posted by Kyle on Aug 2
As someone who travels internationally with great frequency, I was disturbed (but not surprised) to learn of an official policy at the Department of Homeland Security that allows this wretched entity to conduct electronic searches with no evidence of suspicion. They may seize laptops, cell phones, PDAs and the like, without evidence, and keep them for months or even longer, until they see fit to return them.
Federal agents may take a traveler’s laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.
Also, officials may share copies of the laptop’s contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Other reasons? What other reasons? As written, the policy is a blank check to allow these thugs to do anything they want. It is downright creepy.
Even creepier is the fact that the higher-ups defend their practices as necessary to keep us safe. I don’t know if they actually believe that, but I sure as hell don’t. The US Government is far more dangerous than Al-Qaeda!
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