A question about getting Laptop searched

[Guest]

I was just reading the post about getting a laptop searched at customs. About the only porn I have on my laptop is everythng thats been on ATS and everything that has been on The Ladyboy Forums. My question is some of the photos of some of the femboys that have been posted on the Ladyboy Forms and the old ATS forums look very young , do you think any of this could cause me a problem at customs ? Thanks

[seanbeag7]

bart do yourself a big favour and move every porn photo over to a usb stick they can hold up to 1,000 photo's (depending on size of course) and then post the usb stick home it should arrive at the same time as u and also u will have nothing to worry about at customs.

I do it all the time and i now have 5 usb stick's full of lb and tranny girls, mind you , it's getting harder these days to remember where i put the bloody things.

[Dieter]

OOOOOps........ me have some Lb's on my 19x5 stick allrerady..... but me delete and save a new one.....

Dieter

[petesie]

Save somewhere and delete but use a good win-clean programme to get rid of it off the hard drive...

[Torurot]

Judge limits DHS laptop border searches
by Declan McCullagh June 10, 2010 4:00 AM PDT
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20007315-38.html

A federal judge has ruled that border agents cannot seize a traveler's laptop, keep it locked up for months, and examine it for contraband files without a warrant half a year later.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in the Northern District of California rejected the Obama administration's argument that no warrant was necessary to look through the electronic files of an American citizen who was returning home from a trip to South Korea.

"The court concludes that June search required a warrant," White ruled on June 2, referring to a search of Andrew Hanson's computer that took place a year ago. Hanson arrived San Francisco International Airport in January 2009.

The Justice Department invoked a novel argument--which White dubbed "unpersuasive"--claiming that while Hanson was able to enter the country, his laptop remained in a kind of legal limbo where the Bill of Rights did not apply. (The Fourth Amendment generally requires a warrant for searches.)

"Until merchandise has cleared customs, it may not enter the United States," assistant U.S. attorney Owen Martikan argued. "The laptop never cleared customs and was maintained in government custody until it was searched..."

This is not exactly a new dispute: two years ago, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection announced that it reserves the right to seize for an indefinite period of time any laptops that are taken across the border.

Last year, the department reiterated that claim, saying laptops and electronic gadgetry can still be seized and held indefinitely. There's no requirement that they be returned to their owners after even six months or a year has passed, though supervisory approval is required if they're held for more than 15 days. The complete contents of a hard drive or memory card can be perused at length for evidence of lawbreaking of any kind, even if it's underpaying taxes or not paying parking tickets.

In response, Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, introduced a bill that would require border agents to obtain a warrant or court order to hold such a device for more than 24 hours.

Customs agents say that after Hanson was randomly selected for a secondary baggage examination, he became nervous. That led Customs agent Sheryl Edwards to ask for an examination of Hanson's laptop, a digital camera with memory card, two CD-ROMs, and two DVDs.

That examination, customs agents say, showed one incriminating photograph: an adolescent girl covered with mud, standing on a beach, and not wearing any clothes. Edwards concluded that the image was illegal; Hanson was charged with transportation and possession of child pornography in September 2009. He has pleaded not guilty.

For his part, Eric Chase, an attorney representing Hanson, acknowledged that an immediate search conducted at the border without a warrant is permissible. But police perusal of a hard drive six months later definitely is not, he said when asking the court to toss out the results of the June 2009 search.

"As applied to border searches generally, agents, after taking their permissible look while at the border crossing itself, would be free to 'detain' electronic devices and conduct further examinations whenever and wherever they pleased as justified solely because their 'peek' exposed the computer's contents to law enforcement," Chase wrote.

Customs agents also searched Hanson's laptop three times in February 2009, with the first search taking place about a week after he entered the country and turning up no evidence of child pornography. The second and third searches allegedly did. White allowed the results of those searches to be used as evidence, saying they were "justified as an extended border search supported by reasonable suspicion."

A 2006 Police Blotter article reported that the Ninth Circuit, which sets precedents that are binding on San Francisco federal courts, ruled that random searches of laptops at the border without a search warrant is permissible. But the Ninth Circuit did not address what happens if the search takes place a month or half a year later.

Excerpt from court ruling:

The government argues that the February search was justified as an extended border search supported by reasonable suspicion...In contrast to a search conducted at the border, or its functional equivalent, an extended border search must be supported by "'reasonable suspicion' that the subject of the search was involved in criminal activity, rather than simply mere suspicion or no suspicion." In order to determine whether the search was supported by reasonable suspicion, the court examines the totality of the circumstances, such as the time and distance elapsed, whether there was a lapse in surveillance, and the diligence of law enforcement.

Because the agents did not find contraband while the laptop was located at the border and, in light of the time and distance that elapsed before the search continued, the court concluded that the search should be analyzed as an extended border search. Given the passage of time between the January and February searches and the fact that the February search was not conduct(ed) at the border, or its functional equivalent, the court concludes that the February search should be analyzed under the extended border search doctrine and must be justified by reasonable suspicion.

When the court examines the totality of the circumstances, including Officer Edwards' description of the Image, her observations that Hanson appeared nervous, the discovery of the condoms and the male-enhancement pills, and Hanson's statement that he had been working with children, the court concludes that the government has met its burden to show the February search was supported by reasonable suspicion. Accordingly, Hanson's motion is DENIED IN PART on this basis...

The government also argues that because Officer Edwards properly seized the laptop, and because the laptop remained in law enforcement custody, she was entitled to conduct a more thorough search at a later time. However, the cases on which the government relies for this argument address the right to conduct a more thorough search of a container as a search incident to a valid arrest, another recognized exception to the warrant requirement... Hanson was not arrested on January 27, 2009, and for that reason the court finds the government's reliance on the "search incident to a valid arrest" line of cases to be inapposite. Accordingly, because the court concludes that June search required a warrant, and because it is undisputed that the search was conducted without a warrant, Hanson's motion is GRANTED IN PART on this basis.

[Snick]

Good news.....IF you fly into San Francisco....wouldn't apply anywhere else.

Upload the porn,Delete the porn, and then copy over as many images of cute puppies as you can find.
Putting it all on a memory stick, is not a good idea.

[EyeMahk]

Leave the porn at home. For pics you take in LOS or anywhere else, use TrueCrypt and its hidden volume feature. Once you get used to it, it's damn easy to use all them time, so you never have to move anything around.

I use the guideline that "your mother should able to turn on your laptop and look at anything she can find." This is what customs will look at on a full search ... files, pics, video, bookmarks, history.

[TTChang]

I use 'Safehouse' to avoid prying family eyes, but I assume the guys on the desks are clued up about hidden volumes.  If they decide to search a hard drive, it means they are suspicious .... and will leave no stone unturned (including recovery of 'not quite fully erased' files too). 'You won't have any problem giving me your passwords. sir, now will you?'

So these days I'm getting cautious.  Don't fancy questions about age/ID of LBs at the border entry or exit, and potentially going on a pervs watch list.

Not that I've got anything pornographic to hide ..... I go to Thailand for the culture and food

[kevin4252]

Not to end what I'd be sure would be a stimulating arguement, but the first sentence spells out the problem for LE, not gonna have any effect IMO on anyone else, or many others may be more appropriate.

[BAM]

I guess if you have photos of mud covered girls in your computer you're a perverted weirdo to US Customs

South Korea has a public mud festival known as the Boryeong Mud Festival every year where everyone comes there and gets covered in mud for fun. I bet that's where the guy took the photo that got him in so much trouble.

[manarak]

looks fun!

advice 1: avoid the US and other intolerant countries

advice 2: If you cannot avoid them, don't keep the porn on the laptop.
The best is to upload everything to a server and to retrieve it later.
Problem is that the bandwidth at many hotels in the LOS sucks ass.
Another variant could be to mail a usb stick or whatever to your home, but this doesn't guarantee that it won't get searched.

Best advice IMO is to use a program like truecrypt's hidden volumes feature on a USB stick.
Don't forget to rub/scratch the label off the stick where is says something like "16GB", when 15GB are hidden and the techie of the customs wonders why only 1GB are shown...

[guydesavoy]

And here I was thinking Bam would be making a technical point

I guess the easiest thing to do would be to upload pics taken in LOS to a server (free.. and presumably a zip file of reasonably sized pics wouldn't be that big,,,except for Juri or Ernesto )...or just email them to yourself..

I don't think porn videos would be considered illegal in most States, but if you wanted to avoid embarrassment, load to a HD before you travel..

[Socrates999]

"Customs agents say that after Hanson was randomly selected for a secondary baggage examination, he became nervous. That led Customs agent Sheryl Edwards to ask for an examination of Hanson's laptop, a digital camera with memory card, two CD-ROMs, and two DVDs.

That examination, customs agents say, showed one incriminating photograph: an adolescent girl covered with mud, standing on a beach, and not wearing any clothes. Edwards concluded that the image was illegal; Hanson was charged with transportation and possession of child pornography in September 2009. He has pleaded not guilty."

First off, I suspect that Agent Edwards is a fat, frustrated pig of a woman, and is angry at anybody not intimidated by what little power remains in her mummified cunt.

I also suspect that perhaps Hanson was not just "acting suspiciously", along the lines of ...

Edwards: Why do you travel to Thailand so frequently, sir?
Hanson: Companionship. Oh, and the temples, too
Edwards: Do you have a problem with American women, sir?
Hanson: Have you looked in a mirror lately?

I just came through US customs, with about 3 TB of flicks, photos and software, including a large, 2 Tb external drive, 2 smaller external HDs, several memory cards, 2 thumbdrives, etc. The only comment was "What is your work in Thailand?" I noticed on the customs declaration that it is specifically forbidden to bring in OBSCENE material, but figured that, coming in through LAX, outside of k**ie pR0n, there's probably very little that is actually obscene. "2Girls, 1 Cup": disgusting, yes, obscene, no.

[jimslim]

(Socrates999 @ Jun. 18 2010,22:44) First off, I suspect that Agent Edwards is a fat, frustrated pig of a woman, and is angry at anybody not intimidated by what little power remains in her mummified cunt.

Mummified cunt

[thaibound]

just in case someone was considering it -- please, please, PLEASE, do NOT post a photo of the agent in question -- or her mummified cunt.
i'm begging you.

i just ate.