Critics Say Laptop Searches Cross the Line
VTR
Wednesday 23 July 2008
by: Janet I. Tu, The Seattle Times
In Blaine, Washington, a customs officer searches a truck before it crosses the border into
Canada. Currently, border agents can seize travelers' laptops during searches. (Photo: The
Christian Science Monitor)
Diverse groups, including Muslim associations, law firms and corporate and technology
organizations, increasingly are concerned about the search and seizure of laptops and other
electronic devices at borders, saying such scrutiny raises privacy issues and could compromise
lawyer-client privilege and corporate confidentiality.
Jawad Khaki, a corporate executive from Sammamish, was returning home from a business trip
to Ireland and Germany last year when a customs agent at the airport asked him to turn on his
cellphone.
He already had told the agent in detail where he had traveled and why, so when the agent
began looking over the to-do list and calendar in his phone, Khaki was shocked.
"It was an invasion of privacy," he said. "I thought it was going too far."
Khaki's story joins what seem to be growing numbers of similar reports from people - many
of them Muslims or of Middle Eastern or South Asian descent - who say that their laptops,
cellphones or other electronic devices were searched or seized at airports or U.S. border
crossings, and that they've been questioned extensively.
The heightened scrutiny is prompting concern and raising questions among a diverse array
of groups, from Muslim associations to law firms, corporate groups and technology organizations.
Among their questions: What if a traveler's laptop includes corporate secrets, a lawyer's
confidential documents, a journalist's notes from a protected source, or personal financial and
medical information?
Some advocacy organizations say they've asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security how
often such searches or seizures take place, who gets selected, what the government does with
any copied data, who has access to it, what safeguards are in place, and how the data is stored
and eventually destroyed.
But so far, the organizations say, they haven't gotten clear answers. Meanwhile, two
groups have filed a lawsuit to get that information, and some businesses are taking a variety
of steps to minimize their risks.
Even Congress has gotten involved, holding a hearing last month on the subject of "Laptop
Searches and Other Violations of Privacy Faced by Americans Returning from Overseas Travel."
"This has the potential for a chilling effect," said Ken Myer, president and CEO of the
Washington Technology Industry Association, which represents about 1,000 companies in this
state. "If you look at a laptop that is carrying trademarks, confidential information, ... what
kind of liability does that present to the company?"
Inspection Limits Sought
Officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which is part of the Department of
Homeland Security, say their officers follow strict guidelines to safeguard confidential and
personal information, and that their ability to conduct such searches is crucial to keeping the
nation safe.
The department doesn't keep seized electronics unless it suspects wrongdoing, and any U.S.
citizen's information that's copied is kept only if it's relevant for criminal or
national-security investigations, said a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman, Lynn Hollinger.
Federal law and the courts have long regarded searches of vehicles, luggage and materials
at borders as routine, meaning agents don't first need reasonable suspicion or warrants.
In April, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that customs officials may inspect
laptops and other personal electronic-storage devices without suspicion. The ruling was similar
to a 2005 decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
But as more and more travelers carry laptops and other electronics with them, various
organizations are urging Congress to place limits on the inspection of such devices.
Susan Gurley, executive director of the Alexandria, Va.-based Association of Corporate
Travel Executives, contends that laptops aren't the same as luggage because laptops typically
carry far more information and the contents may be confidential or highly personal. They are an
extension of a person's professional and personal identity, she said.
"When your luggage is looked at, you get your luggage and all your clothes back. The
difference with a computer," she said, "is that you don't know if all the information that has
been downloaded has been returned."
"Not a Random Search"
In addition to seeing his cellphone searched last year, Khaki said he's been questioned
extensively by customs or border agents each of the eight times he returned to the U.S. from
abroad in the past year.
They've asked about mosques he's attended, birth dates of relatives and whom he met with
on his travels.
Jameel Hyder, a manager at a technology company who lives in Sammamish, says he also has
been stopped each of the five times he returned to the U.S. from various trips over the past
two years.
On his return from a business trip last November, customs agents asked him to boot up his
laptop so they could look through his photos and asked him questions about which mosque he
attended and activities he's involved in.
"The one thing that's pretty obvious is it's not a random search," Hyder said.
A Seattle-area imam, or Muslim prayer leader, said he, too, was asked to turn on his
laptop to show photos to customs agents when he returned home last summer.
The imam, who asked that his name not be used because he did not want to draw additional
attention, also said he was asked to fill out a form asking which organizations he's involved
in and what he thought of U.S. foreign policy.
Khaki, Hyder and the imam are all U.S. citizens.
Michael Milne, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection in Seattle, said he knows of
no such form and that asking travelers their views on foreign policy is "certainly not
something we would do on a routine basis."
Nor do agents focus on travelers because of their religion or ethnicity, he said.
In written testimony for last month's Senate subcommittee hearing, Customs and Border
Protection deputy commissioner Jayson Ahern said searches of electronics have led to the
arrests of people possessing child pornography. Agents also have found data about nuclear
material and explosives that have helped them remove dangerous people from the U.S. or kept
them from coming in.
Treating data stored on electronic devices differently from documents carried in luggage
"would provide a great advantage to terrorists and others who seek to do us harm," Ahern said.
Legal Actions in Works
Two organizations - the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Asian Law Caucus - together
filed a lawsuit earlier this year to determine the scope of such searches, saying at the time
that the Department of Homeland Security had not responded to previous requests for records.
In the meantime, some businesses already have taken precautions.
Locally, the law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine is encouraging its attorneys to minimize
the confidential documents they take on electronic devices when traveling across borders.
For lawyers and their clients, a big concern is whether they may be waiving
attorney-client privilege by allowing officers to view their laptop contents.
But if they refuse permission, they run the risk of their laptop being confiscated, said
Randy Gainer, a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine. "You're on the horns of a dilemma."
A spokeswoman for Boeing said the company has long been concerned about employees
traveling with company information in their laptops and that it offers them "clean" laptops
with no more information than they need on business trips.
Microsoft and Starbucks declined to comment on the issue.
U.S. Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., who convened the Senate subcommittee hearing, is
considering legislation to require reasonable suspicion for border electronics searches; to let
the public know what rules are in place for copied data; and to ensure that racial, religious
or ethnic profiling doesn't occur.
"While there is disturbing evidence that Muslim and Arab Americans are being targeted for
these searches," Feingold said, "no one is exempt."
http://www.truthout.org/article/privacy-vs-border-security-critics-say-laptop-searches-cross-line
lorad
> Critics Say Laptop Searches Cross the Line
>
> Wednesday 23 July 2008
> by: Janet I. Tu, The Seattle Times
>
> In Blaine, Washington, a customs officer searches a truck before it crosses the border into
> Canada. Currently, border agents can seize travelers' laptops during searches.
Maybe it's just me or sumptin..
But doesn't such behavior constitute violation of the Constitutional
prohibition against "Unwarranted Search and Siezure"?
MB
"lorad" <lora...@cs.com> wrote in message
news:f4deb1d2-fd20-4375...@1g2000pre.googlegroups.com...
Lorad,
That's the least of your worries, I was stripped searched after complaining
about being searched six times at the same airport. My bag made it home
before I did for once. Paying for a ticket in cash automatically steps up
your security risk, even if you are going to your sisters
funeral.........Gotta love the customer service at Contiental Airlines!
customs officers don't play by the same rules your taking techonolgy out of
the country.
MB