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Strategies for international travellers regarding new US Customs seizure policy
MrCrispy:
'terrorism' and 'child porn' - 2 magic phrases that the US govt (and the corporations who run it) can use to get anything they want, no matter how draconian, passed into law. Meanwhile, the people in this country are more concerned with reality television and watching talk shows while their freedom has been taken away. We deserve this for voting a criminal thug into power 2 times in a row.
mouser:
it was inevitable that this thread would get political, but let me remind people that we avoid all political party discussion here. MrCrispy and everyone please refrain from such stuff, there are plenty of places to discuss politics and we try to keep this board free of it.
Discussing specific technology related policies is completely fair game -- but getting into an arguement about political parties is not appropriate here.
TomColvin:
Mouser, thanks for setting the guidelines straight. I fully agree.
In the meantime, no one seems to have used the "online desktop" applications, such as www.ulteo.com -- and I'm still curious if one could really build one's computer life completely around online applications? No assurance of data privacy of course, but would certainly alleviate the fear of confiscation or theft of hardware.
Has anyone really sat down and thought through thoroughly [gosh, what a string of words!] if there are sufficient online resources to go without desktop software?
Carol Haynes:
Sorry but the US is getting totally ridiculous as a destination for anyone (even Americans) ... I will never visit the US and I know a lot of Brits who won't go to the US. My decision was made when they decided they need my whole credit and bank record submitted before I am even allowed to fly to a US airport.
Can you imagine what would happen if other countries took this attitude with Americans entering their country?
My father was once crossing the Canadian border on the way home from Florida. As he crossed into Ontario there were a bunch on Americans going on holiday hunting and fishing in Canada - fair enough except that their vehicle was weighed down with firearms. They were having a flaming row with a Canadian customs officer (never a good idea as Canadians can drive anyone insane with their ability to remain unflustered while maintaining a polite 'sorry you can't do that'. What made my dad laugh was that they were quoting the constitution and their right to bear arms but they simply couldn't grasp that Canada was not the US and that the constitution meant diddly north of the border!
Can you imagine the mayhem if US travellers had their cell phones, laptops, camera cards etc. confiscated when the travel to another country.
Having criticised the US I can't help that the UK is going the same way - all you have to say is 'terrorism' and anything goes as far as the police and government are concerned.
What makes me laugh is if you get on a plane and say 'I am not a terrorist and I don't have explosives in my shoes' you are technically breaking the law and can be imprisoned on either side of the pond - just the word explosive or bomb (in whatever context) is enough to get you arrested and carted off for an indefinite visit to a dank hole!
Carol Haynes:
One thought on technology - has anyone in the security world even considered the possibility that someone could backup their laptop to an encrypted image file which is stored on a fast FTP server. Once you arrive at your destination you can simply restore the image. I really don't know why anyone would even bother looking at disc contents because anyone with any brains can easily avoid security at an airport.
Actually an image backup of a laptop would be pretty neat (if you ensure you have a recent model of laptop). If you get it confiscated just buy a new one in the US and restore the image and hey presto ... leave the laptop with a friend and next time you visit you don't need to carry one at all.
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