Your Laptops, Please!

[dogday]

Sen. Feingold Asks: Why Should the Government Be Able to Search Our Laptops When We Return from Abroad?


Opening Statement of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold


Hearing On “Laptop Searches and Other Violations of Privacy Faced by Americans Returning from Overseas Travel”

Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights

“If you asked most Americans whether the government has the right to look through their luggage for contraband when they are returning from an overseas trip, they would tell you yes, the government has that right. But if you asked them whether the government has a right to open their laptops, read their documents and e-mails, look at their photographs, and examine the websites they have visited, all without any suspicion of wrongdoing, I think those same Americans would say that the government absolutely has no right to do that. And if you asked them whether that actually happens, they would say, ‘not in the United States of America.’

“But it is happening. Over the last two years, reports have surfaced that customs agents have been asking U.S. citizens to turn over their cell phones or give them the passwords to their laptops. The travelers have been given a choice between complying with the request or being kept out of their own country. They have been forced to wait for hours while customs agents reviewed and sometimes copied the contents of the electronic devices. In some cases, the laptops or cell phones were confiscated, and returned weeks or even months later, with no explanation.

“Now, the government has an undeniable right and responsibility to protect the security of our borders. The Supreme Court has thus held that no warrant and no suspicion is necessary to conduct, quote, ‘routine searches’ at the border. But there is a limit to this so-called ‘border search exception.’ The courts have unanimously held that invasive searches of the person, such as strip searches or x-rays, are ‘non-routine’ and require reasonable suspicion. As the Supreme Court has stated, these searches implicate “dignity and privacy interests” that are not present in routine searches of objects.

“So the constitutional question we face today is this: When the government looks through the contents of your laptop, is that just like looking through the contents of a suitcase, car trunk, or purse? Or does it raise dignity and privacy interests that are more akin to an invasive search of the person, such that some individualized suspicion should be required before the search is conducted?

http://www.progressive.org/mag/wx062508

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Unfortunately until this happens to folks, it is then that folks will realize we

no longer live in a free country

We are all suspects, of the state... and prisoners not truly a free people any more

[Stinky The Clown]

3. From August 11, 2006 ......

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Husb2Sparkly/25">....... A Nation of Suspects

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Correct, but to many this has not dawned

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Personally...

I think that what we have is some border stations making it up as they go, with some ICE employees just making it up as they go, with no supervision or review. The whole thing points to an agency completely out of control.

[ReadTomPaine]

4. People have to stop asking for and start demanding privacy...

and that needs to include the people in Congress. I like Russ a lot, but stop talking and start acting - like he did with FISA. Spearhead legislation, organize and appear with citizens groups who are protesting or have planned actions etc. Get in people's faces. Force a confrontation. Make it noisy and newsworthy.

The thugs will back down when congresspeople are standing next to the citizens during a protest action and telling the jackboots "NO. Don't do that. Let them pass. This is wrong." along with the rest of the people objecting and the press looking on. That's the sort of solidarity I want to see.

[dogday]

18. Everyone needs to just say NO eom

[Ian David]

5. You know, this is kinda how they captured Klutzo The Christian (child-rapist) Conservative Clown.

They tasered Klutzo the Clown and now he is dead
Topic started by NNN0LHI on Nov-17-07 09:13 PM (25 replies)
Last modified by alfredo on Nov-17-07 11:17 PM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=2305248

Here's videotape of Klutzo's funeral...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cL4tMKjfS0



Klutzo The Christian Conservative Clown Busted For Kiddie Porn And Sex Tourism
Topic started by NNN0LHI on Oct-13-07 05:51 PM (39 replies)
Last modified by spanone on Oct-14-07 07:28 PM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=2040215

[TheMadMonk]

12. So? It's the old "if you have nothing to hide..." argument.

What happens when some trade secret is compromised as a result of such a search.

Or the traveler is left without time critical documents.

Or the equipment (or data on it) is lost or damaged while in the possession of authorities.


I can think of any number of ways in which entirely innocent parties could be harmed as a result of such search and seizure practices.

[Ian David]

14. They'll probably outsource screening of hard drive contents to a foreign contractor...

... where every document and bit of data will be sold to the highest bidder, and your innocent family photos will be shared put on CD-ROMS for distribution to pedophiles.

[hootinholler]

7. What happens when you say NO? n/t

[tbyg52]

8. Interesting question.

My kneejerk reaction is that I'd like to drop it on the ground and jump up and down on it. Wonder what they'd do *then*? (Probably pull out a gun and shoot me, I'm guessing.)

[Carnea]

11. Surprisingly little if you say it right are coming from a non-terrorist nation

Oh and your white.

[left is right]

9. Does this apply to thumb drives as well?

This horrendous anti-privacy act could become the stimulus for a very lucrative overseas business. Set up kiosks in all international airports and rent state-of-the-art computers to traveling businesspersons, they could save any documents the need to their keychain thumbdrive. When the businessperson returns the laptop it could be wiped clean with some kind of security software. It would be great to not have to lug a laptop to the airport

[MelissaB]

10. This happened to my brother a couple of years ago and I posted about it on DU.

He was flying into the country from Thailand and was nice about it the first couple of hours. After that when asked about a photo that wasn't a minor he said, "I fucked 'em".

They went through all of his photos and he thinks they made copies of his hard drive.

[The Doctor.]

13. They love people with a mouth on 'em.

Any excuse to 'do the job'.

[dogday]

17. That is terrible and I am so ashamed of the US for this policy eom

[Ian David]

15. A friend of mine had is laptop confiscated by local cops.

The took it into the police station and started entering random passwords, trying to get access.

It turns out, the computer was programed to scramble itself or something after three failed entry attempts.

So, when the cops went to the jail cell and asked for the password, he told them it was "too late."

What he didn't tell them was that if they brought it to his company's IT manager and he plugged it into the network, the IT manager could unlock it.

In all the months they had the laptop in custody, they never had the competence to figure this out, or to find someone capable of explaining it to them.

In any case, after a high-profile media circus, the entire case was thrown-out because, it turns out, cops actually do need things like warrants and probable cause.

[Chuggo]

16. Chuggo encrypts

Thats why he's secure.

[ReadTomPaine]

19. Any encrypted communications are subject to especially close scrutiny..

as they assume you have something to hide. If you send mostly encrypted personal communications, it's a virtual guarantee that you've been survailed and are likely still being monitored in some expanded fashion.

Incidentally, almost all encryption is easy for these guys to decipher and the harder you make it for them, the more time they spent watching everything else you do in terms of associations and contacts.

This problem isn't going to be solved with PGP, although of course.. your actions to protect your privacy are laudable no matter what the govt thinks.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

20. Outraged kick!

[mainer]

21. Another reason US business is screwed

Why would any US company send an employee abroad on business trips when they could lose company documents this way? Better just to outsource the work to smeone who never has to cross a US border.

[mainer]

22. And CELL PHONES? How disastrous could that be?

You land in a US airport. Suddenly no one can reach you?