UPDATE DHS: No probable cause needed to indefinitely confiscate laptops and share data with PRIVATE

UPDATE DHS: No probable cause needed to indefinitely confiscate laptops and share data with PRIVATE companys

www.washingtonpost.com

Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.

Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Translation:

Now they get to take your personal property for as long as they want, share it with private companys and load who knows what type of tracking software on your system.

My solution as I travel for business is I have an online backup system, and a jump drive. I wipe my drive when I travel and when I get where I'm going I re-download only what I need from the online service.



www.washingtonpost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by DisabledVet


Good idea. But i would also fill the drive with crazy viruses. Its not illegal to infect your own system . I would love to see there face when there virus scanner goes crazy and crashes there computer over an over .

using truecrypt sound like a good idea, how long until they start scanning one's brain


i'd be "scared" to use my laptop after somebody messed with it, who knows what they've done to it, software keylogger ? perhaps even a hardware one since it'd be harder to detect.

[edit on 2/8/2008 by HatFoilTin]

reply to post by HatFoilTin


That will come with the mandatory chip to be part of population control in a near future.

It would interesting if one of our members had their laptop consficated, then we could have it sent to a pro to see what they look at, how they looked at it and if they put anything on it.

Or better yet, if you do get your laptop back have a pro put some weird DOD like snooper program on it, then break the news to the press that here is proof the Govt. is illegally spying and watch a whole sh*tstorm come down on the government.