I had my latop searched my US customs

[BAM]

(JaiDee @ Dec. 26 2008,20:46) not sure why one acronym hasn't been mentioned here yet; FTP

Be careful out there, D .... send everything to a secure place, delete, and don't travel with that crap

Exactly, I never have any porn on my laptop. I FTP all my photos out to a server back home before I leave Thailand. There is no need to travel with this stuff. A good trick is to use 2 hard drives... a €˜clean' one and one you use while in Thailand. As with any windows based computer it'll cache all kinds of files and information about what you've been doing on that computer... even files you think you've deleted are still there and can be recovered by these customs pricks.... So having a €˜clean' drive in the laptop when they search it will provide them with nothing to find. The dirty drive you can destroy that one physically or just do a full format on it.

Don't think encrypting your files will help... it'll just piss them off even more and they will force you to open the encrypted containers... someone I know was held for 3 hours at LAX when he refused to open his files... they told him they had all the time in the world so he can just €˜take his time and think about it' he finally gave up and opened his encrypted files... they then took his laptop and returned it 6 weeks later broken in 2.

As for US customs they've searched me twice at LAX but both times they were looking for drugs. The customs guy asked me "so what did you do in Thailand?"  I told him I had a vacation and his rude answer to that was "Oh really!"

[jimslim]

(jadeite @ Dec. 26 2008,18:54) Just look at the people who get pulled--males travelling alone as far as I have seen.

Maybe I've a guilty face or just look like a wrong' un , but I get stopped every time at customs .

I'm probably unfortunate to live in one of the most high profile high security cities in the world .

These people are highly frustrating and you feel like telling them to use their common sense and track down the real criminals , but the key thing to remember is if you have done nothing wrong they can do nothing on you .

On my last few trips I've had -

My bags emptied and tested on some machine for drugs-twice .
Some clown asking me could I provide full receipts for some cheap tshirts I'd bought as presents .
Copy DVDs taken away and checked to make sure they were what they said on the cover .

And I don't even travel with a laptop

[BAM]

(manarak @ Dec. 26 2008,16:37) This can get some ppl in trouble, especially when traveling from other countries with different laws.

I would like to know what would happen to a guy transiting through the US to get to Switzerland?
The legal age is 16 over here.

If they catch you with 16 year olds on your computer while you're transiting through the US to get to Switzerland you're going to a nice US jail cell.

[Dieter]

Good I am german.... and travel to FRA...

Dieter

[doug]

I get a little bit of grief from some people about being such a stickler for privacy and "self-protection" when cruising the p4p scene, but stories like this one prove me right.

For example, I get highly annoyed when I see someone pull out a camera in a go-go bar and start taking pictures, inconsiderately forgetting that I'm sitting in the background and perhaps I might not enjoy having my mug splashed all over the internet, especially if I've got a ladyboy prostitute draped all over me at the time. Some of you don't care about that, but I'm sure a lot more are in situations like mine (where something like that could cause problems ranging from mildly inconvenient to life-alteringly bad).

The standard response I get from guys who think photo-taking in bars is dandy is: "Hey, I'll erase faces before I upload". Or, "Don't worry, nobody will every see this except me."

Thing is, that's just not true. Everyone from computer tech-repairmen to jealous girlfriends to customs agents is going to get a crack at your laptop at one time or another, and while you may be a stand-up guy, you can't vouch for everyone who may have contact with your machine.

The last thing I'd need is for some customs agent to look at some knucklehead's computer and say, "Hey, that girl in the background looks to be about 13 years old. Who's that ugly old fart she's draped all over??" Given the choice of coughing up their laptop or my name, I think most knuckleheads would choose the latter option.

Or in a more likely scenario, some jealous "girlfriend" looks through the knucklehead's harddrive and sees me (whom she knows is "dating" one of her girlfriends) in the background of some bar photo with some other hottie draped all over me. A few phone calls later, and I've got more than the usual amount of ladyboy drama to deal with. Ugh.

Simple rule of thumb: Porn should NEVER go on a hard-drive. Most people have no idea how to properly scrub a hard-drive clean (and even then files can still be recovered). So no file is every truly deleted from a hard-drive. When means whenever someone takes their laptop down to pantip for repair/sale, they are basically exposing their entire life to any tech-savvy technician or customer. The best thing to do when selling a computer is to remove the harddrive, put a nail through it, and then sell the computer sans drive.

As for porn, well, flash drives are getting rather huge these days and so unless you need terrabytes worth of porn (*cough* Stogie *cough*), a few flash drives should cover most of your porn needs (I find those plastic Dentyne gum containers to be an excellent place to stash porn flash drives).

Customs, of course, is going to find it no matter where you stash it, and shipping porn is a recipe for losing porn. So if you're not prepared to be embarassed, you're better off just chucking the flash drives into the garbage disposal and starting your collection from scratch when you get back home.

Heck, I once came into Thailand with a strap-on dildo in my suitcase (a present for my girlfriend). The guys in Japan just pointed at the x-ray of my bag and gave me the thumbs up, and of course, customs in Bangkok couldn't even be bothered to sit at their desk (probably taking a nap or talking to their moms on the phone) and so I just walked right through with it. My point, though, is that I knew that someone would see it in my bag, and I didn't care. On the other hand, if I had some "questionable-aged" porn, and think twice about travelling with it, that's just asking for jail-time or harassment (if you're lucky).

Of course, I'm not suggesting that D33 is one of those knuckleheads who wanders around Nana plaza or Walking Street with a video camera. He's an industry professional and I bet most of his porn is self-produced in a studio setting.

I'm just saying that his story reminded that trolling the p4p scene has plenty of rewards, but not without some risks too. People should treat their computers as semi-public domains. Mostly because you never no who's going to peek at your data and/or steal your laptop. But also because after you sell it, you have absolutely no control over content on it that you didn't properly delete.

Those of you who take personal videos/cameras of your adventures in Thailand should take a good look at how you store that data and how you should secure it properly (especially if you're going to risk travelling with it). Some people don't mind splashing their photos all over the forums, but I'm pretty sure most guys don't want to become involuntary porn stars, especially if they have families and careers that might be jeopardized by a revelation of their "hobby".

It's a good bet that a significant fraction of the porn those customs officials confiscate ends up on their harddrives at home, at which point, all bets are off and you have no way of knowing if the guy is just whacking off in private to videos of your fat hairy ass getting pounded by a ladyboy, or if he's using your videos/photos to create a fake profile for himself on some sissyboy swingers website.

The point being is that (especially on the internet) your privacy is like your virginity, once you lose it, you don't ever get it back. Keep that fact in mind when storing/travelling with porn.

[blonde_havoc]

(D33 @ Dec. 26 2008,12:26) Just as a warning to all of you who travel with porn on your laptops, I was searched my US customs upon entry to the USA after being in Thailand. It was a random search.

They looked through every file, read my mail, looked for hidden files and looked at every CD I had. They looked at every video and every photo.

As most of you may know I shoot porn so I had some on me. They then wanted to see the ID card for EVERY model I had on my computer and CDs. Every single one of them. Of course I had them ALL to prove they were 18 years old age but they informed me if I didn't have IDs on any of them that they could confiscate my material and computer should they feel the need to.

It was a few hours of a cluster fuck and 100000 questions. They were looking for child porn, didn't find it and STILL added me into the computer to be searched for future visits. Gotta love America.

So heads up, ship your porn home if you have any. In the event you do get a random search and they find something without an ID card, your laptop may go bye-bye.

And for what its worth, it was ALL ladyboy porn. So they looked through a few hours of ladyboys. LOL  That part was glorious.

Sorry to hear this happened to you, bro. I'm just glad you didn't end up in Guantanamo!

[Guest]

No problem getting out of Gitmo...just watch the movie"Harold&Kumar"

[blonde_havoc]

(aperry @ Dec. 27 2008,09:39) No problem getting out of Gitmo...just watch the movie"Harold&Kumar"

I love both of those movies! They're really more than just stoner comedies, too. Both are actually pretty smart films.

[BAM]

(blonde_havoc @ Dec. 27 2008,11:52)

(aperry @ Dec. 27 2008,09:39) No problem getting out of Gitmo...just watch the movie"Harold&Kumar"

I love both of those movies! They're really more than just stoner comedies, too. Both are actually pretty smart films.

They're just a modern day version of Cheech & Chong



CHEECH & CHONG Stash Jar Set
Cheech & Chong Homegrown Stash Jar Set. Awesome set of two ceramic stash jars featuring Cheech and Chong. The top of there heads come off similar to a cookie jar so that their heads can be used to store your grass.

[JaiDee]

One thing that scared me about D's post is that they searched his e-mail!

I haven't travelled with anything remotely dirty on my laptop since about 2004, save for the weird URL's I visit while on that foolish toy which would be buried in the cache [like ATS and the gay midget websites I fancy]. So they can search for porno shit to their heart's desires; but sent and saved e-mails?? That could open a whole new can of worms I'd rather not have opened.

It's never easy ...... although the last time I went to Mexico and flew back in they didn't even take me back for a search, a rarity in recent years.

[manarak]

the gay midget websites I fancy

LOL

remember my other post about being paranoid:
https://theladyboyforums.com/cgi-bin....aranoid


I think it is high time some company comes up with a reasonably secure storage system as descibed in my post.

For email, uninstall Outlook and use webmail.
Store the rest on the secure USB Stick.

[Road Runner]

Another reason for me to be glad I stuck to Yahoo.

But  they can still read your e-mails online if and when they want to.

RR.

[Homeless Traveler 2]

Interesting stuff...only solution, 2 laptops...one virgin, one not...always travel with the virgin...not cuz they would find anything illegal, but why have the akwardness of explaining why i like to visit the site, "Ladyboy Tops n The Men That Love Em" (well, i will be visiting it as soon as someone creates it).  

I have always employed the 2 laptop method...using internet cafes to transfer my personal pics while traveling...even though I dont take any nude pics (ever, bikini is as racey as i get), some of the 23yr old girls I have been with (ids checked always) look younger, so better safe than sorry.

 

[Guest]

one stupid rule in the states is having to provide id to get a drink in a bar.
Guys in their 60s getting refused because they don't have id, how feckin stupid is that?

People have become like robots, unable to use their own initiative to evaluate situations.
The UK has become like this too, just try and set up a bank account.

Soon you will need id's for every girl on your computer(even if she looks like a Granny) or else no admission and branded a Phedo.

absurd as this might sound its only a matter of time..

[manarak]

(Road Runner @ Dec. 28 2008,22:23) Another reason for me to be glad I stuck to Yahoo.

But  they can still read your e-mails online if and when they want to.

RR.

They will have to commit a criminal act to do that.
(I use my own server for webmail, it is situated in Switzerland)