Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches
1–10 of 59 posts
Re: Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches
#2I guess you need to make sure all your backups are in order before crossing the border.
Re: Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches
#3I guess you need to make sure all your backups are in order before crossing the border.
I guess you need to make sure your devices are wiped or left at home.
A backup just means you have your own copy of what just got taken off you at the border for no good lawful reason.
Having my own copy would not reassure me of much.
Re: Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches
#4I guess you need to make sure all your backups are in order before crossing the border.
I guess you need to make sure your devices are wiped or left at home. A backup just means you have your own copy of what just got taken off you at the border for no good lawful reason. Having my own copy would not reassure me of much.
Moxie Marlinespike of WhisperNet has explicitly said that he leaves his devices at home when traveling because of this.
Re: Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches
#5Is the best strategy here to leave your devices at home and just bring a burner phone on holiday or other travels and no other devices?
It's strange as an ordinary citizen who might choose to contribute to someone like Manning's defence fund, or post statements supportive of Snowden online, to have to consider that GCHQ or the Homeland Security might put your name on a list for questioning and confiscation at the border, requiring drastic action like this.
Given the abuse of them in many countries including the US and UK (which was inevitable), I can't see any case for these powers of arbitrary detainment and confiscation to be given to the police in any country.
Re: Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches
#6EFF guide to defending your privacy at border crossings:
https://www.eff.org/wp/defending-privacy-us-border-guide-tra...
Re: Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches
#7I guess you need to make sure all your backups are in order before crossing the border.
I guess you need to make sure your devices are wiped or left at home. A backup just means you have your own copy of what just got taken off you at the border for no good lawful reason. Having my own copy would not reassure me of much.
Or make sure that they have full-disk encryption and are cold shutdown when you cross the border.
While jurisprudence is still a bit fuzzy on this (it has flipped back and forth on a few appeals in a few separate cases, and never been conclusively decided by the Supreme Court), there have been ruling upholding the fact that you can't be forced to hand over your password due to the fifth amendment, unless the Government can already show that they know via other means that you have incriminating files on there.[1]
On the border, you would probably be safe from mandatory disclosure of your password without the border patrol getting a court order, and of course the whole point of this complaint is that the government is using border crossing as an end-run around the courts, being able to do searches that a court wouldn't otherwise approve.
So, using full-disk encryption that you trust, on all electronic devices that you carry, and making sure that they are cold shutdown, is probably sufficient. You should of course have a backup as well, as the border patrol may impound your devices while they try to decrypt them.
All in all, how much effort we have to do to defend ourselves from our own government is getting ridiculous. I don't know how to convince the American public of this, but we are not only violating the privacy of tons of people, but killing people who choose to drive rather than fly[2] due to the excess hassle that our "security" systems provide.
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_disclosure_law#United_Stat... 2: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/09/excess_automo...
Re: Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches
#8Is the best strategy here to leave your devices at home and just bring a burner phone on holiday or other travels and no other devices? It's strange as an ordinary citizen who might choose to contribute to someone like Manning's defence fund, or post statements supportive of Snowden online, to have to consider that GCHQ or the Homeland Security might put your name on a list for questioning and confiscation at the bor…
I leave mine behind whenever I travel outside the US, not so much because I am afraid to be on a list (although after reading this article, that fear has risen somewhat) but because I employ encryption on my laptop. If they do search my device for anything illegal, they will inevitably ask for my password, which I don't want to give for philosophical reasons. Then it's pretty much guaranteed that I'll be detained and/or my laptop will be taken.
You are right that, as a US citizen, this is a very strange revelation to have when packing for an overseas trip. Personally, this very real possibility opened my eyes on just how far we've fallen.
Re: Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches
#9Would this only apply to files that are physically on the hard drive or would this also mean they may have access to connected cloud storage accounts like Dropbox or iCloud?
Re: Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches
#10Is the best strategy here to leave your devices at home and just bring a burner phone on holiday or other travels and no other devices? It's strange as an ordinary citizen who might choose to contribute to someone like Manning's defence fund, or post statements supportive of Snowden online, to have to consider that GCHQ or the Homeland Security might put your name on a list for questioning and confiscation at the bor…
I leave mine behind whenever I travel outside the US, not so much because I am afraid to be on a list (although after reading this article, that fear has risen somewhat) but because I employ encryption on my laptop. If they do search my device for anything illegal, they will inevitably ask for my password, which I don't want to give for philosophical reasons. Then it's pretty much guaranteed that I'll be detained and…
"I don't remember my password."