I have been reading up on some Customs policies, and am quite disturbed. US Customs has a policy that allows Customs agents to seize and search anyone's computer's contents (anyone entering the US, [anchorlink="Article1"]1st[/anchorlink] and [anchorlink="Article2"]2nd article[/anchorlink]). It was explained to me that all Customs checkpoints are somehow classified as "international voids devoid of the laws of the land." How is this possible?

I want to know how did the US government and the people of the USA can allow such searches and seizures, which go against the 4th, 9th, and 10th Amendments. To deny Customs agents access to your personal data is to be denied access to the country, or just have your day ruined in any not-so fun manner. To be denied entry to the US, esp. if one is a citizen of the USA, I find to be cruel and unusual (5th Amendment). I say it is cruel and unusual because I have never heard of anyone being exiled from the USA.

What makes this form of search and seizure worse is that other countries are doing this as well. British Customs searches for pornography, and soon, American and Canadian boarder patrol could become "Copyright Police" to stop people with illegal content ([anchorlink="Article3"]3rd[/anchorlink] and [anchorlink="Article4"]4th article[/anchorlink]).

Now this has me outraged. I have legitimate reasons to have security measures on my computer. Cyberspace is not safe and there is little any government can do to protect the public, but make the public knowledgeable about how to stop it. I encrypt my hard drives to secure my data. I use encrypted password managers, and memorize nothing less than a 25 digit password (it isn't that hard with a mnemonic device). I even make it a pain for my friends to borrow my music! I use OGG Vorbis lossless WavPack images.

Everyone one of you should have the similar measures implemented. If you can make yourself a more difficult target to identity/data theft by using secure password manager and encrypted data programs, then you are much less likely of a target. I am not raising a stink about this because I have so much to hide. I don't download and I don't pirate. Of course I know how. You can probably guess that looking at my post in the Open Source/Freeware Thread thread. I know my rights in the USA. I know I am not subject to unjustified and unwanted searches and seizures by anyone unless they have got a well written piece of paper that says otherwise.

Someone like me is suspect to doing illegal things because I know and implement many security measures. This is so backwards from the Rights we have. For them to suspect me is like being suspect of a crime because one does not willingly give up one's 4th Amendment right. It seems we are just giving away our Rights with this mentality that, "I've got nothing to hide, and I don't want to be bothered." Yes it is a hassle, but we have these Rights, and goddamnit we are supposed to use them!

Now the [anchorlink="Article1"]1st article[/anchorlink] I have linked describes having hidden data partitions that are indistinguishable from random data. You can bet I have them. When I return to the US in a couple of months, you can guarantee I have my system still encrypted. I want to be as big of a dick, while respectful as possible, with these Customs agents so that they know I do not accept this search and seizure, and that I do not have to disclose information of a hidden partition. Otherwords, I want to say, "I neither confirm nor deny the existence of hidden drives on my system," but in not so clear of words (a phrase I can repeat over an over).

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   [anchor]Article1[/anchor] View: Taking your laptop into the US? Be sure to hide all your data first // Source: Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk) Abstract: "Last month a US court ruled that border agents can search your laptop, or any other electronic device, when you're entering the country. They can take your computer and download its entire contents, or keep it for several days."   click to show  Taking your laptop into the US? Be sure to hide all your data first Thursday May 15 2008 by Bruce Schneier Last month a US court ruled that border agents can search your laptop, or any other electronic device, when you're entering the country. They can take your computer and download its entire contents, or keep it for several days. Customs and Border Patrol has not published any rules regarding this practice, and I and others have written a letter to Congress urging it to investigate and regulate this practice. But the US is not alone. British customs agents search laptops for pornography. And there are reports on the internet of this sort of thing happening at other borders, too. You might not like it, but it's a fact. So how do you protect yourself? Encrypting your entire hard drive, something you should certainly do for security in case your computer is lost or stolen, won't work here. The border agent is likely to start this whole process with a "please type in your password". Of course you can refuse, but the agent can search you further, detain you longer, refuse you entry into the country and otherwise ruin your day. You're going to have to hide your data. Set a portion of your hard drive to be encrypted with a different key - even if you also encrypt your entire hard drive - and keep your sensitive data there. Lots of programs allow you to do this. I use PGP Disk (from pgp.com). TrueCrypt (truecrypt.org) is also good, and free. While customs agents might poke around on your laptop, they're unlikely to find the encrypted partition. (You can make the icon invisible, for some added protection.) And if they download the contents of your hard drive to examine later, you won't care. Be sure to choose a strong encryption password. Details are too complicated for a quick tip, but basically anything easy to remember is easy to guess. (My advice is at tinyurl.com/4f8z4n.) Unfortunately, this isn't a perfect solution. Your computer might have left a copy of the password on the disk somewhere, and (as I also describe at the above link) smart forensic software will find it. So your best defense is to clean up your laptop. A customs agent can't read what you don't have. You don't need five years' worth of email and client data. You don't need your old love letters and those photos (you know the ones I'm talking about). Delete everything you don't absolutely need. And use a secure file erasure program to do it. While you're at it, delete your browser's cookies, cache and browsing history. It's nobody's business what websites you've visited. And turn your computer off - don't just put it to sleep - before you go through customs; that deletes other things. Think of all this as the last thing to do before you stow your electronic devices for landing. Some companies now give their employees forensically clean laptops for travel, and have them download any sensitive data over a virtual private network once they've entered the country. They send any work back the same way, and delete everything again before crossing the border to go home. This is a good idea if you can do it. If you can't, consider putting your sensitive data on a USB drive or even a camera memory card: even 16GB cards are reasonably priced these days. Encrypt it, of course, because it's easy to lose something that small. Slip it in your pocket, and it's likely to remain unnoticed even if the customs agent pokes through your laptop. If someone does discover it, you can try saying: "I don't know what's on there. My boss told me to give it to the head of the New York office." If you've chosen a strong encryption password, you won't care if he confiscates it. Lastly, don't forget your phone and PDA. Customs agents can search those too: emails, your phone book, your calendar. Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do here except delete things. I know this all sounds like work, and that it's easier to just ignore everything here and hope you don't get searched. Today, the odds are in your favour. But new forensic tools are making automatic searches easier and easier, and the recent US court ruling is likely to embolden other countries. It's better to be safe than sorry. Bruce Schneier is a security technologist and author: schneier.com/blog This post created with FASS

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   [anchor]Article2[/anchor] View: Can US Customs Search & Seize Your Laptop Computer Without Cause? YES They Can! // Source: Associatedcontent (http://www.associatedcontent.com) Abstract: "Ninth Circuit Court Decides that US Customs and Border Patrol Agents Can Search & Seize Electronic Equipment Without Cause"   click to show  Can US Customs Search & Seize Your Laptop Computer Without Cause? YES They Can! Nov 11, 2006 by Judith Blakley Most people would blame September 11th for this shocking news, but it has very little to do with Homeland Security and everything to do with child pornography and almost nobody knows about it. On July 24, 2006, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided that US Customs and Border Patrol Officers had the right to search and seize a person’s laptop computer, computer discs and other electronic media. Nowhere has this information been broadcast. Millions of travelers know nothing about this ruling. Yet the word has begun to find its way out into public view. During the last week of October, 2006, an international conference of travel executives issued a warning, informing their members of this ruling and its implications. It was not until The Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) warned their members that under a new law, US Customs and Border Patrol Officers may search and seize a person’s laptop computer, computer discs and other electronic media when that person arrives in the US from abroad or departs from the US for a foreign country, that word finally got out. Business travelers are advised to be cautious when carrying proprietary information in and out of the United States. According to ACTE, 86 percent of those surveyed said that the court’s decision to allow Officers to examine, download and/or seize the contents of their laptops would limit the kind of proprietary information they would normally store in their laptops. Most ACTE members attending the conference in Spain had no prior knowledge of this new law. Why is this happening? On February 1, 2004, a man named Stuart Romm was caught with child pornography on his laptop computer. Stuart Romm flew from Las Vegas to British Columbia. Once in Canada, Border Services questioned Romm and learned he had a criminal background. An agent searched his laptop and found child porn sites in Romm’s internet history list. Canadian officials sent Romm to Seattle to be questioned by US Customs agents. This post created with FASS

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   [anchor]Article3[/anchor] View: Copyright deal could toughen rules governing info on iPods, computers // Source: Canada (http://www.canada.com) Abstract: "The federal government is secretly negotiating an agreement to revamp international copyright laws which could make the information on Canadian iPods, laptop computers or other personal electronic devices illegal and greatly increase the difficulty of travelling with such devices."   click to show  Copyright deal could toughen rules governing info on iPods, computers Monday, May 26, 2008 by Vito Pilieci , Canwest News Service OTTAWA - The federal government is secretly negotiating an agreement to revamp international copyright laws which could make the information on Canadian iPods, laptop computers or other personal electronic devices illegal and greatly increase the difficulty of travelling with such devices. The deal could also impose strict regulations on Internet service providers, forcing those companies to hand over customer information without a court order. Called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), the new plan would see Canada join other countries, including the United States and members of the European Union, to form an international coalition against copyright infringement. The agreement is being structured much like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) except it will create rules and regulations regarding private copying and copyright laws. Federal trade agreements do not require parliamentary approval. The deal would create a international regulator that could turn border guards and other public security personnel into copyright police. The security officials would be charged with checking laptops, iPods and even cellular phones for content that "infringes" on copyright laws, such as ripped CDs and movies. The guards would also be responsible for determining what is infringing content and what is not. The agreement proposes any content that may have been copied from a DVD or digital video recorder would be open for scrutiny by officials - even if the content was copied legally. "If Hollywood could order intellectual property laws for Christmas what would they look like? This is pretty close," said David Fewer, staff counsel at the University of Ottawa's Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic. "The process on ACTA so far has been cloak and dagger. This certainly raises concerns." The leaked ACTA document states officials should be given the "authority to take action against infringers (i.e., authority to act without complaint by rights holders)." Anyone found with infringing content in their possession would be open to a fine. They may also have their device confiscated or destroyed, according to the four-page document. The trade agreement includes "civil enforcement" measures which give security personnel the "authority to order ex parte searches" (without a lawyer present) "and other preliminary measures". In Canada, border guards already perform random searches of laptops at airports to check for child pornography. ACTA would expand the role of those guards. On top of these enforcement efforts, ACTA also proposes imposing new sanctions on Internet service providers. It would force them to hand over personal information pertaining to "claimed infringement" or "alleged infringers" - users who may be transmitting or sharing copyrighted content over the Internet. Currently, rights holders must collect evidence to prove someone is sharing copyrighted material over the Internet. That evidence is then presented to a judge who issues a court order telling the Internet service provider to identify the customer. The process can produce lengthy delays. It is expected the new agreement will be tabled at July's meeting of G8 nations in Tokyo, Japan. Fewer has been following the progress of ACTA and has exhausted every avenue at his disposal to gain insight into its details. He said Friday's leak of a "discussion paper" which outlines the priorities of the agreement is the first glimpse anyone has into ACTA. "We knew this existed, we filed an Access to Information request for this but all it provided us with was the title. All the rest of it was blacked out, " he said. "Those negotiations can take place behind closed doors. At the end of the day we may be provided with something that has been negotiated which is a `fait accompli' in which civil society gets no opportunity to critique it." Fewer expressed concerns about the part of the proposal that calls for ACTA to operate outside of accepted international forums such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) or the United Nations. In the discussion paper, it is proposed ACTA create its own governing body and be overseen by a committee made up of representatives from member nations. "This initiative is unprecedented," he said. The ACTA discussion paper was leaked online by Sunshine Media, the company that runs the Wikileaks.org website - a whistleblowing website created to help circulate secret documents. In October, International Trade Minister David Emerson announced Canada would participate in ACTA's creation. The initiative was originally aimed at stopping large-scale piracy, such as printing operations that make thousands of copies of movies that are still in theatres. "We are seeking to counter global piracy and counterfeiting more effectively," said Emerson at the time. "This government is working both at home and internationally to protect the intellectual property rights of Canadian artists, creators, inventors and investors." The new document is reported to be drafted by the Office of the United States Trade Representative. A spokeswoman with the office refused to comment on the leaked document and directed all questions about ACTA to a short information circular about the initiative. Michael Geist, Canada research chair of Internet and E-commerce law at the University of Ottawa and expert on Canadian copyright law, blasted the government for advancing ACTA with little public consultation. Geist said documents detailing ACTA's plans would not need to be leaked online if the process was open and transparent. "That's what happens when you conduct all of this behind closed doors," he said. "The lack of consultation, the secrecy behind it and the speculation that this will be concluded within a matter of months without any real public input is deeply troubling." Fewer and Geist said, once Canada signs the new trade agreement it will be next to impossible to back out of it. In a situation similar to what happened in the Softwood Lumber trade dispute, Canadians could face hefty penalties if it does not comply with ACTA after the agreement has been completed. The Department of International Trade did not respond to repeated requests for comment. This post created with FASS

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   [anchor]Article4[/anchor] View: Border Security to Become Copyright Police? // Source: Popsci (http://www.popsci.com) Abstract: "A proposed trade agreement could authorize border agents to search the contents of laptops and iPods for copyrighted material"   click to show  Border Security to Become Copyright Police? 05.30.2008 at 11:49 am by Matt Ransford As if the security in airports and controls at border crossings weren't slow and intrusive enough, governments around the world are quietly passing laws to allow them to search the contents of your laptop and other electronic devices, like iPods and cellphones. A United States court last month gave border agents carte blanche to hold a laptop for days and even copy its entire contents. The UK government has given its agents authority to search computers at its borders for pornography. But in what may be the most baffling and cumbersome move of all, the US, Canada, UK, and other EU nations are working behind closed doors on a new trade agreement which could turn border agents into the copyright police. A four-page draft document [PDF] proposing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) was leaked to the press this week which show plans for the creation of an international copyright regulator with its enforcement arm as each nation's border patrols. Guards and security personnel would be authorized to search electronic devices for any content that "infringes" on copyright laws, whether the copies are from legally purchased CDs or DVDs or not, and decide on the spot which content is infringing. The officials would be given authority to take action without any formalized complaint from the rights holders and without a lawyer present on behalf of the accused. The draft allows for the confiscation or destruction of any device the agents deem suspect. The ACTA specifically calls for the coalition to operate outside the WTO and UN by forming its own governing body overseen by member nations. While the document is still in draft form, there is little reason to believe the actual agreement won't follow the draft's recommendations. Without public scrutiny or comment, the member states will have no impetus for transparency. This post created with FASS