Laptops are fair game for border searches

[photon]

Trucrypt does have a feature where you can have two different encrypted drives, each one protected by a different password. The first password is to an encrypted volume which looks encrypted (i.e. if you looked at the bytes you could tell there was structure, as with most actual data), and there you would place decoy files. Then if you enter a different password, it will mount a different encrypted volume, and this is written such a way that it is statistically no different than random bytes on an unused disk... undetectable (in and of itself anyway, there are many other things that can be done forensically to detect such a hidden volume not related to the volume itself).

I just don't like that they have pretty broad powers but little apparent accountability and it doesn't seem clear as to what a person's rights are and what the possibilities are.

Anyway, interesting read here about this going on in the US last year:

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/05...arches-while-t

[Azure]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

Just FYI.

You have to give them the laptop, you do not have to give them any passwords. They can ask and BS you but you by law do not have to give them anything.

Ever since they came up with that I have put TrueCrypt on my laptop. No neanderthal border guard or low paid US border protection service IT lacky could break into it.

Chances are it would take a nerd at NSA a while to break TrueCrypt too.

[Phaneuf3]

Originally Posted by fredr123

I might have some paper files in my luggage that are confidential too. I could also just buy drugs in the United States once I got there. No sense searching my luggage for drugs.

I do agree that only the idiots get caught though.

As far as I know, its not legal for the guards to photocopy the entire contents of your briefcase when you cross the border... just in case. If its on your laptop, at least in the states, its perfectly fine and legal for them to make a copy of anything and everything on your drive.

Regarding smuggling: There's only one way to move drugs into the country - physically getting them across the border. Carrying them, shipping them, whatever... something is physically coming into the country. I'll concede your point kinda holds up for the college kid taking a small baggie of weed on spring break but I was thinking more of the drug trafficker.

Also, you have searches going on to ensure a bomb isn't smuggled onto an airplane or the like. No matter how hard you try, you're not going to hijack an airplane with a ripped copy of Pirates of the Caribbean.

[Wookie]

Originally Posted by Phaneuf3

Also, you have searches going on to ensure a bomb isn't smuggled onto an airplane or the like. No matter how hard you try, you're not going to hijack an airplane with a ripped copy of Pirates of the Caribbean.

What about Gigli?

[fredr123]

Originally Posted by Phaneuf3

As far as I know, its not legal for the guards to photocopy the entire contents of your briefcase when you cross the border... just in case. If its on your laptop, at least in the states, its perfectly fine and legal for them to make a copy of anything and everything on your drive.

Regarding smuggling: There's only one way to move drugs into the country - physically getting them across the border. Carrying them, shipping them, whatever... something is physically coming into the country. I'll concede your point kinda holds up for the college kid taking a small baggie of weed on spring break but I was thinking more of the drug trafficker.

Also, you have searches going on to ensure a bomb isn't smuggled onto an airplane or the like. No matter how hard you try, you're not going to hijack an airplane with a ripped copy of Pirates of the Caribbean.

I have seen border guards photocopy all manners of documents that people carry with them across the border. If they suspect, for instance, that you may be working illegally they will take copies of your documents for further investigation or to support their allegations. Among those may be letters from your lawyer to you which should be confidential and protected by solicitor client privilege (or similar privileges in the USA). As far as I know, there is nothing that says it is illegal to make copies of documents in that manner.

I think what is getting people's dander up, aside from the civil liberties mumbo jumbo, is that this is an afront to a different kind of privacy interest. Canadian law recognizes different privacy interests and protects them to different degrees. Interests that go to the core of who you are are on a different level than others. The law does not permit cavity searches as frequently or with as little scrutiny as it does a pat down search, for instance.

You have a greater interest in the stuff up your butt and in other crannies than you do the stuff in your suitcase tossed willy nilly beneath the airplane.

The stuff on your laptop represents a greater sense of you than the stuff in the suitcase. There is an informational privacy interest there that many feel is worthy of a greater degree of protection.

[Doctordestiny]

Border guards are there to protect our laws. You can't bring illegal stuff across. I don't get the concern either. The ability to check for these things has to be in place for them to do their jobs. Get used to it.

What this guy said:

Originally Posted by fredr123

I'm not sure why this is causing such a concern for people. You can't bring illegal things across the border. Firewood, crack, underage sex workers, kiddie porn. Leave that stuff at home.

Originally Posted by fredr123

...Among those may be letters from your lawyer to you which should be confidential and protected by solicitor client privilege (or similar privileges in the USA). As far as I know, there is nothing that says it is illegal to make copies of documents in that manner.

I'm no lawyer but doesn't client-lawyer privilege prevent the lawyer from disclosing information whereas the client can reveal whatever he wants?

[Peanut]

Hmmm... I'm torn because I'm glad they caught the pedo and honestly, I don't really care about his civil liberties. But I get that the larger issue regarding privacy is concerning.

[Bobblehead]

Just to follow up, it doesn't appear this was a random search. Border services had him flagged due to his travel history.

Ten days earlier he stepped off a flight from England at the Ottawa International Airport, where a customs agent flagged him for secondary inspection after examining his passport and noticing the bishop had "extensive travel to source countries for child pornography," according to a court document made public this week.

The document -- an information to obtain a search warrant -- said Bishop Lahey had visited Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Spain and Germany since 2005. During the secondary inspection, another agent with Canada Border Services Agency found three images of boys in various sexual acts on his laptop computer.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2086159

[smith12]

Originally Posted by Doctordestiny

Border guards are there to protect our laws. You can't bring illegal stuff across. I don't get the concern either. The ability to check for these things has to be in place for them to do their jobs. Get used to it.

What this guy said:





I'm no lawyer but doesn't client-lawyer privilege prevent the lawyer from disclosing information whereas the client can reveal whatever he wants?

Well you've obviously never been stopped at the boarder and had your car searched for 5 hours, otherwise you might have a different opinion.

I was coming back from Seattle after buying a car in Van and headed down for a little outlet shopping. On my way back I was stopped at the boarder for 5 hours while they went through every nook and cranny of my car. Now I have a great job with Nexen, both a master's and a bachelor's degree, no record of any kind, and look like a pretty clean cut individual. Why do they have the right, or on what grounds to make me sit there for 5 hours while they go through my car? They even went through my iPhone and I couldn't say no.

They then started to threaten to rip my new car apart that I'd owned for about 10 hours. On what grounds? it's ridiculous that they are empowered to do this without any reason to suspect me.