Becca Jane St Clair

Personal Blog

Important News for Laptop Travelers

The Department of Homeland Security announced today that they can now search an international traveler’s laptop without reasonable suspicion. This includes US Citizens re-entering the country from abroad. Not only can they confiscate your laptop for months on end, but they also can share the contents of your laptop with other departments. There’s an article on Engadget with some comments including ways you can keep your data secure.

My advice would be that if you do have sensitive and confidential material on your hard drive, you should remove it and possibly store it on a secure online server where you would be able to download it once you reach your destination.

Just another example of why I’d love to move out of this country.

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3 comments

3 Comments so far

  1. falnfenix August 1st, 2008 13:24

    yeah, the whole thing about laptops is pretty ridiculous. the only other thought that i have is take the hard drive out and ship it home before you reenter the country…but then, what happens if customs snitches it?

    argh. socialist countries suck. it sucks even more that it appears we’re living in one.

  2. marie August 20th, 2008 14:47

    Hi Rebecca, glad you are enjoying your stay in Ca, more later, Marie

  3. marie August 20th, 2008 14:48

    Hi, enjoy your stay, Marie

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