But what were are talking about is not turning on a machine to prove its not a bomb. What we are talking about searching the contents of laptops, thumb drives, ipods, and other media and the privacy concerns therein.

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. – Ben Franklin

How you will you answer “What’s your security clearance, citizen?”

And no, I don’t trust the border personal to thwart anything but the most obvious security threats.

One of the realities of life is that if you allow people to snoop they will. In order to parse out the ‘bad stuff’ you have to look at all the stuff. Sometimes this will be done with the aid of tools that search for particular criteria; sometimes it will be done by hand. And some things learned cannot be unlearned. You cannot trust border guard with the personal details of peoples lives or with information that is legally confidential and would require a court order to obtain. Lawyer/Client correspondence and trade secrets are fine examples.

And once data is copied it can be freely copied again. Your border personal may lose his laptop or add the files to his personal collection. Once your data is copied you have no control over how it will be distributed and do not know who’s hands it shall fall into.

There is nothing unreasonable about wanting your private data to remain private. Outside of legal requirements, It is normal for human beings to be guarded with their intimate details. Surely you have no shared every dark thought you have ever had with another human being. You have not made publically available your childhood love letters, have you? And what about the privacy of others? Maybe those naked pictures of your girlfriend were only to be viewed by you, and not the border guard and his pals?

If the technology was available, would you be ok with the border guards being allowed to read not only your current thoughts, but your memories without a warrant? What makes out written thoughts any different?

I am a twat who understands that if you want something to remain private you encrypt it and obfuscate it and take measures to ensure the data is never placed in a position where others can access it. Right and wrong, legal and illegal make no difference. The forces in power do as they wish and pay no attention to these details.

How is a guy who takes pictures of his 24 yer old girlfriend a scumbag? And how would that action alone dictate the persons station in life or his ability to make money?

there is no privacy anywhere, not just the border. This is why I support encrypting and hiding your data, and whenever possible avoid allowing it to fall into anyones hands even if encrypted.

In some countries a single poppy seed on your shoe has been enough to jail individuals for 4 or more years. I fail to see who another country’s vile behavior is beng used to justify vile behavior in our own country.

what of data a user has a legal responsibility to protect? lawyer/client, company/contractor, misc confidentiality agreements. etc? You know, real world/business situations. I see you just ignored that concept.

In any event, currently the 5th amendment saves us from having to give up our encryption keys.

There is no privacy at the border. Get used to it, and then get over it.

Its not just our border, its every border. Other countries may not have caught up yet to handling data at the border, but they will. And if you get caught carrying legal porn at the US border, the worst that happens might be a smirk from the ICE agent and perhaps a note in the computer run by USVISIT. Try that at a Muslim country and you lose your freedom, or perhaps your head.

lets say that you have naked pictures of your 24 year old girlfriend, but she looks like she is 12. How do you think you will be treated by the authorities?

What if you buy a used laptop, and it has an encrypted file on it that you do not know the key to? How would you ever prove this? What authority are you ready to give the goons to extract this out of you?

What about emails between client and lawyer? these are confidential and privilege.

Do you really want someone else reading your IM logs? That RPG cybersex session with goatgirl19 might get you detained.

How about some of your writings… Stephen King and Clive Barker wannabes… more reasons to detain you.

And then there is the idea that you can trust the people who are accessing your data. Minimum wage earning authority abusing jerks with their own prejudices and agendas. How do you know what these strangers are going to do with your data? Geek Squad has been known to pass around customer’s personal pictures, why do you think these security nitwits are any different?

Remember, your neighbors are jerks. John Wayne Gacy was said to be an outstanding neighbor. The police who shot students at kent state were someones neighbors. Airport security personal are mindless goons that cannot be trusted and should be avoided.

the argument that if you are not doing anything wrong you have nothing to hide is complete bs. legal porn, relationship related documents, bad poetry, company secrets, medical records, naked pictures of yourself/wife/husband/gay lover, sensitive legal documents, etc… are not for random prying eyes. these are personal things we do not desire others to see for various reasons.

People say ‘I have nothing to hide!” but they are liars. There are documents that you keep that are potential sources of embarrassment for you, that you will not readily turn over. There are also people who are legally bound to hide things from others by contracts or other agreements. Doctors, lawyers, contractors, etc…

My suggestion? If at all possible avoid bringing anything thru any security check point. fedex your tools, clothing, laptop (without any sensitive data), etc… Or buy new or rent while away from home. Security goons have no sense of humor and cannot be reasoned with. Avoid as much interaction with these awful human beings as possible.

What about your data? Encrypt it, twice, renamed it as .iso or something, append it to the end of an unused help file, and put it online in a secure area. Or, access it remotely via VPN. Have a few gigs of data? or not going to be somewhere with net access? encrypt your data the same way and fedex it to your destination.