Laptops to now be taken by FBI for as long as needed in USA

[Wesley]

It seems the new way we interpret the constitution now days has gone so far that if when leaving the country or coming in they can now take your laptop for as long as they need to determine if you have anything illegal on the machine. I guess it is to look for terrorist. I assume an underage picture of a boy would get you just as busted as plans to bomb the post office.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/01/lapt ... thout-cau/ (http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/01/laptops-can-be-confiscated-and-searched-at-us-border-without-cau/)


Wes

[Smiles]

Not worth the aggravation, hassle, bureaucratic minds, and possible missing of flights (they don't give a shit).
I'm buying a laptop in Thailand and leaving it there. All my Important Stuff is on Google Docs anyway, including my internet Favourites list.

The most pornographic photo I have in My Pictures is this one:


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v18/sawatdeephotos/Personal/legs.jpg

( Deleted from a Ting Tong thread as the owner ~ not me! ~ was not amused :blackeye: )


I doubt it's enough to get me interrogated as a member of the terrorist Bear Fraternity.


Cheers ...

[ceejay]

I've never had any trouble getting back into the UK with a laptop. I have an Asus Eee ultra portable - very basic, but it will make wireless connections, get on the net, send/receive emails, take photos off a camera, accesses messenger services and make Skype calls so it does all you need. About the size of an average hardback book, and under a kilo, so very portable - ideal for travelling. It also has a solid state drive, instead of a hard drive, so it is shock proof and durable. Costs ┬г200 - ┬г300, so its not a disaster if you lose it.

But - to get to the point :blackeye: two things you can use if you don't want to take a laptop with you:

A U3 drive:
http://www.u3.com/
It gives you some protection against keyloggers, etc. if you have to use an internet cafe for something confidential. Has the advantage of leaving no traces behind: no cache or other temp files on the host computer. I've used U3 and it works. It's cheap - you can get a basic one for a few pounds.

For real security, Iron Key:
https://www.ironkey.com/
If you buy the annual subscription to their secure surfing service, you are in effect carrying a secure VPN around with you that you can use from anywhere. Costs a lot more - ┬г47 from dabs.com for a 1GB one with a year's secure browsing. I have never used Iron Key - but I am thinking of getting one.

OK, you will still have a memory stick to take through customs - but, if you are taking a camera with you, you will probably have a few memory cards, USB sticks etc. with you anyway. I guess without an actual puter, you are less likely to get stopped, and if you don't store any files on a stick like this, then it won't take that long to go through the contents with the snoopers.

This was the subject of a thread ( http://www.sawatdee-gay-thailand.com/fo ... 13984.html (http://www.sawatdee-gay-thailand.com/forum/getting-your-laptop-searched-by-us-customs-t13984.html) ) started by me some time ago - with a link to the the legal position - - http://www.pcworld.com/article/142429/f ... rches.html (http://www.pcworld.com/article/142429/five_things_to_know_about_us_border_laptop_searche s.html)

[Wesley]

link no longer works or would not for me on high speed wireless,,,,,it finally loaded not sure why it was so slow

[Wesley]

Gosh smiles that was so sick it had to be porn of some sort

It's the attitude of the Bush administartion that's really disturbing.

Here's another link to the same old news ...

news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10004646-38.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20


Homeland Security: We can seize laptops for an indefinite period

This was news about a month ago from the Guardian somewhere in here.