21–26 of 26 posts
All the people posting "I've never been stopped" are just saying "I have not been selected".
Perhaps ask yourself the better question, "is it likely I have been selected?"
I have taken my Thinkpad through a couple of times and it has had FreeBSD or Debian + LUKS on it. Most of the time the people that have problems are arrogant. I see people trying to lecture agents and other oneupman-ship, you win nothing from this. If you are polite, and maybe even act a bit clueless no one will bother you.
The chance of them making trouble is small, but I would try to implement some measure others suggested just in case (having a Windows dual-boot or something).
If you have something that is perfectly legal where you are, but illegal where you are going, you have not broken the law where you are going if you don't take the illegal thing with you. If you do take it, and you DON'T get away with crossing with it, the very best you can hope for is that you won't be jailed. Instead, you can expect to have your computer seized and destroyed, yourself deported and legally barred from ever returning to that country. Oh, and kiss your airfare goodbye, too. Or, all those unpleasant things could happen to you AFTER you spend a period of time in jail.
Not sure whether something really is illegal in the US, best advice is to ask a US lawyer. Second best is to ask a lawyer in your country who is knowledgeable in US law. Third best might be the US Consulate in your country. You can always ask HN, but in that case you get what you get and most of us are not lawyers.
Good luck in your travels, have a great time at the math program, and try real hard not to wind up in Gitmo.
Having said that: your rights to privacy are basically at their nadir in this situation: you're opting into air travel, which gives the US administrative search privileges; you're crossing borders, which virtually every country in the world believes gives them the sovereign right to invade your privacy as a condition of entrance; you're interacting with customs, whose job it is to find reasons to hassle people.
So: not the craziest idea in the world to take your sensitive stuff, put it on a USB drive, encrypt that, and just Fedex it to wherever you're going.
You won't need to go through that trouble, but it might make you feel better, and it's cheap insurance.