"No, really. It's no trouble. I've got my password right here, OK?"

EFF has spent years complaining that DHS's policy for searching laptops at the border is uncivilized.  Luckily, the new Administration wasn't too impressed with the complaints. It made some minimal changes and left the rest of the policy in place. 

As for those who think DHS's policies are the scraping the bottom of the civil liberties barrel, well, sometimes you have to leave the country to appreciate it. 

According to Engadget, one American crossing the border at Jerusalem got a laptop search to remember -- and a souvenir to remember it by.  As Engadget reports,

Young American woman travels over to Jerusalem to meet some friends, see the sights, live the life. Overzealous border security officers ask her a bunch of questions, take issue with her answers, and a few well-placed bullets later she is allowed entry into the country with a somewhat altered MacBook in tow.

Photo: Lilly Sussman

Comments

[Infinity]

I have to wonder whether DHS’s policy for searching laptops at the border has ever produced actionable intelligence. Wouldn’t any terrorist capable of causing real harm know enough NOT to take sensitive information through the border on digital media? Wouldn’t they simply retrieve it from secure storage on the net AFTER crossing the border?

[Stewart Baker]

Short answer? No, they don't.