Examining the Search and Seizure of Electronics at Airports 699
Angus McKraken brings us a Washington Post story about how travelers are seeking more well-defined policies and rules about the search and seizure of electronic devices by U.S. Customs officials. The EFF has already taken legal action over similar concerns. We recently discussed the related issue of requiring people to disclose their passwords in order to search their private data. From the Post:
"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. 'I was assured that my laptop would be given back to me in 10 or 15 days,' said Udy, who continues to fly into and out of the United States. She said the federal agent copied her log-on and password, and asked her to show him a recent document and how she gains access to Microsoft Word. She was asked to pull up her e-mail but could not because of lack of Internet access. With ACTE's help, she pressed for relief. More than a year later, Udy has received neither her laptop nor an explanation."
United Police State of America (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:United Police State of America (Score:5, Interesting)
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The boots were in her suitcase. The guys got to rummage through her underwear. She was *not* amused. I understand female celebrities tend to mail their underwear home for just that reason.
This theft of laptops at airports is in a different class though, those guys have been
Re:United Police State of America (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not theft. It's called DHS discount and it tends to occur a lot around birthdays and holidays.
Re:United Police State of America (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, so right this minute I probably have traces of crystal meth on my hands. I haven't used, sold nor produced it, but I withdrew some cash from the ATM a few minutes ago. Cletus Lawman is convinced I'm a drug-smuggling terrorist.
The problem with the world is that stupid wins over smart every time.
Re:United Police State of America (Score:4, Insightful)
Holy crap, common household items can made out of explosives? Please, tell me more!
Re:United Police State of America (Score:5, Interesting)
No, this is just a symptom of the biggest problem, which is that the people at the top are completely clueless.
Check out this article [guardian.co.uk] which shows just how bad it's getting.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycerol [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitroglycerin [wikipedia.org]
Re:United Police State of America (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:United Police State of America (Score:5, Interesting)
You've never seen "Day of the Jackal" (the oringal version)? The asassin has a sniper rifle broken down and made into a set of crutches, for an old war veteran...
If you;re going to search people at all, you really should be searching people with large pieces of metal piping, no matter what medals they're wearing.
Yeah, I know, a "movie threat". Still, profiling people to wave through is as bad as profiling people to give a hard time to. Both allow an enemy to game the system
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And they were patting down a disabled WWII vet in a wheelchair.
You've never seen "Day of the Jackal" (the oringal version)? The asassin has a sniper rifle broken down and made into a set of crutches, for an old war veteran...
If you;re going to search people at all, you really should be searching people with large pieces of metal piping, no matter what medals they're wearing.
Perfectly cromulent, but you'll notice that they didn't search the tubing in the wheelchair, they patted down the old man.
As an aside, they should know better, I've seen a dwarf on TV [mattroloff.com] tell TSA agents that they should search his wheelchair, and that he's kind of insulted that they assume he's not a threat because he's a dwarf with bad knees.
Re:United Police State of America (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:United Police State of America (Score:5, Funny)
Re:United Police State of America (Score:5, Insightful)
He probably does hate what it's become. That veteran probably knows better than anyone born after the War just how much we've thrown away.
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Re:Well, we put the miserable screeners at Dulles. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Well, we put the miserable screeners at Dulles. (Score:5, Insightful)
If someone really wanted to do something, he/she could just blow up the hundreds of people waiting at the bottleneck BEFORE security screening.
Re:Well, we put the miserable screeners at Dulles. (Score:5, Interesting)
Or you could just go to a phone booth, call the airport, say that you've planted bombs in the airport, hang up and walk away. Your friends could help by firing firecrackers close by.
Re:Well, we put the miserable screeners at Dulles. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Well, we put the miserable screeners at Dulles. (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Well, we put the miserable screeners at Dulles. (Score:5, Interesting)
But what can you do?
Now of course, Airports are beyond miserable.
FWIW, this is why I won't be going back to the US any time soon (although I've been there several times in the past, and to Canada). I really like the US, I like the people and the country. Americans are some of the warmest most friendly and helpful people anywhere in the world. I have relatives there and I could quite happily spend my holidays there every year, one state at a time.
The US tourist board run adverts on TV telling us to come visit at DiscoverAmerica.com [discoveramerica.com], which - given the way they treat you when you do get there, post 9/11 - is entirely a mixed message it seems to me. Trips there are nothing but a hassle with endless queuing and stupid security checks. I've had on multiple trips and the absolutely insane delays and had to deal with concentration-camp guards that pass for Airport security staff that ask you stupid pointless questions and what you do for a living.
For example, on our last trip (which I didn't want to go on, but a relative had just died, and there was a service):
We didn't have all the technical details of where we were staying at every point in our trip - we didn't need them - but they detained us because we didn't have them. They then directed us to a computer and let us *Google for them*. We filled out the details and they let us on our way. I have no idea what the point in that was. I could have named any hotel chain in a nearby city and said "oh yeah, that one", it's not like they called to check.
You certainly can't expect to turn up and just "take each day as it comes" as they expect you to say exactly where you will be and where you are staying. Personally I like to be spontaneous and free wheeling while I'm on holiday - especially when I'm visiting somewhere like the US where there is so much to see. On the last two trips I did multiple flights internally too, that was also an unbelievable hassle. Even the major airports are not designed to have large queues like there are now - clearly waiting areas and shopping areas have been altered to turn them into giant queuing zones.
Of course there are queues at UK airports and some silly rules (e.g. flying from Heathrow to a domestic airport requires you take off your shoes, but fly back to Heathrow from a domestic airport and you don't have to) but the delays don't seem any worse than pre 9/11, especially now that new faster facilities are available. The security staff are by and large pretty chilled out. I've heard of some abuses by immigration officials specifically (who seem to be hired primarily on the basis of how much they hate foreigners), but I've also seen them shrug off abuse and being ranted at at by drunk passengers late for a flight for having to wait all of 10 minutes to go through security (from guys who were quite obviously in the bar when they should have been checking in).
I'm looking forward to a future administration sorting this mess out and restoring some semblance of normality, I just hope that happens sooner rather than later. I know the US economy is a behemoth but the current regime has got to be hurting trade and tourism and impacting on the bottom line (I'm sure it's denting consumer confidence too, and so helping to depress the domestic market).
Re:Well, we put the miserable screeners at Dulles. (Score:4, Insightful)
A couple of years ago I dropped into Moscow and traveled up north. I am now allowed to travel around in a way that I am no longer allowed to travel around the US. Some irony there.
Land of the free? Who are you trying to fool?
Re:United Police State of America (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
No, we don't have to break any laws, we have to break the lawmakers by voting them out of office and putting in people who will listen to the voters, rather than money.
One definition of insanity is: "Doing the same thing over an over again and expecting a different result each time. As long as a legislator can spend a lifetime in office, even if demonstrated to be totally in the pocket of t
Re:United Police State of America (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, no one outside the US cares about your constitution. We care more about how you randomly invade countries without reason, how you try to enforce your local laws and policy on weaker nations, and things like that.
Re:Nothing random about invasions (Score:5, Insightful)
Like a true American, you not only spelled the name of the country wrong (and the Freudian subtlety of the misspelling is particularly telling), you forgot to mention a) why the US did nothing about that back in the 80s aside from affirming our "friendship" to Saddam and giving him another $1 billion in military aid right after and b) where Saddam had gotten the technology for that gas and its means of distribution. (I'll give you a hint: you were trying to defend that country's "honor")
The spread of communism was feared.
And, what happens when the spread of American-brand "democracy" is feared? It's only so long before everyone gets tired of having "freedom" bombed into them.
Re:Nothing random about invasions (Score:4, Insightful)
Why attribute malice when overzealous software and a lack of proofreading will do? The original typo is "raq", which gets autocorrected to "rag", and the missing "I" is manually added without noting the preceding change.
There is no Freudian slip since Saddam is not Iraq. The territory of Iraq and its people represent one of the births of agriculture, one of the births of civilization, one of the births of a written legal system based upon fairness, etc. I've viewed the nation and people of Iraq as more of Saddam's victims for decades, not his willing accomplices.
I think if this conversation tells us anything about bias it is clearly telling us about yours, not mine.
you forgot to mention a) why the US did nothing about that back in the 80s aside from affirming our "friendship" to Saddam and giving him another $1 billion in military aid right after and b) where Saddam had gotten the technology for that gas and its means of distribution.
Even if true they are off topic. The fact remains that the US invasion was not a random event. The potential threat existed. Even if one accepts your position one could argue that the US more morally obliged to clean up the mess it created. In any case, not random.
Re:Nothing random about invasions (Score:4, Informative)
I realize "facts" are the antithesis of the 'pub agenda, but your spin is so weak...
1) the February 26, 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center
Four followers of the Egyptian cleric Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman were captured, convicted of the World Trade Center bombing in March 1994, and sentenced to 240 years in prison each. The purported mastermind of the plot, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, was captured in 1995, convicted of the bombing in November 1997, and also sentenced to 240 years in prison. One additional suspect fled the U.S. and is believed to be living in Baghdad.
2) the Khobar Towers attack
the U.S. investigation was hampered by the refusal of Saudi officials to allow the FBI to question suspects. On 21 June 2001, just before the American statute of limitations would have expired, a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicted thirteen Saudis and an unidentified Lebanese chemist for the Khobar Towers bombing. The suspects remain in Saudi custody, beyond the reach of the American justice system. (Saudi Arabia has no extradition treaty with the U.S.)
3) the August 7, 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania
Four participants with ties to Osama bin Laden were captured, convicted in U.S. federal court, and sentenced to life in prison without parole in October 2001. Fourteen other suspects indicted in the case remain at large, and three more are fighting extradition in London.
4) and the October 12, 2000, attack on the USS Cole.
No suspects have yet been arrested or indicted. The investigation has been hampered by the refusal of Yemini officials to allow FBI agents access to Yemeni nationals and other suspects in custody in Yemen.
But, let's be clear: By December 21 the CIA had made a "preliminary judgment" that "al Qaeda appeared to have supported the attack," with no "definitive conclusion."
In other words, with only days left in office, Clinton still didn't know who was responsible for the attack. It was left to the next bumbling president to follow through. And, as of yet, he has not. Also, under U.S. law, an attack against a military target does not meet the legal definition of terrorism.
Bush, on the other hand, did react.
Yes, he attacked a country that really wasn't involved and then attacked another country later that had even less to do with the attack. So, really, not the best points to be making. Oh, and where's Osama? Gee, Dubya made damn sure to clean up daddy's messes, but hasn't really done anything positive for his own country.
at least when civilians are killed by the US military it is by accident and not on purpose unlike the cowards who attack the US.
Oh, that's ok then. I'm sure all of those orphaned children over there will see it that way and maybe they WILL see us as liberators?!
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The problem with this argument / logic is that the United States (via its administrations & intelligence agencies) is guilty of even worse transgressions, so other countries have more than adequate justification for attacking us.
Justification / rationalizations may sound good when pitching the
Re:Nothing random about invasions (Score:5, Insightful)
Sonny, as an American, I can tell you have been drinking the Kool-aid far too long. Did you not watch the events leading upto and after the Iraq invasion? Yah know, where they couldn't find evidence of WMD's? A little fact like that just might piss some people off.
Here is my little paranoid fantasy of why the US invaded Iraq. First, there is oil. The US has enough, but the powers that be want more. Second, there is this little quote by President George W. Bush [washingtonpost.com]: "After all, this is the guy that tried to kill my dad at one time." Thus a personal vendetta that has killed thousands of American solders. Killed many, many more Iraqi civilians. Left a wake of casualties.
Wake the fuck up.
Re:Nothing random about invasions (Score:4, Informative)
Duly noted. I get upset about the senseless loss of life.
However, since the start of the war, there have been numerous reports that the Administration misled the American people by inflating the threat. Here is a quote from one such source [carnegieendowment.org]. Administration officials systematically misrepresented the threat from Iraq's WMD and ballistic missile programs, beyond the intelligence failures noted above, by:
- Treating nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons as a single "WMD threat."
- The conflation of three distinct threats, very different in the danger they pose, distorted the cost/benefit analysis of the war. (p. 52)
- Insisting without evidence--yet treating as a given truth--that Saddam Hussein would give whatever WMD he possessed to terrorists. (p. 52)
- Routinely dropping caveats, probabilities, and expressions of uncertainty present in intelligence assessments from public statements. (p. 53)
- Misrepresenting inspectors' findings in ways that turned threats from minor to dire. (p. 53)
Here are a bunch of other reports [google.com] as well.Re:Nothing random about invasions (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:United Police State of America (Score:4, Insightful)
The majority of islamic terrorist organizations actually fight to 'end the foreign influence in Muslim countries and the creation of a new Islamic caliphate'. Seriously, don't bother then and they won't bother you.
Customs agent's kid . . . needed a laptop . . . (Score:5, Funny)
. . . nothing new here, move along, sans laptop . . .
Traveling while Muslim or Middle Eastern (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Traveling while Muslim or Middle Eastern (Score:5, Interesting)
Either Muslim, or Middle Eastern, or South Asian too... But yeah I'd agree it would appear that its racial.
What I think is maybe most disgusting though is that we're so pathetic as to accept this abuse. I travel to Asia with my wife - who is Chinese - quite a bit and the TSA and Customs people are always the worst. All I'm interested in is getting to my destination, but we all have to be treated like sheep to these people!
I've always avoided bringing the laptop on the plane because of weight, but they are even going after iPods and cell-phone data - going as far as to copy all of your contacts, call history, and take the SIM chip out of your phone. How am I supposed to call for a ride because my phone won't work w/o the SIM chip in it...
I can always use dm-crypt or true-crypt on my laptop but how the hell am I supposed to deal with them taking my terrorist iPod and phone? God forbid I try and bring an iPhone on the plane!
Re:Traveling while Muslim or Middle Eastern (Score:5, Funny)
it's all in the name of security! If we did not do this terrorists would be blowing up EVERYTHING!!!!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
it's all in the name of security! If we did not do this terrorists would be blowing up EVERYTHING!!!!
Re:Traveling while Muslim or Middle Eastern (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Traveling while Muslim or Middle Eastern (Score:4, Insightful)
The biggest losers in this war are our children. They will get to grow up in a police state because their parents didn't have the balls to stand up and say "no more."
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Thank you, I'll be here all week
Re:Traveling while Muslim or Middle Eastern (Score:4, Informative)
Of course, DHS can't actually say those rules, so instead they give out some bull about "random selection".
Re:Traveling while Muslim or Middle Eastern (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's not make it about race-- it is about seizure of property without cause.
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Re:Traveling while Muslim or Middle Eastern (Score:5, Interesting)
"We're not doing racial profiling! Look, we're searching a disabled veteran, out of the dozens of brown people we searched today! See?"
Re:Traveling while Muslim or Middle Eastern (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Traveling while Muslim or Middle Eastern (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, there's the No-Fly List. I know a civil rights attorney in Manhattan who has to drive or take the train much of the time, because he's on the federal govt's unpublished, unacknowledged No-Fly List. He's never been charged with a crime, he's not a terrorist ... but his firm represents a handful of them down at Guantanamo, and he's filed briefs on their behalf.
He's a Jew of European descent, caucasian by appearance. I think it's down to his job and the actions his firm takes on behalf of Guantanamo detainees.
Re:Traveling while Muslim or Middle Eastern (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't about "outsiders." Jews have developed a reputation for financial conspiracy and troublemaking (which is strictly their own fault). As a result, anyone who looks like they might be a Jew is subjected to extra scrutiny. It's just common sense.
This isn't about "outsiders." The Irish have developed a reputation for drunken violence and terrorism (which is strictly their own fault). As a result, anyone who looks like they might be Irish is subjected to extra scrutiny. It's just common sense.
This isn't about "outsiders." The Japanese and Germans have developed a reputation for covert operations on behalf of their homelands while living in the United States (which is strictly their own fault). As a result, anyone who looks like they might be Asian (it's too hard to tell the difference) or German is subjected to extra scrutiny. It's just common sense.
Yet another reason to use linux (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Yet another reason to use linux (Score:5, Insightful)
Decoy Data (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course, that would probably violate some law. And "only the bad guys" would do it. But if those bad guys actually have something to hide that also violates those security laws, then of course they'll break that law's "coverup" prohibitions, too.
Terrorist and other criminal orgs with enough resources to be a real threat, and carry notebooks and phones around on flights they don't just blow up, will be able to afford such a filesystem. And once there is one in the wild, anyone will get it, probably for free.
So this is yet another stupid simcurity (simulated security) measure. It's intimidation of everyone to scare us into thinking our government is "doing something severe" to terrorists, when it's just abusing our own freedom. While wasting everyone's time, eroding our trust of our government, and letting the terrorists go free.
Sounds like they're already using sophisticated decoys at DHS: fake security to hide the dangerous absence of any real security.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Now when someone looks at your hard disk they see a single 2GB encrypted volume. They can get your password and decrypt that volume, but they can't see the second encryp
Re:Decoy Data (Score:5, Insightful)
That's not a fix. That's a workaround, and a shitty one at that! The real fix is to destroy the TSA, and get our civil liberties back!
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
They've already got that one covered:
Can you do this? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Can you do this? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure -- you just miss your flight. (Score:5, Insightful)
One more reason not to visit US (Score:4, Insightful)
Sounds like it's getting to the point ... (Score:5, Insightful)
In 1984, I remember my aunt flew from Chicago to Boston, with a
I'm still proud of my country but not as much as I used to be. That bothers me. What also bothers me is that bad behavior on the part of the TSA and other government organs is in danger of becoming institutionalized, which will make it very difficult to eliminate.
Re:Sounds like it's getting to the point ... (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not trying to troll here, but why?
America might have once been great, but what's really happened there in the last 10 years, 20 years to be proud of? Scandal after scandal, poor social policy after poor social policy, increasing ignorance and almost xenophobia, patent trolling, enron, cops abusing people (AND nothing being done about), civil liberties washed away, copyright madness, etc, etc. I'm sure there have been the odd medical and scientific advance but I'm not allowed to have a free though about those without paying a royalty to some major company.
When I was a teenager I used to think it would be cool to move to the states. Wages were so much higher, a better climate, etc.
Now I have to fly there occasionally for work, and I dread it.
Re:Sounds like it's getting to the point ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, you are. And there are still a lot of good things happening in this country, and for the most part I enjoy my life here. Then again, you don't live here and apparently most of what you know you get through the media or from Slashdot, so I suppose your attitude should be expected.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Whether or not passengers should be armed or not is r
Re:Sounds like it's getting to the point ... (Score:5, Funny)
Get it in writing... (Score:4, Insightful)
... and miss your plane. (Score:5, Insightful)
Is this the United States or some banana republic? (Score:5, Insightful)
U.S. is the mothership of banana republics. (Score:4, Insightful)
Being that the term 'banana republic' came into existence as a direct result of U.S. foreign policy and illegal wars, it should come as no surprise that one would find the parent specimens of such abusive practices in the land which created them.
The U.S. used its foreign policy and semi-secret operations to crush budding democratic nations in order to reward American business, in this case, sugar and banana plantation owners, who basically wanted to use slave labor rather than pay fair wages to the locals. It still happens today. Venezuela is currently undergoing the same treatment where the U.S. government, big business and the CIA are doing everything in their power to cast Chavez as a villain and install a pro-American business military government. They're probably going to get away with it, too. The media in Venezuela are all pro-evil, big media owners being what they are. Chavez wanted the peasantry to own their own land and have a say in politics, have access to decent schooling and medical care and generally get out from under the boot heel of slavery. The horror! It's bad for business when your peasants are educated and strong. --Research the story, but stay away from the big American news outlets to do it; they're all a bunch of whores.
If U.S. business and government are going to use such practices abroad, then you'd better believe that they're going to try to get away with as much of the same thing at home as they possibly can.
So yes, the U.S. IS some banana republic. It's the mother ship of banana republics. Don't let all the shiny formed plastic fool you.
-FL
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
There was a case here a few years ago of a police officer who was attacked by a prisoner in a cell, he shot and killed the prisoner, the cop claimed self defence (that the criminal had grabbed for his gun and was shot in the struggle over the weapon). The case went to trial 3 times before the cop was finally convicted (first 2 cas
Good! (Score:3, Funny)
Not only will it promote the whole idea of Freedom and help spread democracy in a non violent way, but as a result we will see that people will stop carrying around laptops or other portable storage devices.
And THAT is a good thing. We will soon see a sharp decline of missing or stolen sensitive personal or company data, so this is good for our privacy.
Instead people will start using VPN to get to their data.
guilty until proven otherwise (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh, and my laptop might be tricky to search... I wonder what procedures they have in place for people travelling with computers running alternative operating systems or simply in a language the officer cannot understand. 200 translators waiting behind the security booth? sounds practical.
Re:guilty until proven otherwise (Score:5, Informative)
No Holiday in the US for us. (Score:5, Insightful)
Martin
Sounds like her company did the right thing (Score:5, Interesting)
The note about going through the recent documents log and browser history has me concerned, though. I may set the defaults on my work machine to never-save on the history. I can think of any number of services to archive bookmarks online. The idea here is that your travel machine may be lost, stolen, broken, or compromised at any time, and we should behave as such.
It sucks that we have to protect ourselves from unreasonable search and seizure by our government, but we'll just have to deal with it for now. Not to get off on a rant here, but I think the Second Amendment should be interpreted to include strong encryption. The writers of the Constitution put that in there as a safeguard against jackbooted government thugs. In today's world, I see no political difference between a Kentucky Long Rifle and AES-128.
Need some export controls here (Score:3, Funny)
Bloggers and YouTube killed your great nation (Score:5, Insightful)
The Internet is a microscopic, meaningless medium for message delivery, and nothing proves it better than Ron Paul. You want to make a change? Stop blogging, making videos and writing articles, and start fighting with legislation, with money, with burning tires and real 100,000 people marches. The Internet created this idiotic illusion that a bunch of people supporting each other can make a difference. Well here's your fucking wake-up call. Reality has not changed.
I am not from the US, and what's "worse" I am from Israel, but it saddens me to see your nation giving up so many values that has made it great.
AND IT'S YOUR FUCKING FAULT, BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING.
You're mistaken. (Score:5, Insightful)
You burn tires because when you burn tires and the government shoots you, you get in the newspaper, and the article talks about what act of the government you found so egregious that you picked a sure-to-lose fight with its better-armed agents.
There's a reason we don't use fire hoses anymore - and it's not because (directly) it's inhumane. We don't do it because it generates too much press.
The internet lets you have the same effect as burning tires without having to get shot first. The real media is lazy. They don't want to have to go down to the National Mall every time somebody burns a tire any more than you really want to go down there and burn tires. They would much prefer to sit in their comfy office, read blogs, and report on what people are blogging about. You can get the same press with blogging nowadays as you can get with tire burning.
We're lazy (Score:3, Insightful)
Discussion of relevant precedent (Score:5, Informative)
Has been happening in Israel for years. (Score:3, Informative)
I guess that's just the cost of "democracy" in the Middle East.
Encrypt Everything (Score:5, Insightful)
Use Linux
Use and encrytped drive.
Have a "functional" environment that is unencrypted that has nothing more challenging than an email about how you think U.S. government is doing everything right and how the shrub is gods ear piece.
We need to do what the French did in WWII. When the Nazi's ask for your papers, make sure you show them nice pleasant things. Transmit everything back and forth over the internet (encrypted locally).
The Nazi movement, or The Nazis began to take over the USA starting with Roy Cohn and Senator McCarthy in the '50s, through Nixon, Reagan, Bush I/II.
Can ANYONE dispute that this description:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarianism [wikipedia.org]
Does not describe what is becoming of the U.S.A, the U.K. and a lesser extent the rest of Europe?
The irony is that while Hitler and his armies were defeated in WWII, the power brokers and players that created him live on in power.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You're delusional.
Not because of the point you're raising (I believe it's a valid one, though I would not use the word "nazi" to describe what is happening) but because you mentioned every republican administration after Eisenhower and left out every democratic administration. You're ignoring the fact that democrats controlled congress for most of the period t
It's Customs, Not TSA (Score:3, Informative)
(Not that that makes it right, but it helps to identify the correct culprit when complaining to the powers that be or even when just spreading the story.)
2008 Campaign (Score:3, Insightful)
On data encryption (Score:3, Interesting)
simple solution (Score:5, Insightful)
There is no way I'm going to hand over my passwords to a just-above-minimum-wage dofus. Not if it means I can't take that flight. Not going to happen. Since by whatever perverse application of your totaliarian laws they can force me to, the only solution is to avoid the US the same way anyone with a sane mind avoids any other place where the insane rule.
Re:2 options.... (Score:5, Informative)
Not checked baggage (Score:3, Informative)
not the answer (Score:5, Insightful)
Go ahead and fight them. I mean - do not let them search your laptop until forced to do so. Cite your company's information as the reason. Perhaps individual privacy is gone but we still have some sanctity for corporate data. It doesn't even have to be trademark/copyright/legally protected data. It just has to be data that your company deems 'private and confidential'. If people start missing flights because of over-ambitious TSA agents, eventually, businesses will start screaming about these searches....if they aren't already. Not only are they overly intrusive but they are causing losses in a very real way. Measurable losses.
Anyone from Oracle or MSFT read this post? How would you feel about your laptop being held like this? How about someone from Adobe or Boeing? What about the big-3 car companies? Consulting companies?
There are lots of businesses that require international travel and I am betting they don't want some $10.50/hr TSA employee reading your laptop anymore than you do. I expect employers to enter the fray any second now. They will not stand for this unless there are some checks and balances. They have no interest in writing off confiscated assets because of over zealous TSA agents and they are (unfortunately) our best defense.
Re:not the answer (Score:5, Interesting)
One poster suggested that government contractors refuse to cooperate, and call their corporate security officer and/or DSS. That's an interesting idea, but someone undergoing a TSA or Customs search won't have any opportunity to contact their security office during the search. They're not going to let you make a cellphone call. You either consent to the search, or you don't. If you don't consent, they might take it anyway, and I'll bet money you wind up in handcuffs.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Is this explained to your clients in your companies privacy policy? I'm rather interested in knowing what my credit card companies policy is regarding data safety. Unfortunately, that part of the web site doesn't work. [americanexpress.com] Some of the information being seized may be my information, even though I am n
I work for a company that does classified work (Score:3, Interesting)
We have to send it in advance via secure courier now.
Which leads me to believe the TSA doesn't care if you stuff is labeled "classified", they will go ahead and search it anyway
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
FedEx or whatever?
They still open the package in the customs and charge you heavily just for opening it. And they can do whatever they want to with it while it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it.
Therefore, many layers of TrueCrypt, fake data, semi-real data, and what-not else...
What does TSA stand for, anyway? Techno Stasi of America?
Re:Shouldda Waited (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't get ahead of yourself. It was a federal magistrate in Vermont that gave that ruling, not the Supreme Court. We have no idea what the SCOTUS would do in such a situation... especially if it involves child pornography. They've been known to make exceptions to the Constitution when it comes to child pornography.
That case is rather wierd, but in the general case you don't know what's on the computer you request access to. It's one thing to say child pornography isn't protected under the first amendment, it's quite another to give police blanket permission to demand all your passwords because it might, without any form of suspicion, contain child pornography.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I don't travel myself... (Score:4, Informative)
If you DON'T declare it and they find out, then kiss it goodbye. You broke the law, so they take the money.