Does Homeland Security’s Seizure of Electronic Devices Cross the Border?
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnhkJC_dpeM&ns?rel=0]
It is the 12th anniversary of 9/11, and I’m writing this on the plane back to the U.S. from Canada. Flying on the anniversary didn’t make me nervous, which is a testament to my somewhat renewed trust in airline security; trust reinforced by the lack of a terrorist attack since the DOHS was formed on 9/22/01. As I snaked through 67 stressful minutes of pre-customs, customs, and security lines, I watched the gentleman next to me, dark skinned, get pulled aside for additional screening.
Normally, his detention might not have struck me; but just yesterday I learned from a New York Times investigation that when we cross an international border, our electronic devices can be confiscated, accessed and analyzed without a regular search warrant. We simply need to be flagged in a certain “list” compiled by our government. This is they type of detail that most people won’t care about until it happens to them – until the inconvenience is theirs, not a stranger’s. But we should care, because privacy-wise, we might be slipping beyond the point of difficult return.
