Bingo.

Why would anyone want to go through that on their vacation? Unless you enjoy that sort of thing, go somewhere pleasant instead. (And if you enjoy that sort of thing, there are far easier ways...)

I say this as a US citizen who will be sad if it comes to pass, but this bullshit won't stop unless the rest of the world refuses to put up with it. Your average US citizen doesn't travel internationally (only about 10% of the population has a passport), so they don't notice unless it hits their wallets.

Please force us to stop.

> Why would anyone want to go through that on their vacation?

honestly? the us is a beautiful country, with amazing people. i love visiting and love going to weird towns to meet different people. (also, my sister is married to an american citizen, and i want to meet her every once in a while).

but at the same time, it's really fucking awful to be treated as a criminal every time you try to go to the country.

I'm in Australia. I like a lot of things about the US and lots of the people in/from the US as well. I went there about 15 years ago and had an awesome holiday.

I would never go there now that a dangerous buffoon like Trump is in office, also for a long time now it's been known that outsiders will be treated like a criminal at the border for no reason. And I mean literally no reason because I could easily not have all my masses of terrorist information on the laptop and just download it from the terrorist servers when I get there. So there is literally zero reason to be searching my digital property, and I'm not about to take the gamble that I could be prevented entry or delayed enough to possibly cause thousands of dollars personal cost for no good reason. The security theatre is ridiculous.

Outsiders are obviously not welcome so I'm not coming.

There are plenty of sane countries around the world to go to, why would I go to the US?

I hope the American people can find the motivation to vote and pressure their representatives to actually do something about their own freedoms. Not only border patrol but your militarised and outrageously unaccountable police force.

Sorry but that's just, like, my opinion, man.

Put up with what? I go through Houston Customs almost every month and they rarely search anyone. It's like a river of people walking right out the airport doors after a cursory glance at the customs declaration. I have never once seen a person with an open laptop in the search areas. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen but good grief, what's the actual percentage? I am willing to bet a minuscule percentage gets their devices searched.

I don't believe the data on that is available; at least, I haven't been able to find it[1]. I'd love to be wrong, if someone else has information.

I'm glad your frequent travels are eased through customs to the point where you don't see what happens. But allow me to suggest that a frequent traveler through one port once a month is an insufficient data set from which to draw conclusions?

If nothing else, you have available the fact that a software vendor sees sufficient demand to invest in this feature, to go along with your google skills to find counterexamples to your experience. I don't know if that's sufficient to get you past your blithe dismissal of others' concerns and lived experience and on to a skeptical but open view or not.

[1] Which would be typical; one of the easiest tactics to steer public discussion is to pick and choose what data to collect and release. The US has a long history of this tactic, especially with issues that touch on law enforcement. The lack of decent data on killings committed by police is well-known; categorical refusal to allow studies on various drugs is too. But this is a frequent problem; hammering on killer cops with video is provoking grudging, slow change on the first and incremental legalization of pot is changing the second. But there are lots of issues over which this happens.

The US will not provide foreigners with a visa unless they submit to be fingerprinted like a criminal:

https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/general/border-bio...

I'm not a criminal, and I will not be fingerprinted.

And to the UK: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/14/campaign-gr...

It's amazing how disparate the experience is in Europe. The first time I flew to CDG a year ago I honestly thought I somehow skipped customs accidentally. Heathrow, on the other hand, feels like a dystopian experience straight out of Minority Report. 20 questions and having your photo taken at every turn for simply connecting through the UK.

I think the authoritarianism is a Anglo Saxon phenomenon. At least in more recent history.

As a foreigner married to a citizen, I'm not too satisfied with this suggestion.

It's just that easy.

No, it's not. That's similar to saying just stay away from bullies, or leave if you don't like your job/school/whatever. It is easy if you view the issue in isolation, but for a lot of people it is more complicated, such as how will you see your loved ones / do your job / travel freely? In this case, the ones most dependent on being able to travel have little choice if they can't take on almost unlimited (potentially, but still) risk to their livelyhood.

Come and see us in Europe, it's nice here !

No thanks!

If hurts people with money, something will change.