It's bad enough that when you cross a U.S. border, you must consent to an intrusive search of your luggage. But now, courtesy of a decision from a federal appeals court, the government also has the right to copy everything on your laptop—and use it for whatever purpose it seems fit.
I wrote about an earlier decision along these lines over a year ago. (Click here to read the posting). As I wrote then, the ways that this new authority can be misused are too numerous to count—whatever information you carry with you on your laptop—banking records, client data, “adult” videos, you name it—now, in effect, must be shared with the U.S. government.
But now it's even worse: the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that customs officials don't even need "reasonable suspicion" (much less "probable cause") to "search a laptop or other personal electronic storage devices at the border." That means in addition to your laptop, customs officials can search and copy data from your cell phone, Blackberry or any other electronic device without any evidence you've done anything wrong.
A search of a laptop is far more intrusive than a search of your luggage. In some ways, it's even more intrusive than a body cavity search, which customs officials do require "reasonable suspicion" to conduct.
Your body cavities may (or more likely may not) reveal any contraband. But examining the data on your laptop may well reveal a detailed picture of your friends, your family, your professional associates, your interests, your financial status, and possibly much more. As one attorney noted, "It really is like looking into someone's mind, rather than looking into a box or a folder or a purse."
One way to protect yourself from this type of intrusion is to encrypt all the data on your laptop, or even the hard disk itself, using a program like PGP Desktop (http://www.pgp.com).
Unfortunately, that may not be an ideal solution, because customs officials may demand that you decrypt any encrypted files before they return your laptop. If you refuse, they can confiscate the laptop and/or detain you until you agree to provide access to the unencrypted files.
A better solution may be to copy all the data on your laptop to a USB stick and send it via a courier service to your international destination. Encrypt the data, of course, before you send it. Then securely "wipe" any confidential information off your hard drive, along with the "free space," again using a program like PGP Desktop.
If you carry your laptop through Customs, be sure to "sanitize" it. First, encrypt and copy your data to a USB stick, then send it via courier to your destination. Then, use a utility like Killdisk (http://www.killdisk.com) to securely wipe everything on your hard drive. Then reinstall the operating system according to the instructions in Killdisk or whatever utility you use for this purpose. (There are other possible “sanitation” solutions but none as good as this one.)
If Customs asks you to inspect your laptop, let them. The inspector won’t find anything but the operating system and standard system files.
(For more suggestions on protecting your privacy and wealth, click here.)
Copyright © 2008 by Mark Nestmann
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