Scanning Laptops at the Border | Threat Level from Wired.com

(((This is one of those legal decisions that make perfectly coherent sense in a legal brief, and have real-world implications that can spiral wildly out of control. For instance, suppose that border agents from Upper Slobovia henceforth decide to scan and archive the contents of all US defense contractors, or Iraqi border guards archive the laptops of all Exxon-Mobil employees... "Oh but they wouldn't do that." Means, motives and opportunities, folks.)))

(((Now imagine you are a global business executive –
Indo-global, Sino-global, Franco-global... and besides doing your thumbs and retinas, the friendly Americans also make your laptop vanish into a back room and then return it all smiles. Do you want to do any business with a regime like that? How crazy are you, exactly?)))

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/04/border-agents-c.html

Link: Border Agents Can Search Laptops Without Cause, Appeals Court Rules | Threat Level from Wired.com.

"Federal agents at the border do not need any reason to search through travelers' laptops, cell phones or digital cameras for evidence of crimes, a federal appeals court ruled Monday, extending the government's power to look through belongings like suitcases at the border to electronics.

"The unanimous three-judge decision reverses a lower court finding that digital devices were "an extension of our own memory" and thus too personal to allow the government to search them without cause. Instead, the earlier ruling said, Customs agents would need some reasonable and articulable suspicion a crime had occurred in order to search a traveler's laptop.

"On appeal, the government argued that was too high a standard, infringing upon its right to keep the country safe and enforce laws. Civil rights groups, joined by business traveler groups, weighed in, defending the lower court ruling.

"The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the government, finding that the so-called border exception to the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unreasonable searches applied not just to suitcases and papers, but also to electronics..."