Laptop searches at border might get restricted
December 8, 2008 By JOELLE TESSLER , AP Technology Writer(AP) -- Mohamed Shommo, an engineer for Cisco Systems Inc., travels overseas several times a year for work, so he is accustomed to opening his bags for border inspections upon returning to the U.S. But in recent years, these inspections have gone much deeper than his luggage.
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There is a need to upgrade some TSA inspectors at Air terminals to have a few who can understand enough technology to read and Export-Import permits. That would keep things like the MIT girl last year with the protoboard on her shirt from being arrested.
In the meantime, store your personal files on an external drive and leave it at home/work. Transfer company data via an ftp server. Clear your local copy of e-mail. Travel with a blank laptop.
It seems US govt. and media do a better job at terrorizing citizens then the terrorists themselves.
"Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself"
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
We forget that it was the Creator (God, Allah or chance necessity, it doesn't matter), not the Ameircan government, that endowed these rights.
We forget that the declaration was that "ALL" were endowed with rights. Not just Americans, not just those who are on American soil.
It seems that either America has lost its bearings, or America must respect all people's rights of liberty. It is unreasonable to be taking away people's liberties unless there is reason to believe that the person loosing his liberties was taking someone else's liberties.
The current American administration is distructively paranoid. Hopefully the new administration will be more sane.
Security is here to stay and those that don't like it can either leave or get used to it !!
I suspect all of you who claim you have nothing to hide still use curtains in your house. Few people want others watching them getting undressed. It's tough to put a financial or social cost on the essential liberty of privacy. Privacy itself has intrinsic value and erosion of those unalienable rights comes in nibbles and pieces, not vast swaths. Opening a traveller's digital possessions without probable cause is unreasonable and should be swiftly struck down.
Vigilance and persistence to upholding the goals of equality and liberty should be treated with the highest moral regard, not derided as unpatriotic or foolish. Should we give these liberties away through inaction, we would find their absence unsettling at the least.
These government agencies operate with very little oversight or transparency, how am I to know I can trust them with my data? They could very easily be selling this stuff to other people and companies.
If the last few years have taught us ANYTHING, it's that the government absolutely CANNOT be trusted.
It's just unbelievable that you guys are willing to live with this. Unbelievable.
As Ben Franklin said: "Those who give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
At some point we've got to draw the line.
Your email, phone calls, web surfing, and personal letters all cross international borders. Do you want these read by government agents at every border they cross? Do you want to be forced to reveal encryption keys or passwords to make this easier for them?
As an American citizen living overseas, can the US Government read everything on my gmail account every time I access it? I mean, I am crossing international borders!
We're talking private communications here, not a large suitcase labeled "Exempt from Inspection". There is nothing on my computer that I can not get securely into the US without being legally subject to search by border agents.
It sounds like these searches have only yielded one "potential terrorist" and several small-time viewers of child pornography. Hardly worth making the entire world feel like avoiding US borders.
the police state is growing until soon the necons
they will haev evrybody chiped like animals
in tehre dream forth reich global world
owsoem coment above from superhuman
It seems US govt. and media do a better job at terrorizing citizens then the terrorists themselves.
witch was the plan all long the dummb sheep stay in fear so the masters of the game can play there cards
Hell, cancel all pretense of working for the people. Jail everybody that comes across the gate for an unspecified amount of time, just to throw off any terrorist plots they may or may not be partaking in. Boy I'm glad the Canadian airports aren't this bad yet.
You're just going to let the terrorists win and become a repressive shithole without even putting up a fight?
Those second amendment rights are looking better and better by the moment. Lets just say I have no intention of ever visiting the US.
The weak-minded and cowardly "citizens?" who find no problem in this stupid inefficient attempt by the politicians to impress the voters are the real problem.
Fully agreed. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, not eternal exploitation.
"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
- Thomas Jefferson.
I'm not a black/white kind of person. Many security measures have SOME measure of justification, even if on the whole we might still disagree that they are actually necessary and correct, but this one fails miserably to have ANY justification.
The so called Liberals are no better. Clinton was in bed with the Congressional Intelligence committees when he was in office. Democrats like Feinstein have advocated passing censorship laws. Do difference.
Hopefully these privacy-invading border searches will disappear after these devices hit the U.S. market, but I can guarantee that the issue will fail to reach a court of law before this happens. In any case, I completely agree with smithme2008. Our government wants us to believe that they are much smarter than the terrorists themselves, when we all know this is simply not true. I highly doubt that someone planning to smuggle in a nuclear weapon (or details highlighting the plans of the group) would be stupid enough to carry his "to-do list" on hand--absolutely ridiculous. People, we are fighting a war on religion and ideology. Do you really think we are winning the war by showing the world we are run by a country of power-hungry dictators? Our actions only fuel the ideological fire for their cause. Sure we may have saved some civilians by stopping a couple suicide bombers, but how many civilians have we killed with a misplaced laser-guided missile? Just as many, if not more. Point is, we are losing OUR cause, the cause put forth by our forefathers. If all that is taken away, then we have nothing to defend--we are simply and mindlessly defending an ideology dictated to us by our leaders and the media, not the people as a whole.