just encrypt it before crossing the border?
We need to be encouraging tourism and business travelers, not pulling this crap.
How do I know the data retrieved has been destroyed? After the way the government handled the MLB players confidential drug results I do not have confidence in their ethics.
Rest assured, by "destroyed" they mean that their printed copies of your private files will be discarded into their unlocked dumpster out back. And certainly while your secrets are floating around within their IT environment, they are completely safe since the DHS employees are doing infosec really well.
So what about from the viewpoint of someone travelling into the United States from out of the country? Can we expect the right to privacy or would we be beholden to the same ritual? As a Canadian, who often travels into the U.S, can I expect that my laptop could, essentially, be seized because the powers that be just want to take it? Can I demand a warrant for the seizure of my laptop? I wonder if they would lock me up for demanding a warrant then lose the key sort of thing.
The U.S is fast becoming a police state -- kind of scary the lack of freedom within the Constitution and its amendments.
"i lost my dignity on a slippery wiener"
As a start it would be a good idea to stop your aggression towards other country. It might sound stupid but if you nuke someone he will retaliate.
...
As for inspecting laptops on the border, if I need to smuggle some info in or out of the country I'd do it over the Internet. Faster, cheaper, more secure,
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
'The long-criticized practice of searching travelers' electronic devices will continue, but a supervisor now would need to approve holding a device for more than five days. Any copies of information taken from travelers' machines would be destroyed within days if there were no legal reason to hold the information.'"
That will really help. Terrorism is always a legal reason; and nowadays even thought-crime is being used as a reason to imprison people (yes! see gitmo). They have no business with my private information. No matter if those are love letters or plans for a bomb of some type. I will crypt the data. You copy the data, but I get to keep the hardware, right? Why can't they publicise it that way? Why the delay of five days? It is an ineffective policy and an ineffective change. They still pester people for no reason.
They've already ruled that copying is stealing. Funny how that only applies to us...
If you've got nothing to hide, what are you worried about? Think of the children.
Once it's out of your hands, I think the only safe course of action is to assume that they've made a bit-for-bit copy of the drive and installed a persistent, impossible-to-detect back door. Chances are slim that they're actually doing this, but the technology exists and since there is no way for you to know that this didn't happen I think you need to assume that it did. The costs of transmitting and storing the contents of your drive to the .gov agency of your choice is pretty low. Cost to analyze is somewhat higher, but still within the realm of possibility.
As many others have pointed out, if your data really is that sensitive leave it at home. I'd think twice about accessing it remotely too.
It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you.
Our employees have no problems going in or out of the U.S. with laptops even though we require all laptops with data on them to be fully encrypted. When an employee is, say, going to France (worst case; it's illegal to enter France with an encrypted device) we copy all their data to the network, take it off the network, wipe it clean, and install a base image. When the user gets to France, they are met by one of our techs who installs full disk encryption, joins the machine to our network, sets up a VPN, and copies their data from our U.S. servers to the laptop in France.
When it's time to return home, the tech in France copies all data to our servers, takes the laptop off the network, wipes it clean, and installs a base image. When the user gets back into the U.S., a local tech fully encypts the machine, puts it on the network, and copies the user data from our servers to the laptop.
Now, this seems like lot of trouble to me. But it prevents our employees from having any problems with customs in either France or the U.S.
at a major CA dept. store. I asked the security person if she would sign a a letter of indemnity- if anything came up missing or damaged, or data copied from my laptop, or laptop turned on without my written permission, the store would replace at full retail any damaged items, and would be responsible for monetary loss from copied data or loss of data. The look on her face was beyond priceless. I followed up with: "well, if you take possession my stuff, then you are fully responsible for it. If you refuse responsibility for my possessions that you demand I hand over to you, then I will not shop here any longer." They said they were not responsible for any loss or damage while they held it.
Republican leadership = Idiocracy
Lost in this whole discussion with Homeland Security -- is how do we make sure the people watching us, aren't the problem?
It's been almost a decade now, that I've felt that there was NO OVERSIGHT on people with power, and of course, we only put on trial the few bad apples that are disposable. But if we cannot have anyone at the Fed accountable for destroying the economy, if we can't have anyone at the Pentagon accountable for absolute failure on 9/11 and then LOSING $2 Trillion dollars that seemed to miss the headlines on 9/12, what the heck is the point of sniffing up every business man's trousers --- if they are REAL bad guys, they might just be working for Homeland Security.
Did anyone investigate why Homeland Security was funding the CIA's "Prostitutes and Poker" scandal at the Watergate Hotel? Did someone just declare "bygones" and we all forgot about it?
There is no transparency and accountability in regards to abuse. For all we know, HS could copy the hard drive of someone from GM and give the data to someone at GE for a great price. The risk/reward for corporate espionage when NOBODY IS WATCHING THE WATCHERS -- well, corruption is inevitable.
I might have some trust in Homeland Security, if they spent less time looking for dirty pictures and downloaded music files and a LOT MORE TIME, looking into things like the Sibel Edmonds testimony: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7374
>>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
>> ...normally placed safely in the checked luggage..
> You're apparently using a definition of "safely" with which I was previously unaware.
Checking baggage is safe-- that is, safe for the crew and passengers. It's just not safe for guitars.
Yeah, ever since the TSA hired that "McGraw" fellow there have been a lot of incidents of smashed guitars in the luggage... Apparently the TSA is looking the other way because this is supposedly helping to curb terrorism...
Bow-ties are cool.
How exactly is my paper going to be dangerous?
That piece of paper may be a "financial instrument" AKA stock, bond or check that is worth something. That in turn might be used to fund drugs or heaven forbid, "terrorism". It might also be a piece of tissue that can be used, you know, to wipe your arse AKA "bio-hazard". Either way, they have to protect the [artificial man-made] nation from the evil bogeyman.
Of all the security checkpoints in all the border crossings in all the world, he had to walk into this one...
Bow-ties are cool.
I think if that happened to me on an outbound flight, I would be inclined to sue for several million dollars in lost revenue to encourage DHS to use some common sense.
Sure. Good luck with that.
Bow-ties are cool.