Crossing Borders with Laptops and PDAs

May 18, 2008 1:01 AM

Crossing Borders with Laptops and PDAs. I am about to go on vacation and just learned (Guardian.co.UK) about a recent US Circuit Court ruling (PDF) that your electronic devices, including laptops and PDAs, are subject to search and seizure for just about any reason. Does this worry anyone else as much as it does me?
posted by appleyar (26 comments total)

Why, whatever could go wrong?
posted by From Bklyn at 1:19 AM on May 18, 2008

forewarned is forearmed..
buy a "disposable" 2nd hand laptop thats adequate once you are there, download whatever you need via vpn.
Hide your real content encrypted inside a Garth Brooks DVD, or somewhere else nobody would go look.
posted by zog at 1:37 AM on May 18, 2008

Doesn't worry me. I've been boycotting the USA since 2002 due to their customs and immigration practices.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:48 AM on May 18, 2008

How brave.
posted by PostIronyIsNotaMyth at 1:52 AM on May 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

Doesn't worry me, either, my religion dictates that the northern hemisphere is a myth perpetuated by the liberal media to bulk out their pages.
posted by Dillonlikescookies at 2:14 AM on May 18, 2008

Slashdot-like obvious question in the post?
posted by beerbajay at 2:23 AM on May 18, 2008

A long time ago, back in the mid nineties, I was stopped at the xray machine at Los Angeles airport. The woman in charge of the machine said I had start up my laptop - I unpacked my Apple Powerbook from my bag, plopped it down on the pile of dirty socks and underwear that had been packed around it and started it up. We watched it for a couple of minutes as it went through the old familiar pre-OSX "marching icons" startup process. Once it was done I looked up at her, but she was still staring intently at the screen. I waited a little while and then tentatively asked whether I could put it away now - "You can put it away when I say you can", she snapped back - still staring intently at the screen. Not wanting to enrage her further I just stayed quiet and waited. And waited. For about five minutes. Eventually I thought I should intervene ;
"umm, it's not going to do anything else...".
"Then I'm afraid we're going to have to keep you here, sir. I'm going to call my superior.".
"Why? What have I done wrong?"
"I'm not allowed to let you go through with your computer until it says 'C colon' on the screen"

I immediately understood the nature of the problem.

"Of course. I understand. Could you give me a second?"
I opened up SimpleText and typed "C:" and handed the machine back to her.
"Ah, thank you sir. You can be on your way."
posted by silence at 2:50 AM on May 18, 2008 [39 favorites]

There's at least one MeFier who's already had some firsthand experience with this, but from the Canadian authorities.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:58 AM on May 18, 2008

appleyar, I see that you're kind of new here. This is not how things are done on MetaFilter, and your post is probably going to be deleted.

"Does this worry anyone else" is asking for discussion. Discussion is good, but the main point of a post should be the link or links in it, not what everyone thinks about it. It's not supposed to be about you; try to leave yourself out of the post. You can join in the discussion later.


posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:00 AM on May 18, 2008

AskMe?
posted by WalterMitty at 3:01 AM on May 18, 2008

"Does this worry anyone else as much as it does me? "

What, do you have something to hide?

Loyal Mericuns support the troops by enlisting our luggage and laptops in the war of terror!
posted by orthogonality at 3:41 AM on May 18, 2008

If I ever go through customs with a laptop, it'll be a vanilla install. I'll either download my clients' data as a deniably encrypted file over the Internet, or mail it to my destination on (deniably encrypted) DVD before I fly there. Of course, in either case the file will include some innocuous legal porn that I can decrypt on demand so that it looks like I had a reason to hide something besides my clients' data.
posted by BrotherCaine at 4:20 AM on May 18, 2008

Yeah, my old laptop is still sitting in a vault somewhere in Canadian Customs. Although my porn was not evil enough to have me sent to the gulag, it was deemed evil enough not to be allowed into Canada. And seeing as I am already abroad, it's kind of hard for them to give it back to me. Maybe some day I will return to Canada, then leave, and take my evil pornography infested machine with me.
posted by Meatbomb at 4:21 AM on May 18, 2008

Why not go crazy and leave your laptop at home?
posted by rhymer at 5:33 AM on May 18, 2008

you don't have any stolen music or movies on there do you?
posted by caddis at 5:44 AM on May 18, 2008

it's so rare I get a chance to post in a thread before it's deleted, so I just thought I'd come in and say hi. :-)
posted by tiamat at 5:52 AM on May 18, 2008

I was just debating about bringing my laptop with me to Chicago today...and have decided against it. I don't need anything slowing me down at customs, and it's just one more thing to worry about in general.

If I go into withdrawal, I will blame you, metafilter.
posted by Hildegarde at 6:07 AM on May 18, 2008

From the article in the first link: "But the US is not alone. British customs agents search laptops for pornography."
posted by ericb at 6:11 AM on May 18, 2008

So, we have American, British and Canadian authorities maintaining the right to inspect digital devices/media at their borders. I suspect other countries have similar policies.
posted by ericb at 6:13 AM on May 18, 2008

It worries me, indeed. But there are solutions from the old soviet days...

1) Place as many $100 bills between the laptop's keyboard and screen. When you open it, they will magically fall out. People will be very helpful in cleaning up the mess.

2) Place a large bottle of vodka in your luggage. Complain about having to carry such a heavy thing all the way home.
posted by R. Mutt at 6:19 AM on May 18, 2008

3) Once you have their attention, you can show they how squeaky clean you are.
posted by R. Mutt at 6:26 AM on May 18, 2008

Is this something you need to own a laptop or a PDA to worry about?
posted by orange swan at 6:31 AM on May 18, 2008

You might check out this program.
Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux
Main Features:

* Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.
* Encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive.
* Encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication).
* Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.
* Provides two levels of plausible deniability, in case forced you to reveal password
1) HIDDEN VOLUME
2) Volume cannot be distinguished from random data.
* Encryption algorithms: AES-256, Serpent, and Twofish. Mode of operation: XTS.

Pay particular attention to the HIDDEN VOLUME link, where you encrypt some dummy files that you want to be found. You also make a hidden volume inside the encrypted space and encrypt it as well.

There is also a TRAVELER MODE which will leave no trace the program has ever been run, but is a bit more complex to set up.
posted by Enron Hubbard at 7:02 AM on May 18, 2008 [3 favorites]

Doesn't worry me. I've been boycotting the USA since 2002 due to their customs and immigration practices.
posted by PeterMcDermott [Liverpool, UK] at 4:48 AM on May 18 [1 favorite +] [!]

LOLUSASIANS AMIRITE!? I love it when superior UK residents say shit like this. The UK turns out to be at least as great an offender in this area as the US (at least according to Schneier's related articles) so are you going to "boycott" lovely Liverpool as well? And Canada is even worse because of their draconian porn laws. So boycott your computer until this all blows over -- the terrorists have won.
posted by The Bellman at 7:06 AM on May 18, 2008

orange swan if you don't own a laptop or pda you are clearly not part of the Great Consumerist Revolution and need to report immediately to reeducation camp.
posted by nax at 7:09 AM on May 18, 2008

I've been meaning to look into steganography, looks like I can't go on putting that off.
posted by Zonker at 7:17 AM on May 18, 2008