DHS Can Now Seize Laptops Indefinitely

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

A pair of new policies devised by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last month, and noted by the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) assert that border agents can now (emphasis mine):

In the course of a border search, and absent individualized suspicion, officers can review and analyze the information transported by any individual attempting to enter, reenter, depart, pass through, or reside in the United States, subject to the requirements and limitations provided herein.

and

To that end, ICE Special Agents may review documents, books, pamphlets, and other printed material, as well as computers, disks, hard drives, and other electronic or digital storage devices.

The policies are outlined in these .PDFs (1, 2)

Now, the worst part of these practices are that, as cited by the CDT, the period of time that the DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents could hold your beloved laptop is indefinite.

Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) said “The policies . . . are truly alarming.” At the same time he said he was planning to introduce legislation (soon) that would require reasonable suspicion for border searches.

Of course, some will say that if you have nothing to hide, why care? It’s just another step in the direction of no privacy rights at all, that’s why.

As far as encrypting your hard drive, as some have suggested, it is notable that in the case of Sebastien Boucher, a judge has already been ruled that he couldn’t be forced to reveal the password required to provide access to the encrypted hard drive.

Who knows if this will be overturned in the future, however.

Additionally, since they can keep the laptop as long as they want, what’s to prevent DHS from keeping it until they run as many decryption attempts as they want (say, years)?

On the other hand, DHS, what’s to prevent someone from coming up with some sort of electronic means of transporting data across the world, like a series of tubes, perhaps? Oh, wait … that’s been done.