Imagine if you will: you’re walking through a checkpointcustoms and if you’re like me, your passport picture makes you look like the Unabomber, so you get “randomly” selected for “secondary screening.” And they say, “Sir, turn on your laptop, we’re going to snoop through all your files and search for anything we feel, as practically untrained off-the-street power-tripping badge-wavers, is possibly a danger to Freedom.” And you say, “What the hell? Aren’t you limited to checking if something is physically dangerous or whatever?” And they say (pdf):
“Officers may detain documents and electronic devices, or copies thereof, for a reasonable period of time to perform a thorough border search. The search may take place on-site or at an off-site location.”
And they confiscate your laptop, detain you for a couple hours, and check if you have any un-American porn. Doesn’t that sound like fun? Encrypting and displacing all your data is beginning to look less and less paranoid. [via El Reg]
Wrong. TSA does not have that authority. CBP however does. Read your press releases a little better next time.
Ooops. Saw Homeland Security and just wrote TSA into the headline.
TSA doesn’t ask you to turn on your laptop anymore. They also are not a law enforcement agency and thus cannot seize property for an investigation beyond what is physically dangerous to a plane. Even some things have to be handled by airport police. “Practically untrained” is also a bit of a stretch if you actually look at the amount of training, both initially and throughout a TSA officer’s career.
What, are losing ALL our freedoms?