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Forums - General Discussion - Customs can now search your laptop (not only the physical parts)

This isn't anything new. The TSA has had the ability to take you notebook for a couple years now. If they want to give it back to you a week later, they can.



 

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FreeTalkLive said:
This isn't anything new. The TSA has had the ability to take you notebook for a couple years now. If they want to give it back to you a week later, they can.

Until now, they could search without a "probable" cause.

Meaning, they'd just give you a hard time if they feel like it. Imagine one of them had a bad day and make yours worse, LOL. 



twesterm said:
So why do you care if they can search your laptop? It really shouldn't matter if you don't have anything to hide. Believe me, they aren't going to want to read your emo poems and don't care that 2/3 of your hard drive is devoted to porn.

 Actually they do. And they have every right to hold your computer and make sure that every image is pedo-bear safe, including images in your browser cache.

 Even if you have nothing to hide someone that you correspond with may be on a watch list. You'll probably get put on a watch list. Guilt by association. Happens everyday.

 You could just as well make the argument that we should just throw out the 4th Amendment because it shouldn't matter if you don't have anything to hide. Would you just as soon make that statement? 



Galaki said:
Sqrl said:
And its easy to bypass.

Exactly. The criminals will know how to by pass and avoid all the hassles. Meanwhile...


 No offense but welcome to legislation in general.  Look at gun control, nobody really thinks the criminals are willingly giving up their guns either, but they make those laws.  Like I said in the post you quoted (but you cut that part out), I'm not a fan of them rifling through my bag but I still don't see how this is really any different.  Maybe they would spot your anti-fungal crotch cream in your bag, and maybe they would find evidence of an affair in your laptop.   Same type of stuff...not illegal, but emberassing.

I'm just not seeing where this is any different...especially since the only feasible way to search it quickly is to let a computer do the search and then nobody actually sees whats in your laptop....hell if thats the case I think this is less of an issue than the bag search since at least then the details of your personal life aren't floating around in someone's head. 

Now if they copy/save the data from laptops that are cleared to proceed then I will have a problem with it since they should have absolutely no reason to keep such records...otherwise why did they clear them? 



To Each Man, Responsibility
fkusumot said:
twesterm said:
So why do you care if they can search your laptop? It really shouldn't matter if you don't have anything to hide. Believe me, they aren't going to want to read your emo poems and don't care that 2/3 of your hard drive is devoted to porn.

Actually they do. And they have every right to hold your computer and make sure that every image is pedo-bear safe, including images in your browser cache.

Even if you have nothing to hide someone that you correspond with may be on a watch list. You'll probably get put on a watch list. Guilt by association. Happens everyday.

You could just as well make the argument that we should just throw out the 4th Amendment because it shouldn't matter if you don't have anything to hide. Would you just as soon make that statement?


Fourth Amendment or not, I gotta get that 37 gigs of donkey pr0n off my Macbook ASAP.




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rocketpig said:
fkusumot said:
twesterm said:
So why do you care if they can search your laptop? It really shouldn't matter if you don't have anything to hide. Believe me, they aren't going to want to read your emo poems and don't care that 2/3 of your hard drive is devoted to porn.

Actually they do. And they have every right to hold your computer and make sure that every image is pedo-bear safe, including images in your browser cache.

Even if you have nothing to hide someone that you correspond with may be on a watch list. You'll probably get put on a watch list. Guilt by association. Happens everyday.

You could just as well make the argument that we should just throw out the 4th Amendment because it shouldn't matter if you don't have anything to hide. Would you just as soon make that statement?


Fourth Amendment or not, I gotta get that 37 gigs of donkey pr0n off my Macbook ASAP.


Do you reckon a 37gb email would get to me??

OT: How hard would it be to create a partition with no drive letter and assign one when you want to access it. I would imagine this would be beyond the comprehension of your average customs monkey.



rocketpig said:
fkusumot said:
twesterm said:
So why do you care if they can search your laptop? It really shouldn't matter if you don't have anything to hide. Believe me, they aren't going to want to read your emo poems and don't care that 2/3 of your hard drive is devoted to porn.

Actually they do. And they have every right to hold your computer and make sure that every image is pedo-bear safe, including images in your browser cache.

Even if you have nothing to hide someone that you correspond with may be on a watch list. You'll probably get put on a watch list. Guilt by association. Happens everyday.

You could just as well make the argument that we should just throw out the 4th Amendment because it shouldn't matter if you don't have anything to hide. Would you just as soon make that statement?


Fourth Amendment or not, I gotta get that 37 gigs of donkey pr0n off my Macbook ASAP.


Try to enter Saudi Arabia with that on your laptop and you are fucked. And yes, they sometimes search your computer for porn. So it does happen. In countries like Saudi Arabia...



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ferret1603 said:
Thatmax said:
You should only fear this law if youv done something really wrong.
 God I hate that line. It's just so ignorant. 1) Everyone has something to hide. 2) Governments should not have power over the peopler, people should have power over their governments. When Jews were forced to wear yellow stars on their coats no doubt people said they shouldn't mind if they've got nothing to hide, then they were promptly carted off to death camps. Governments kill far more people and are a far greater danger to our liberty than any terrorist could ever be. If you're willing to give away your liberty so easily just make sure you're ready for the day when it comes back to bite you.

 


 Hence my use of "really". Yes everyone has something to hide but you should only be worried about having your laptop searched if you have child porn, bomb making sites, "how to smuggle" documents, etc on it.



Just a note: I've been flying from Israel to the US every Summer for the last 3 years.

The American security is easily ten times more ridiculous than Israel's.

And I feel safer in the Israeli airport.

That says something.