Laptops give up their secrets to U.S. customs agents

[drwong]

Originally posted by The New York Times by Joe Sharkey - October 24@ 2006


NEW YORK A lot of business travelers are walking around with laptops that contain private corporate information that their employers really do not want outsiders to see.

Until recently, their biggest concern was that someone might steal the laptop. But now there's a new worry - that the laptop will be seized or its contents scrutinized at U.S. customs and immigration checkpoints upon entering the United States from abroad.

Although much of the evidence for the confiscations remains anecdotal, it's a hot topic this week among more than a thousand corporate travel managers and travel industry officials meeting in Barcelona at a conference of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives.

Last week, an informal survey by the association, which has about 2,500 members worldwide, indicated that almost 90 percent of its members were not aware that customs officials have the authority to scrutinize the contents of travelers' laptops and even confiscate laptops for a period of time, without giving a reason.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/24/business/laptop.php

[Edited to put quoted copyrighted material in quote box]

[REDJIM]

So...

Instead of the employee stressing about the remote chance that his/her company laptop might be impounded... How 'bout these multi-nationals who are salivating at the thought of one world government, being held responsible, by their stockholders, for protecting company proprietary info on any laptop that crosses any border?

This ain't about the security for a carrier/user of a company-issued laptop, this is about sovereignty, nation to nation.

If the multi-nationals want to play ball with the one-worlders, then they should be prepared to lose at the game of "secrets theft" and bribery.

Bottom line, if I'm carrying a laptop containing my company's proprietary info, and some uniformed and government-sanctioned goon in a foreign or domestic airport wants to impound it, so be it. Not my problem!!!!!!!!!!! Just give me a receipt for the seizure.:lol:

[Ned]

This ain't about the security for a carrier/user of a company-issued laptop, this is about sovereignty, nation to nation.
RJ, I take my laptop computer with all over the world. It's how I stay in communication with my home, my father, and my clients. It's a constant tool for me so I can help my clients when I'm away. I could never take a vacation being an independent consultant without it. I'll be put out of business if my client's private information is compromised by the Fed.

I keep my travel diary, meeting notes, my photos, etc. on the computer.

This has nothing to do with security, nothing to do with sovereignty, and everything to do with an administration completely out of control. Randomly confiscating laptops of US citizens at the border for no particular reason and then taken weeks, months, or more than a year to return it is outrageous. It's an invasion of privacy and it doesn't make us safer or more secure.

I've quoted this before and it holds true here. Benjamin Franklin said, "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security."

[CraigTPE]

Ned is right, it's not about security. The Immigration and Customs inspections are not so much about security but about preventing people and things the US doesn't want from entering the country. Immigration is checking to see if you have a criminal history and Customs is checking for contraband. You might have smut on your laptop that they would be interested in.

[Ships 'N' Trips Travel]

You might have smut on your laptop that they would be interested in.
Interested in, yes. But interested in stopping it from entering the country? Maybe not. ;)