Re:Court: Feds Can't Just Grab Someone's Laptop at the Border
by tajen on Tuesday August 25, 2015 @02:43PM
(#10118654)
Tonight someone invited me to give a talk at his business conference in NYC in front of 80 potential customers. I refused. I don't travel to US:
- I have porn on my computer, obviously not underage but what am I supposed to say if the border agent asks me "Is this subject underage?"
- I use a false name on Facebook. This is impersonation against an american interest.
- I've downloaded torrents. Even if I delete the files, I'm pretty sure there are footprints everywhere. Pretty sure there's jail time for piracy, and being my third offense in this list, I'm pretty sure it could be considered as a repeat offense.
There's a reason why we have a right to privacy. It's because everyone has very fluid limits on things that are forbidden, and everyone, including elected officials, breaks them. But not everyone is punished. So I'd rather not cross the US border.
I don't travel much international, like twice a year, but know dates in advance. I clone my drive and ship image encrypted ahead of my trip. I travel with laptop without hard drive in it.
This is of course, inconvenience, but not illegal. Many times they will ask me to "turn it on" to make sure this is not a bomb disguised as a laptop, but you don't need a hard drive to have BIOS flash on your screen.