Privacy vs Border Security

Today we reexamine and update a previous blog posting concerned with you privacy while travelling. A recent article presented by istockanalyst.com discusses how laptop searches cross the line between privacy and security.

Jawad Khaki was returning home from a business trip when he was stopped by customs. Khaki, a corporate executive, told customs everything he had done and everywhere he went. He was then asked to turn on his cellphone, which customs took from him and searched. Customs checked his to-do list and his calender.

This is just one story of the line between privacy and security that is being crossed by customs agents. Does the search and seizure of laptops, cellphones, and PDAs cross the line?

The main question being presented, in both this article and my previous blog post, "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?" Advocacy groups are concerned with the misuse of information and say they have not gotten any clear answers when posing these questions to the Department of Homeland Security. Two groups have actually filed a lawsuit so they can get that information from Homeland Security.

I understand that sometimes it is necessary to conduct these searches to protect our national security...I am not referring to the time where it does compromise national security, but instead the times where a businessman is travelling and is extensively searched above and beyond what is reasonable. Customs and Border Patrol spokeswoman said that, "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." I do appreciate that, but it needs to be made into official policy.

CBP is using the same reasoning behind checking luggage to check laptops. No reason or probable cause is needed to be searched by customs. There needs to be a distinction between the two. Laptops carry sensitive and personal information, especially if it being used for business travel. The data found on there is an "extension of a person's professional and personal identity." The main difference between the search of luggage and the search of a computer, which is also pointed out in the article, is that the luggage can be returned easily...but do you know what has been downloaded and copied off your laptop?

Tough situation...