Can Border Agents Search Your Laptop? Yes.

[jayfish]

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060727-7367.html

Stuart Romm boarded a plane in Las Vegas on February 1, 2004. When he got off the plane in British Columbia, Canada's Border Services Agency stopped Romm for questioning. After learning that Romm had a criminal background, Agent Keith Brown searched his laptop and discovered child porn sites in Romm's Internet history list. Canada then bundled Romm back onto a plane to Seattle, where US Customs agents had a chance to question him further.

Ok let's all agree that child pornography is bad and get past the emotionality (is that a word?) of the charge. What I'm concerned about, as I hope others are, is the idea that border agents can search through data. I have no problem with physical searches at the boarder btw. This goes far beyond porn. What about proprietary data? What about MP3 players? Will the boarder patrol start turing iPod owners with "questionable" content over to the RIAA lawyer corps? What about a chain of custody in the case of a corporate laptop operated by multiple employees? This is off the f'ing hook

Are we a police state yet?



NOTE TO MODS: This story is just over 24hours old but I haven't been able to find any mention of it here. Do what you must. :)


Jay

[Bonobo]

1. Scary, scary stuff...

[sgxnk]

2. um...

as a point of fact, border agents have VERY broad search powers, and have ALWAYS had these powers (well, since long before 9/11 they have had them)

you are aware that this search was conducted by CANADIAN border agents?

in general, canadian LEO's have pretty broad search and seizure powers, broader in many respects than US LEO's

[jayfish]

3. That's Correct But...

(IMO)letting the results of said search be used in an American court, the search should then have fallen under US law. Forensic retrieval of deleted computer data is not routine (IMO).

Jay

[Kagemusha]

5. The search did fall under US law if you read the full article...

The appeals court just happened to have formally stated that in their interpretation, US law allows what was done, even though it was Canadians doing the search. In other words, the court ruled that American border agents could have done the same thing.

[warrens]

4. This has always been the case

When you enter a country, they can pretty much do whatever they want. If you have a criminal record, in particular, they're going to go over you with a fine tooth comb to find some reason to deny admittance.

You really have no rights at a customs house. You always have the right to turn around and get on a plane home, provided you haven't actually broken a law of the country you're visiting.