Originally posted on April 26, 2008 @ 12:15 am
Laptop users who frequently travel to the US may have to contend with far stricter measures regarding the data in your laptops.
A US Appeals Court ruling this week declared that customs officials working at the Los Angeles International Airport did not violate a man’s rights when they decided to tamper his computer in searching for alleged child pornography files.
The exact statement of Judge Diarmuid o’Scannlain was “We are satisfied that reasonable suspicion is not needed for customs officials to search a laptop or other personal electronic storage devices at the border.”
The case began in 2005 when Michael Arnold, returned from a his trip to the Philippines. He was found to have been carrying a laptop, a separate hard drive, memory cards as well as six compact discs. Officials requested Arnold to open his laptop and turn it on and two icons identified as photos were seen on the desktop. When officials clicked on the folders they saw images of naked women. He was detained and questioned for several hours. A thorough search of his computer was made and allegedly what looks like child porn was discovered.