Laptops Can Be Searched At the Border 821
Nothing to Declare notes that a California appeals court has unanimously upheld a ruling that border security officers at international airports can search personal computers without requiring any specific evidence of criminal activity. The appeal was made by US resident Michael Timothy Arnold, charged with child pornography offenses after an airport search of his notebook PC in 2005. Might want to think hard about what's on your laptop if you're going to be passing through a US international airport.
Where and how do they search (Score:5, Interesting)
I know encryption gets their panties in a twist, but suppose I have data I want kept private is just burying it in a weird location good enough?
What are they actually looking for, and how would they be searching for it? Unlikely to get them disclosing said techniques publicly, so... Rampant speculation?
Time to Roll Out The Crypto (Score:3, Interesting)
The next logical question is, if you password-protect and encrypt your hard drive to thwart precisely this kind of unwarranted and unjustifiable privacy invasion, can Customs force you to divulge your passwords?
Schwab
Logically Different (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Where and how do they search (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Where and how do they search (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, they're not really limited by when your plan leaves.
They will hold you until they're done with you -- if you don't make your flight, that's not their problem, really.
They don't feel you have any right to privacy when crossing the boarder. Any attempt to maintain privacy is clearly an attempt to evade detection.
People who are evading detection clearly have something to hide, and merit further questioning.
You really are fsck'd either way. And, in the end, they could just keep the laptop anyway if they choose.
Cheers
Re:Time to Roll Out The Crypto (Score:4, Interesting)
My advice is bury it, encrypt it. Use obscurity in as much as you have several partitions encrypted, and when/if forced by courts to give up the password, give them the password to only one partition and counter sue for loss of data if you can. I forget what movie it was in but the bad guy said "always be guilty of a lesser crime" to avoid doing hard time.
Yep put your data in encrypted partition ABC, then a bunch of scientology and
Re:security vs privacy (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Where and how do they search (Score:2, Interesting)
There have reportedly been instances where they've just copied entire hard disks wholesale, so that's a moot point.
If it's legal to scan your data on entering.. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I Wonder (Score:4, Interesting)
I remember once when playing around with distros, I wound up doing something to GRUB such that it lost its menu.lst. (I can't remember exactly what I did, since it was still able to find the Stage 1.5 and Stage 2 files. I must have just accidentally deleted menu.lst.) Rather than bothering to, you know, fix it, I just booted "manually" by entering the GRUB commands to boot whenever I needed to reboot - which, being Linux, was basically limited to kernel updates.
In any case, it made it so that the computer was essentially only bootable by me, since only I knew the magic commands to start it. (Something like root (hd2,7), kernel /boot/vmlinuz, boot - a relatively simple configuration that wasn't really that hard to remember once you knew the magic numbers.)
So just delete /boot/grub/menu.lst after memorizing the magic commands to boot your system, and leave the customs agents staring at the GRUB> prompt.
Re:I Wonder (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder if the right to search your physical belongings is limited in any way, or whether they assert the right to make a photocopy of any printed document that you may have with you. Imaging taking your personal journal or diary along on a trip and having someone insist that they must photocopy it to pass through customs. How are your "papers and effects" a perceived threat to anyone while traveling, and how can one be secure in them anymore?
Re:4th Amendment... (Score:4, Interesting)
I wrote a piece about this [kuro5hin.org] a few years ago, it seems things are only getting worse.
-mcgrew
Re:I Wonder (Score:5, Interesting)
Well actually, yeah. Depending on how meticulous the person is, it can have any or all of these things:
-Proprietary or confidential information for any company you've ever worked for (regardless of whether or not it was a good idea to have saved that)
-Elaborate summary of your fantasies (porn folder)
-Logs of all personal correspondence or hobbies you've stored electronically (newsletters you've received or published, emails, instant messages, message board subscribed to, etc)
-Financial information (tax forms, bank account records)
-History of anything you've purchased online (from email, or logging into sites via the cookie on your machine)
-Political, cultural, or sexual leanings (via browser bookmarks)
That's alot of stuff to be available on demand, huh? What about making an image of the hard drive for later perusal? It's not like you have to worry about that kind of thing being lost/stolen/hacked form wherever warehouse it gets dumped at.
Re:4th Amendment... (Score:3, Interesting)
Also, the government could theoretically force you to waive my rights to do any number of things, why do you let them do it at the border? At the border, are Americans not American citizens on American soil? I could see invasive searches being reasonable at your destination, if it is outside the United States. The destination country is not subject to the US constitution.
I don't accept the argument that "this is how it is, deal with it" as an end to the discussion, although the government might like that.
Re:4th Amendment... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I Wonder (Score:5, Interesting)
"Loose morals" are illegal so long as they are written into law (or at least enforced by Authority).
Re:I Wonder (Score:5, Interesting)
I think the real question is whether or not they can search all storage media or just the computer itself, what's to stop you from removing the hard drive and replacing it with a small flash media card on a hard drive adapter containing a clean install of Ubuntu whenever you fly? Or better yet just leave a Live CD in the drive and install a switch under the battery to cut power to the HDD.
Off to jail with me then (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Where and how do they search (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I Wonder (Score:5, Interesting)
One of the reasons they started making people turn on their laptops was to make sure it was a working computer and not hollowed out computer carrying an explosive divise.
I'm guessing they equated this search with looking through a suitcase, finding a suspicious envelope, which when opened contained child porn photos or film.
Oh and BTW, before everyone starts blaming Bush and overzealous national security laws, this ruling came from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals [wikipedia.org], known for being one of the most liberal (and most overturned) of the federal appeals courts. However, the article speculates that this probably won't be heard in the Supreme Court because the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., upheld a conviction for a man who crossed the Canadian border with a computer holding child pornography.
Re:Border warrantless searches (Score:2, Interesting)
But the digital media itself cannot hurt anyone by the simple nature of what digital media is. It is nothing more than a sign that this person might endanger children.
Looking at it from that angle: What if you had a piece of paper with a marijuana leaf drawn on it in your brief case. You were not in possession of marijuana nor did they have any evidence that you have ever touched the stuff. But it's a sign that you like to use drugs or perhaps that you are even a dealer. Is that a good enough reason to keep you out of the country on the grounds of that drawing alone?
Violating my 5th Amendment Rights... again? (Score:3, Interesting)
What's on my laptop is a 320 gigabyte AES-256 luks-encrypted [endorphin.org] LVM volume set sitting on an encrypted physical drive. This is unlocked using a 32-character passphrase which is not stored anywhere but in my brain. Without that passphrase you basically unpack a kernel and recognize the hardware... and that's it.
I use Ubuntu on my laptop, and this is all configured out of the box on that distro.
Requiring me to unlock my encrypted volume using that password immediately violates my 5th Amendment rights [gnu-designs.com], and is hence, unconstitutional.
So once again, Privacy 1, Government 0.
They seem to keep forgetting that it is the PEOPLE who gives the government their power, not the reverse.
Encrypt, encrypt, encrypt (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I Wonder (Score:3, Interesting)
By not complying, you are just asking for trouble.
Which leaves you in a catch 22 situation. I trust border control people about as much as I trust a total stranger... In other words, I don't, and they have no right to my personal information, thoughts, finances, etc. They are more then welcome to search my laptops, but I will watch them, and if they attempt to copy anything that is not illegal (I would then have other problems), you can bet I will set some lawyers on them for breach of my privacy.. I am sure it will not get far, but I am sure there is some sleazy lawyer out there looking to take a shot at the feds
Re:I Wonder (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I Wonder (Score:3, Interesting)
As it happens, many customs agents know their own magic commands to boot the system.
"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to boot this computer."
Saying "No" isn't the most helpful answer to that request.
"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to boot this computer."
"Sure, here ya go. Let me log in. There you go. You are in ~"
"Sir, the mouse does not work and there are no windows."
"Of course not! It's Linux. I have mine set up for text only due to the strict memory and graphical requirements that a GUI requires. There are no windows on this machine. (pun intended)"
Even if you do have porn on the system, it doesn't have the same effect when viewed in ASCII.
Re:I Wonder (Score:3, Interesting)
Err, hypocrisy and double standards of the highest order.
As you point out, killiing is also very illegal, not to mention immoral, and yet you do not see border agents confiscating copies of B-grade horror slasher movies or "Rambo III". Why is that? These movies pefrom the exact same function as the pervert's pictures: to induce pornographic pleasure by viewing despicable acts and to foster fantasies in the viewing audience (for some the fantasies of being the "good" guy detective or a "military macho hero" and some of being the chain-saw wielding murderer or a villain warlord).
In short, like great majority of "morality" laws, this is just another example of illogical, inconsistent, hypocritical behaviours by societies and therefore their "authorities".
The same is of course applicable to criminalizing drug use; stupidity, uselesness and utter counter-productiveness of which one can write whole volumes about.
And all of which is of course the result of people's inability to reconcile a mish-mash of religious dogmas, base animal instincts, and the results of industrial and scientific progress which altered the environment to the point where the evolution-dictated, hormone-driven wiring of people's brains is no longer able to cope.
Re:I Wonder (Score:3, Interesting)
Stupidity should be countered with the mockery of it.
Re:I Wonder (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't speak for other officers, but there are only three reasons I would ever look at a laptop
(1) I thought there were drugs or other substance physically hidden inside. (I have never seen or heard of this happening)
(2) I am suspicious of the person's reason for seeking entry to the country, and I need to determine who or what or why they are here.
(3) Their criminal record indicates some sort of fraud, child molestation, or other nasty things.
If I am searching a laptop for one of the above reasons, I will usually make a cursory search (or thorough search for reason 3) for child porn. I'm somewhat younger than the average age for a Customs officer, so I would say I'm slighty more computer savy than the other officers. Obviously I'm aware of things like hidden folders, and the possibility of things like TrueCrypt. An average officer would usually just browse the contents of various folders, maybe use built in window's search, and check any cds they have lying around in their bag. I wouldn't be slowed down by a laptop running Linux, but it would certainly throw off an average officer. Unfortunately, that just means you'll be sitting around for a few hours while they call in a computer tech or figure out what to do with you.
The chance that one of these searchs is going to give away "trade secrets, ideas, and sensitive business contacts" is going to be pretty much nil. There is no point of looking at your random business documents except to determine why you are entering the country. I'm certainly not going to recognize, remember, or understand any business secrets that you have on your laptop. We don't make copies, nor do we connect them to our computer network, so they're not going to leak that way either. So really, even if you did have business secrets on your laptop, it's extremely unlikely that one of these searchs will reveal them.
I would like to say however that if your laptop is SEIZED, then the above may not apply. Once a laptop is seized, it is out of the regular Customs officers hands and it is sent to some sort of technical department. I have no idea what they do with seized goods. In addition, I only worked at an Airport, so I'm not sure if/how laptop's are searched if they are entering by mail.
Child pron is contraband too (Score:2, Interesting)
It is the border agents job to prevent this stuff from coming into the country. Busting a guy at point-of-entry for child porn isn't stepping outside their bounds whatsoever. It's precisely why we have border security in the first place.
And who in their right mind ever thought you had a right to privacy when border crossing?
Anything you hand-carry is subject to search. They will sift through your underwear, open and inspect your deoderant container, they even pulled the inserts out of my shoes.
Here's a scary thought: THEY CAN READ YOUR DIARY TOO! even if you write "TOP SECRET! NO BOYS ALLOWED" on the cover.
There's plenty of things to get upset about. This isn't one of them.
Re:Off to jail with me then (Score:3, Interesting)
1) I share my laptop with my wife when I'm home because we can't afford a second computer. She has her own account and I don't know any of her logins or passwords. The directory in which her files are stored is not accessible by me. Is this the same as if I had accepted a package from someone else or been asked to carry their luggage for them? What sort of trouble am I in if the security folks either can't get access to her files or do access them and find something illegal there?
2) I have several encrypted disk images of personal (legal) documents. I can't remember the password for one of them but the security folks are demanding it. What happens now?
Re:Time to think about history (Score:3, Interesting)
Frankly, I think you're viewing the past with rose-colored glasses. I mean, slavery wasn't exactly a great stride in terms of freedom. Nor was the fact that women couldn't vote. And those controversial sodomy laws weren't just introduced with the Patriot Act, right? What about internment camps for Japanese CITIZENS in WWII? They just oozed Bill of Rights, didn't they? Or putting people with different skin colors in different schools.
These great freedoms for which you pine have both come and gone, ebbed and flowed throughout the history of this country. It's disingenuous to act like everything "used to be" fine and now it's all falling apart.
There have been abuses and victories in terms of freedom, but never has the strength of this country been put into question simply because some tool whines about canceling his trip to the States. It drives me absolutely NUTS that governments in the US (of all levels, e.g. eminent domain at municipality level) breach real Constitutional rights, but it bugs me because they're breaching Constitutional rights, not because it might encourage some putz to personally boycott travel here. I don't care if some guy in another country doesn't like my country, whether it be a migrant worker from Central America or a self-important full-time student from Central Europe.
But it doesn't matter. When I say the above, then I'm xenophobic and selfish or maybe even jingoistic. But if I go the other way, I'm soft and foolish.
stepping off soap box now...
Re:I Wonder (Score:2, Interesting)
(4) None of the above conditions apply, but I am incredibly suspicious that the person is hiding something. There may not be one specific reason for my suspicious, but a bunch of things (sweating, shaking, looking around nervously, etc.) could add up. I usually have a lot of other work to do, and other people in line to clear, so I'm not going to do this kind of search on a whim.
I may do a cursory search of the laptop to see if the person's verbal story matched. For example, if the person is on a service-call I may check their last days email to see if they got an email from their customer or boss telling them to go on the trip. I would probably also do a brief check for any child porn or other things like that, since it doesn't take that long.
Re:I Wonder (Score:1, Interesting)
Let's see who the three judges are that reversed this decision:
Michael W. Mosman: appointed by George W. Bush
Diarmuid F. Oâ(TM)Scannlain: appointed by Reagan
Milan D. Smith: Appointed by George H.W. Bush
The lower court decision was appealed by federal prosecutors appointed by Bush.
This court decided to follow the 4th Circuit. According to Wikipedia, "The Fourth is widely regarded as the most ideologically conservative court in the federal appellate system."
It doesn't matter what they find on the drive... (Score:3, Interesting)
...what matters is what they decide to put on it.
Don't assume just because "something" was found on a hard drive, the owner was the one that put it there. You have absolutely no way of proving that any data on your hard drive was planted. Once anybody has free, unfettered access to your storage device, they can do whatever they please with it and you have absolutely no way to PROVE that the data had been deleted, revised, planted, etc.
This is why it is absolutely imperative that your right to be secure on your effects be absolutely and undeniably PROTECTED at ALL costs! YOU are the one who must prove you are innocent in our country. Innocent until proven guilty is the feel good catch phrase of our legal system. It is a fallacy that does not exist in the real world.
The only protection you have from corruption is to keep the corrupted out of your personal effects. It is an inalienable right that must be fought for tooth and nail to keep protected.
Re:5th Ammendment? (Score:1, Interesting)
Searches should be random for 2 reasons:
1) it is more efficient (you can't avoid them with the proper dress code)
2) it is more fair
Small story from my personal life: I used to travel from italy to germany quite often in an old yellow car,
and i got stopped on the road and searched every single time (how the hell did they manage to spot me in a freeway full of cars by the way...).
I bought a more expensive, sober, black car and never got searched since.
Lesson learned: if you smuggle drugs across germany use an expensive car
Re:I Wonder (Score:3, Interesting)
Reminds me of the time I came back from Andorra - I was young and completely neglected to go through the anything to declare at customs - I wasn't trying to scam them, I just wasn't thinking. I had about 20 litres of spirits and loads of cigarettes in the boot (plus a couple of electrical items). As soon as I got pulled over, I though "oh shit", and thought at very best I'd get hit with loads of taxes and a few fines. The customs officer asked me to open the boot, and surveyed the contraband strewn about. After a second, he pointed at a suitcase and asked me to open it. I did (it was full of dirty clothes). After that, he just let me go - no taxes, no lecture, no mention of the fact that I was taking about 20 times as much through customs as I should - nothing. I guess sometimes you just get lucky.
Actually, your point is nothing like that time. Also nothing like that time was the time I was coming back from Amsterdam - completely forgot I had hash on me. I only noticed on the ferry, and needless to say that hash stayed on the ferry. I'd have hated to get busted for importing 1/20 of an ounce of hash... :P
Re:I Wonder (Score:3, Interesting)
However, I have found this [smartmoney.com] to be effective at making me seems less sketchy and at forcing people to accept me. Sure, it may take me some time and some stumbling/incoherent sentences to get what I want to say out, but if I'm looking straight into their eyes when I finally have what I want to say and am saying it, they seem to be more accepting. I'm going across several borders this summer so I will be trying it if I have any problems. Wish me luck.