http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/04/border-search/
QuoteThe authorities may seize laptops, cameras and other digital devices at the U.S. border without a warrant, and scour through them for days hundreds of miles away, a federal appeals court ruled.
The 2-1 decision (.pdf) Wednesday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes as the government is increasingly invoking its broad, warrantless search-and-seizure powers at the U.S. border to probe the digital lives of travelers.
Under the "border search exception" of United States law, international travelers, including U.S. citizens, can be searched without a warrant as they enter the country. Under the Obama administration, law enforcement agents have aggressively used this power to search travelers' laptops, sometimes copying the hard drive before returning the computer to its owner.
Courts have ruled that such laptop searches can take place even in the absence of any reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing, and more than 6,500 persons have had their electronic devices searched in this manner since October 2008.
The issue has gained renewed attention in recent months as American computer geeks connected to WikiLeaks, or who know people connected with WikiLeaks, have found themselves repeatedly singled out for the searches.
At issue in the case decided Wednesday was the prosecution of a California man on child pornography charges. In 2007, ICE agents seized three laptops and a camera from convicted child molester Howard Cotterman, and transported them 170 miles away for a two-day search that uncovered hundreds of child porn images.
A lower court judge threw out the evidence, finding that the border exception did not apply when the search went beyond the border area.
The government appealed. Cotterman's lawyers argued that law enforcement should only be allowed to search digital devices at points of entry where they have the necessary equipment and personnel on hand.
"We find this position simply untenable," 9th Circuit Judge Richard Tallman wrote for the majority, reinstating the evidence. Limiting searches "would only reward those individuals who, either because of the nature of their contraband or the sophistication of their criminal enterprise, hide their contraband more cleverly or would be inclined to seek entry at more vulnerable points less equipped to discover them."
The court also affirmed that "particularized suspicion" was not required for a border search.
In dissent, Judge Betty Fletcher wrote that the government should have had a better reason to search Cotterman other than him being a convicted in 1992 of child molestation.
"I add my voice to the chorus lamenting the apparent demise of the Fourth Amendment," Fletcher wrote.
I'm not even going to bother traveling out of the country with a computer anymore. This shit's just fucking ridiculous.
Just send a flash drive ahead, and travel with an empty laptop.
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on April 11, 2011, 07:52:36 PM
Just send a flash drive ahead, and travel with an empty laptop.
that's a pretty damn good idea. But it could still take them weeks to return it to you after they search it and find it blank.
America doesn't need tourism
Economy is doing fine by itself.
Quote from: Pickled Starfish on April 11, 2011, 07:54:07 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on April 11, 2011, 07:52:36 PM
Just send a flash drive ahead, and travel with an empty laptop.
that's a pretty damn good idea. But it could still take them weeks to return it to you after they search it and find it blank.
Thought the article said they copied the hard drive?
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on April 11, 2011, 07:56:17 PM
Quote from: Pickled Starfish on April 11, 2011, 07:54:07 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on April 11, 2011, 07:52:36 PM
Just send a flash drive ahead, and travel with an empty laptop.
that's a pretty damn good idea. But it could still take them weeks to return it to you after they search it and find it blank.
Thought the article said they copied the hard drive?
yeah, which should be illegal itself. And it's still no guarantee they'll return it. If for any reason something incriminating is found, I'm sure they'll want to original hard drive as evidence in a trial.
The other solution is to use cloud storage. However, once again, if they take your actual computer it doesn't help much.
Quote from: Pickled Starfish on April 11, 2011, 07:59:31 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on April 11, 2011, 07:56:17 PM
Quote from: Pickled Starfish on April 11, 2011, 07:54:07 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on April 11, 2011, 07:52:36 PM
Just send a flash drive ahead, and travel with an empty laptop.
that's a pretty damn good idea. But it could still take them weeks to return it to you after they search it and find it blank.
Thought the article said they copied the hard drive?
yeah, which should be illegal itself. And it's still no guarantee they'll return it. If for any reason something incriminating is found, I'm sure they'll want to original hard drive as evidence in a trial.
You, sir, do not fucking understand America™.
"Illegal" = poor and weak. "Legal" = rich and powerful.
Welcome to the last 220 years.
http://www.truecrypt.org/ (http://www.truecrypt.org/)
Allows for ludicrous amounts of encryption on entire volumes of HDDs. More interesting, TrueCrypt also allows for the creation of "hidden" operating systems that cannot be detected without the secret password. I did a report on this software for my network security class, it's pretty damn good. It's one of the few pieces of software that offer features designed to protect against lead pipe cryptography.
Come on, you're guilty when suspicioned. Anyplace, anywhere, in the good ol' USA. You just don't find OUT this little tr00f until it's you they're suspicioning.
Quote from: Remington on April 11, 2011, 09:32:28 PM
http://www.truecrypt.org/ (http://www.truecrypt.org/)
Allows for ludicrous amounts of encryption on entire volumes of HDDs. More interesting, TrueCrypt also allows for the creation of "hidden" operating systems that cannot be detected without the secret password. I did a report on this software for my network security class, it's pretty damn good. It's one of the few pieces of software that offer features designed to protect against lead pipe cryptography.
Still doesn't protect against them walking off with your laptop for a few weeks.
The real issue here isn't the searches (those are a problem, but its not a new ruling) but the unwarranted seizures.
I love that they somehow think searches laptops combats 'criminal enterprise', as if it isn't 10,000 times easier to smuggle something across the border over the internet, or avoid having your data searched by hiding a microSD on your person.
Happily, as Roger pointed out, this is a case where the abasement of rights can be subverted with a modicum of care.
Load the hard drive with viruses and worms.
Act suspicious.
lol
Mail the hard drive ahead, and install a broken one when you take it through. If they confiscate, demand that they replace the hard drive they broke.
Nugget porn. EOS.
PLUS a bunch of hirley0's stuff.
Quote from: Sigmatic on April 14, 2011, 05:32:28 PM
PLUS a bunch of hirley0's stuff.
They'd detain you until they figured it out. :lulz:
BOSTON AT LAST!
\
:gheyforum:
That'd be fine, as long as they told me what the hell it MEANT after they were done. :lulz:
Quote from: Sigmatic on April 14, 2011, 05:36:16 PM
That'd be fine, as long as they told me what the hell it MEANT after they were done. :lulz:
I don't want to know. Hirley0 is one of life's nicer little mysteries, know what I mean?
Nope!
Sig,
lacking mental faculties, I sexually assaulted an electrified fortification
Quote from: Sigmatic on April 14, 2011, 05:42:42 PM
Nope!
Sig,
lacking mental faculties, I sexually assaulted an electrified fortification
:lulz:
Charlie and Sigmatic both win. In fact I think I'll start stockpiling any broken drives I don't mind them getting ahold of.