Does The Travelers’ Privacy Protection Act adequately safeguard us?
You’ve probably heard about the Travelers’ Privacy Protection Act of 2008, a proposed new law that would prevent customs agents from confiscating your laptop computer at the border. But what does the law actually say? Ned Levi takes a look at the law and makes some troubling discoveries.
New Senate bill would ban laptop search and seizure
Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., has introduced legislation forbidding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from searches of travelers’ computer hard drives without reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing. Tripso has reported on heavy-handed DHS searches and confiscation. It is nice to see that someone in the Senate is paying attention this unfettered federal intrusion into our freedom.
Government warns travelers of laptop threat in secret document
Turns out the Department of Homeland Security isn’t the only agency confiscating traveler’s laptops. Foreign governments are targeting the PCs of US corporate and government personnel traveling abroad, according to a secret document released last week. And it’s about to get worse.
Is your hotel a terrorist target? Maybe, says secret government document
Your hotel may be a terrorist target, according to the Department of Homeland Security. A secret document outlines specific terrorist threats to properties.
Government tracking citizens who cross land borders
If you are a U.S. citizen crossing the border over land, your information may be retained by the Department of Homeland Security for 15 years. That information may be used for criminal and intelligence investigations.
How many congressional committees can dance on DHS?
A startling article buried in Government Executive shines a bright light on one of the major problems facing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It is just as if Gulliver was alive and struggling in Lilliput tied down by a thousand threads of swarming Lilliputians.
Why the DHS laptop seizure policy doesn’t worry me
For the last week or so, I’ve been bombarded with complaints about how many travelers believe that now they will be a target of the (say it with me now in a menacing voice) the evil Bush administration and have their electronic gadgets seized while they return from a trip abroad. Balderdash!
Laptops and PDAs may be detained at the border
Since publishing first piece about the government’s right to confiscate laptops, PDAs and other electronic devices, the secretary of Homeland Security, released an opinion piece alerting US travelers that laptops and PDAs are legitimate targets of searches without probably cause. Passengers traveling internationally should prepare for the possibility that laptops may be confiscated.
TSA’s watchlist pain in the rear end
Though we have written about the philosophical reasons for opening our transportation watchlist so that people can find out why they have been placed on the list, the process is a pain in the a**. Everyone seems to be passing the buck. The system needs fixin’ — now. Congress is finally getting rattled.
Border control departing the USA — do we need it?
A debate is raging over whether exit controls are necessary for foreigners visiting the USA and even more importantly, who will will pay for establishing these exit control mechanisms — the airlines or the government.