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Travel Referendums: Keeping Your Laptop and Data Secure

October 20, 2008 at 4:30 PM | by | Comments (0)

This November 4 is about more than just deciding between McCain and Obama. Other issues that directly affect travelers are up for decision, and this week we're taking a closer look at some of them.

While customs agents have long had the authority to search the luggage of passengers arriving in the United States without cause, recent court decisions have asserted that border officials can also rifle through any electronics carried into an international airport. Password protected laptop? They'll make you enter your password--or crack it for you while you miss your connecting flight.

Travel writer Christopher Elliott thinks that's a breech of the Fourth Amendment, and while the courts so far don't agree, at least four Democrats do.

Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin introduced a bill in September:

To protect citizens and legal residents of the United States from unreasonable searches and seizures of electronic equipment at the border.

With the support of fellow Democrats Daniel Akaka, Maria Cantwell and Ron Wyden, Feingold finds that:

Requiring citizens and other legal residents of the United States to submit to a government review and analysis of thousands of pages of their most personal information without any suspicion of wrongdoing is incompatible with the values of liberty and personal freedom on which the United States was founded.

The so-called Travelers' Privacy Protection Act of 2008 is now with the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which is chaired by Republican National Convention gatecrasher Joe Lieberman and counts Obama as a member. Susan Collins is the ranking Republican member.

While passing this bill wouldn't necessarily stop warrantless searches by customs officials, it could presumably forced another judicial review of the practice.

In the House, two similar bills were introduced in the second session of the 110th Congress: Rep. Eliot Engel and 11 co-sponsors put forth HR 6702, while Rep. Zoe Lofgren put forward HR 6588. Both were designed to restrict the search of digital devices at the border, though both are in committee, with no further meetings of the House scheduled for this session.

Related Stories:
· Senate Bill S.3612 [Library of Congress]
· Security Guide to Customs-Proofing Your Laptop [Cnet]
· HR.6588 [Library of Congress]
· HR.6702 [Library of Congress]

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