Imaginary Landscape
RSS FeedIn another chapter of our deteriorating privacy rights, a recent ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allows border agents to examine the contents of any electronic device and seize the devices for a period of time.
According to the court documents, the issue started in July 2005 when Mike Arnold arrived at LAX from a three-week vacation in the Philippines. He was randomly selected by a Customs agent for secondary questioning. The agent asked him questions and examined the contents of his luggage, which contained a laptop, hard drive, CDs and a Flash drive. The agent asked Mr. Arnold to turn the laptop on to determine if it was functional.
As the laptop powered up, the agent noticed two folders on its desktop "Kodak Pictures" and "Kodak Memories." The agent clicked on the folders, examined the pictures - one of which was a picture of two nude women. Then, all hell broke loose.
Arnold was detained for several hours and the contents of his laptop and all electronic storage was examined. Agents found what they believed to be images of child pornography. The electronic devices were seized and Arnold was subsequently arrested.
The arrest was overturned by the local court because of lack of probable cause but reversed at the appellate level.
The court was silent on whether or not the owner of the device is compelled to assist in the search, which may result in a boost for hard drive encryption software. Since the ruling does not address this point, the owner can refuse to log into the device or decrypt its contents...for now. However, the idea of squaring off with Customs at the border is a daunting idea - yet another consequence of eroding privacy rights.
To their credit, it seems the Customs agents chose wisely when they selected Arnold. If his laptop did indeed contained child pornography, he should be well punished. However, judging by the complete lack of any probable cause, it could have been anyone.
Updated 07/14/10 @ 11:27AM CDT by brian
Categories: Web News
