Feds: We will search through your laptop files at

[johnlbx]

(kahuna @ May 01 2008,17:57) EDIT: Porno is not illegal in the USA and neither is gay porno...and certainly not in San Francisco...

Whether it's legal or illegal IN the US doesn't mean that it's legal to bring into the US.

I'm not a lawyer but I think this is the relevant statute:
http://uscode.house.gov/pdf/2005/2005usc19.pdf

Look for section 1305 which states in part:

§ 1305. Immoral articles; importation prohibited
(a) Prohibition of importation
All persons are prohibited from importing into
the United States from any foreign country ...
any obscene book, pamphlet, paper,
writing, advertisement, circular, print, picture,
drawing, or other representation, figure, or
image on or of paper or other material, or any
cast, instrument, or other article which is obscene
or immoral,


----------------

so it comes down to a judgment call as to whether your pictures or video are obscene.

[kahuna]

(johnlbx @ May 07 2008,12:58) so it comes down to a judgment call as to whether your pictures or video are obscene.

I'm not certain that any one's judgement can be substituted for the decision of the US Supreme Court which basically has written that that have no fucking idea what obscenity is and have passed responsibility for definitions on to each state...

However I don't bring Billy-like photos back in my computer or camera or elsewhere...

I do have photos of girls and some are nude or partially nude and the customs inspectors have seen them and they haven't appeared to give a rat's ass...

The customs folks are apparently not looking for pix of ladyboys with their cocks at attention unless those ladyboys are clearly underage...

I'm not telling you what to bring or not to bring back in your computer, I'm simply telling you my experiences...

[dbul]

check this out:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...uting.security

[Guest]

above article

Taking your laptop into the US? Be sure to hide all your data first

* Bruce Schneier
* The Guardian,
* Thursday May 15 2008
* Article history



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 defence 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

[Road Runner]

I have a total dislike of terrorists in whatever way shape or form of poliltics they present themselves.

Also I understand in many cases that customs are the first line of defence/detection in the fight against many other forms of criminal activity.

But equally I have grave doubts (with good reason) about some of the practices used by customs to allegedly target pornography/drugs trafficing etc.

I just don't believe that they catch child pornographers by looking for pictures on individuals computers.
Those sort of people are mostly not going to be so stupid as to go through customs with the evidence.
Same with people involved with drugs trafficking - it's only the mules who are carrying the goods who are dumb enough to walk through customs with incriminating evidence.

So what are they looking for?

RR.

[Monkey]

Those sort of people are mostly not going to be so stupid as to go through customs with the evidence.

you'd be surprised at how many are 'too clever' to get caught and end up being, errr, caught.

like that guy last year with the photo with the smudged out face that the boffins managed to unsmudge

I'd say that a crispy clean laptop thats been cleansed to DoD standards says far more about a lot of travellers to SE Asia than one with a few pictures on it, but I'm sure I read somewhere that most Paedos collect 'trophies' and the bulk of these is in photographic form which they share (show off?) with other Paedos so I have no doubts at all that somebody will slip up and help bring down an entire Paedo network

tbh I don't care what customs do if it results in catching one of these guys and saving a kiddie or two

yeah, it's a pain in the arse for the rest of the travellers but a mere inconvenience surely when compared to a 9yo kid getting raped

[goldmountain]

(kahuna @ May 01 2008,09:57) porn...both times I said look ahead....both times they scrolled through my pics of ladyboys...both times they closed my laptop and said welcome back to America...

I bet those fuckers just love their secure, government jobs, getting paid to view porn...

[goldmountain]

(johnlbx @ May 07 2008,12:58) § 1305. Immoral articles; importation prohibited
(a) Prohibition of importation
All persons are prohibited from importing into
the United States from any foreign country ...
any obscene book, pamphlet, paper,
writing, advertisement, circular, print, picture,
drawing, or other representation, figure, or
image on or of paper or other material, or any
cast, instrument, or other article which is obscene

Is this obscene?...

[harley quinn]

The thinking behind this by the forces of officialdom intrigues me.

As a technical idiot I would assume that any photo stills you would store in virtuality for example in one of those one gigabyte mailboxes that g-mail have and then download them again from the comfort of your own home.

Video you can presumably burn onto a dvd and mail to an anonymous mail box address. I accept the latter could be inspected at any time on route but given the volume of mail world wide the chances are on your side to get through unchecked.

As a card carrying liberal I would happily string up the purveyors and practicioners of child porn - who in my view have forfeited their right to be treated as human beings. I would also be quite prepared to see terrorists dealt with under the shariah law that they espouse. There should be no place in my view for either of these groups in a civilised society.

What the various governments of our neurotic western world seem to forget is that every law abiding citizen that they piss off becomes less likely to cooperate when they really need help.

Security is an illusion - the tighter it gets the more loopholes there are for people to squeeze through.

[seanbeag7]

Well said Harley

[BAM]

(orgasmaddict @ May 16 2008,05:27) 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.

I use to think encrypting everything on my laptop was a good idea and it is to protect your computers data if it's ever lost or stolen but if US Customs finds you have encrypted files, partitions, or containers they will ask you to open it... this actually happened in January to someone I know very well. He was coming from Thailand and had entered at LAX. At first he refused to provide the password... he's a very stubborn guy with allot of attitude... however after being detained for 3 hours he cracked under their pressure and gave them the pass... they then kept his computer which he got back 6 weeks later broken.

OK here is my advice and what I do... it's also perfectly legal.... have a 'disposable hard drive'  Hard drives are cheep enough these days to do this€¦ go to Best Buy and pick one up for $60 and replace the drive you have€¦ then install XP and the programs you need€¦ take it to Thailand and use it as you need€¦ email, chat, web.. read the forum.. use it to upload all your pics to the net€¦ call your Mum using VOIP€¦ etc.. When you leave Thailand simply pull out the hard drive and smash it to shit. Now you have nothing to be found in the drive because there is no drive!

One thing to remember is when you delete files from your computer they are never really gone€¦ only the hard drive space the files used in de-allocated for other use€¦ but your deleted photos, chats, emails are still there! There are programs that can wipe the drive but if you need the use of the computer up until the last minute in Thailand€¦ and I know I always do you€™ll not have the time needed to wipe the dive properly€¦ so the disposable drive is the best way to go in my opinion. If Customs wants to see what€™s on my computer well all they're going to see is the 'Can not Boot' error.

[azza33]

All a bunch of overhype IMHO

Encrypt i say... encrypt... protect your privacy to be the best extent you can - ignore the scaremongering and crazy suggestions

Given the millions of laptop passing through airports every week it is highly unlikely that you'll ever get checked.

In the rarest of cases when you do get asked to show your files and encrypted stuff, just do it, we've all done nothing wrong here. (i hope)

Remember, customs has all the power, so why piss them off by being a belligerent sod... just do what they say on that remote chance they ask

You never know they just may be a ladyboyforums boardmember as well

[BAM]

(azza33 @ May 17 2008,09:44) Given the millions of laptop passing through airports every week it is highly unlikely that you'll ever get checked.

Easy enough for you to say... you've never been searched. I have over 5 times now but always for drugs.

Am I paranoid when I€™m dragged off to the €œRed Room€ for a search€¦ yeah you bet I am because you never know what they might find€¦ so having a computer with nothing on it€™s really a very relaxing thing to have at this point in time. "Yes Sir... search my computer all you like... good luck"

[azza33]

(BAM @ May 17 2008,16:04)

(azza33 @ May 17 2008,09:44) Given the millions of laptop passing through airports every week it is highly unlikely that you'll ever get checked.

Easy enough for you to say... you've never been searched. I have over 5 times now but always for drugs.

Am I paranoid when I€™m dragged off to the €œRed Room€ for a search€¦ yeah you bet I am because you never know what they might find€¦ so having a computer with nothing on it€™s really a very relaxing thing to have at this point in time. "Yes Sir... search my computer all you like... good luck"

drug searched 5 times!!!



time to re jig your appearance as the stereotypers have you made as a drug runner....

Perhaps you should as them to store of file that you're a LB mongerer and give em a couple of pics to sit next to your name on their pc's just so they know you the average perverted type like the rest of us

[doitrong]

(azza33 @ May 17 2008,10:44) Remember, customs has all the power, so why piss them off by being a belligerent sod... just do what they say on that remote chance they ask[/i]

You never know they just may be a ladyboyforums boardmember as well  

I returned from bkk to Melbourne a few years ago and had my suitcase searched unfortunately by a semi attractive white middle aged female...

She found and tested some antibiotics i had in my suitcase all with a doctors letter, when she came back and the test was negative she was honestly dissapointed she didnt find anything...

I asked her what she was testing for and she said Drugs , Narcotics .

I looked at her and said do you think i am that stupid, grabbed my suitcase and rushed off giving her a dirty look....

Definately wasnt a good career move i now get searched about 1 in 4 times ....

Yes customs have the Power , maybe too much Power ...single male going to Thailand looks a bit suss  but hey give me  a   break....