[IP] Re: Suspicion not required for border laptop seizures

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

________________________________________
From: David Lesher [wb8foz@panix.com]
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 2:10 PM
To: David Farber
Subject: Suspicion not required for border laptop seizures

> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/01/AR2008080103030_pf.html
>
> Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop computer 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.

Prof F:

This is a good reason to use a diskless thin client <tinyurl.com/5qdunp>
and keep the server somewhere warrant-resistant.

Downside: Usage caps on your home accounts may forstall more such
devices.

One question I have is: can you be arrested if you tell them to pound
salt re: your password? (Of course, you can have multiple accounts and
give up the easy one.) Or do you just have your property confiscated and
you turned around?

If we use the Maher Arar case as a cite; I guess even if you're not
admitted to the US, you can still be sent off for torture.




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