Court Approves Airport Laptop Searches - No Probable Cause N

[JerryNumbers]

Court Approves Airport Laptop Searches - No Probable Cause Needed

http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/arch ... =nl_spxblg

So now customs can search your laptop, your cell phone, MP3 players, digital cameras and other electronic equipment at will.

[HappyChristian]

Hmmm....two minds to this. I like privacy - but border searches have always held the right to do this type of thing (hence their original search of this guy's laptop) because of the fact that people are bringing something into the country. Too bad they aren't a little more selective about the people who are allowed in...

[JerryNumbers]

Hmmm....two minds to this. I like privacy - but border searches have always held the right to do this type of thing (hence their original search of this guy's laptop) because of the fact that people are bringing something into the country. Too bad they aren't a little more selective about the people who are allowed in...

Next thing we know, they will have something to plug into our brain and run a scan on it to see what we have stored in it.

[HappyChristian]

Next thing we know, they will have something to plug into our brain and run a scan on it to see what we have stored in it.

You know, I do believe there is something like that in the works!

[SweetCharity]

I don't know, maybe I'm weird, but this sort of thing doesn't bother me at all. If they want to search my laptop or cell phone they can go right ahead. All they will find are text messages to my husband on my cell phone and old college papers, a work resume, a budget, and a cooking/cleaning schedule on my laptop. It doesn't bother me if some random person I will probably never see again sees this.

Maybe I'm just weird, who knows.

[JerryNumbers]

It bothers me. I recall several years ago, 1977, a friend and I had gone to Texarkana after work to get an auto part for my car. We got it and stopped by a hamburger place and ate them came right back. On the way back a State Policeman pulled us over. He thought we were drinking and brining back beer and stuff into a dry country.

He searched my car from one end to the other, but found nothing. He finally gave up, I know you've got it, I know both of you are drinking, but I can't find it.

The truth was we had not been drinking, we had none, we did not even want any.

But, with our freedoms slowly eroding away, people in high places of authority will be able to search anyone any where for any reason, even their own personal reason to get information of any kind to use for their own personal gain.

I'm all for catching the outlaws, but I'm totally against a police force who has not restraints, that is where we are headed.

I might add, after the fact I wish I had told the State Policeman that he could not search my car that day, them watched him tear my car apart finding nothing. But they can intimidate you, and if you resit in anyway, some of them can trump up charges against you and keep right on doing it every time they see you drive by. The courts are very good about taking their word over the one whom they have stopped.

[HappyChristian]

What happened to you, Jerry, was an illegal search. That is out and out wrong. With the border thing, though, it's always been a hazy thing. Is it giving up freedom to go along with it? Or is it safety procedures. As I mentioned, it's always been done. Just now that someone has been caught with bad stuff on his computer, he is suing, probably hoping to get off or maybe write a book, who knows. Again - I am kinda torn. I don't like it, but at the same time, in this climate, it might be necessary (at the country borders...as people come into our country). KWIM?

[Marcus2Israel]

"A man who gives up freedom for security will have neither." (paraphrase) I believe that statement to be 100% true.

[HappyChristian]

Noone is giving up freedom in this case. It has always been the custom of customs to search anything they felt they needed to search. This isn't about America citizens giving up their freedoms. It is about people coming into this country, and the customs agents making sure problems aren't coming in with them. I'll bet you wouldn't have even known they do this if the guy weren't suing because he got caught. And you would never know you "gave up" freedom...because it wasn't really given up.

[Marcus2Israel]

I dont like the idea of people being able to search you without any reason. No matter who you are.

[John81]

American citizens should expect a large measure of freedom and privacy.

Today they have x-ray machines in many airports, and elsewhere, that basically give the screeners a view of your naked body. These x-ray machine images are so revealing they can't even show them on TV! That's an invasion of privacy.

As American citizens we are to be viewed as innocent and not treated as criminals. Unwarrented searches and other invasions of privacy are disrespectful and go directly against the founding principles of this country.

[282Mikado]

Searching the contents of a laptop should be illegal unless there is a warrant. Laptops are a personal extension of ones thoughts and personal business. There is nothing on a laptop that can be a detriment to the safety of the people flying in that plane and that is what airport security is there to ensure, is it not? I can see turning a laptop on to see that it boots like a computer should. This can help verify that it is a PC and not a bomb, but looking through files does NOTHING to enhance the security of the airlines.

This is just another chip taken out of our personal freedom in the guise of our protection.

[Danny Carlton]

Anything personal on a laptop could be stored in an alternate place (jump drive, or encoded online) which wouldn't necessarily be searched. I have a 2Gig Micro SD card that's the size of a fingernail. Good luck finding that on me if I don't want you to. They make those cards up to 8gig. Just leave boring stuff on your laptop and put any personal stuff on removable media and put it somewhere they won't search.

[John81]

The point is that they should not be searching ones laptop.

[282Mikado]

Anything personal on a laptop could be stored in an alternate place (jump drive' date=' or encoded online) which wouldn't necessarily be searched. I have a 2Gig Micro SD card that's the size of a fingernail. Good luck finding that on me if I don't want you to. They make those cards up to 8gig. Just leave boring stuff on your laptop and put any personal stuff on removable media and put it somewhere they won't search.[/quote']

I'm sorry, I travel a lot for work and don't want to feel like I'm going through a Nazi checkpoint every time I go to an airport. There is nothing anyone can store on their laptop that can compromise a flight. This is nothing more than an unnecessary invasion of privacy.

Also, once started here you can be sure it will be adopted in other countries who may not be so "nice". Panama, for one, charges U.S. citizens a customs fee every time you land there. Why? Because we charge one here (as expalined by the person at the customs desk). No other country has to pay it. Don't be surprised if you start seeing some quid pro quo for these searches in other countries.