Leave Your Information at the Boarder: The Seizing of Electronic Devices

I urge you to read every word in the article that follows:

Clarity Sought on Electronics Searches

Nabila Mango, a therapist and a U.S. citizen who has lived in the country since 1965, had just flown in from Jordan last December when, she said, she was detained at customs and her cellphone was taken from her purse. Her daughter, waiting outside San Francisco International Airport, tried repeatedly to call her during the hour and a half she was questioned. But after her phone was returned, Mango saw that records of her daughter's calls had been erased.

A few months earlier in the same airport, a tech engineer returning from a business trip to London objected when a federal agent asked him to type his password into his laptop computer. "This laptop doesn't belong to me," he remembers protesting. "It belongs to my company." Eventually, he agreed to log on and stood by as the officer copied the Web sites he had visited, said the engineer, a U.S. citizen who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of calling attention to himself.

Maria Udy, a marketing executive with a global travel management firm in Bethesda, said her company laptop was seized by a federal agent as she was flying from Dulles International Airport to London in December 2006. Udy, a British citizen, said the agent told her he had "a security concern" with her. "I was basically given the option of handing over my laptop or not getting on that flight," she said.

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You know every time I think I have been as surprised as one can be by the profound changes taking place in our nation, one more story comes along and teaches me "I ain't seen nothin' yet."

This really is VERY BAD NEWS for America. Not just because of the privacy implications, or even the potential identity or trade secret theft implications, but because we are creating a huge disincentive for foreign business to transact business here, and for business here to transact business abroad.

What are we thinking????

Our collective security paranoia has cost us dearly, by way of the privacy we used to enjoy. And obviously, that is a price many have been willing to pay for security.

But now, it is our very livelihoods that are in peril.

Where does this end?

A global economy presents many challenges for America in the future. Will we not be satisfied until we have turned ourselves into a third world nation?????



[edit on 8-2-2008 by loam]

UPDATE:

Civil Liberties Groups Sue Over Electronics Searches: Federal lawsuit protests excessive screenings at U.S. border-entry points, including inspections of laptop and cell phone data.

Two civil liberties groups have filed a lawsuit in a federal court in California in response to complaints from travelers of excessive screenings at border-entry points, including inspections of the data on laptops, cell phones and other electronic devices.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco by the Asian Law Caucus (ALC) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

In the legal filing, the two groups ask the court to order the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection (CBP) division to release records relating to its policies and procedures on the "questioning, search and inspection" of travelers entering or returning to the U.S. at various ports of entry.

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In a somewhat related article, concerning US travel issues:

Bush orders clampdown on flights to US: EU officials furious as Washington says it wants extra data on all air passengers


The US administration is pressing the 27 governments of the European Union to sign up for a range of new security measures for transatlantic travel, including allowing armed guards on all flights from Europe to America by US airlines.

The demand to put armed air marshals on to the flights is part of a travel clampdown by the Bush administration that officials in Brussels described as "blackmail" and "troublesome", and could see west Europeans and Britons required to have US visas if their governments balk at Washington's requirements.

According to a US document being circulated for signature in European capitals, EU states would also need to supply personal data on all air passengers overflying but not landing in the US in order to gain or retain visa-free travel to America, senior EU officials said.

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I have an admission to make...

The more I see things like this, the more I consider the possibility that MAYBE someone knows something we don't.

I need to think about that.

[edit on 11-2-2008 by loam]