Friday, August 01, 2008 - 9:23 pm
Check this policy out:
quote:Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed. Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption, or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, US Customs and Border Protection and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement... DHS officials said that the newly disclosed policies — which apply to anyone entering the country, including US citizens — are reasonable and necessary to prevent terrorism... The policies cover 'any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form,' including hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. They also cover 'all papers and other written documentation,' including books, pamphlets and 'written materials commonly referred to as "pocket trash..
Holy crap!
Link to Slashdot discussion in progress:
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/08/01/0958242.shtml
This is getting really ugly. I do know that some of the people I work with, who travel internationally, will no longer be carrying devices along with them.
It's getting bad enough that imaging computing environments, and data sets, then shipping them prior to departure, to be ran on computing devices after arrival is now a part of a viable travel plan. These ongoing "total information awareness" moves are extremely worrysome to me.
At this time, when we need to be building our competitive advantages, having surrendered them for a lot of reasons, screaming "go away and do business or pleasure elsewhere!" does not seem wise. Not at all.
This isn't Dubai, for goodness sake.
Simple business or pleasure travel now carries very significant risk, with this move being one of many contributing ones. It's not about other nations anymore, but ours! There are many places in the world where it's not a good idea to travel. Most of these reasons boil down to poorly run nations, where governments are corrupt and the business environment is risky. States of civil unrest are related to these things.
Now it's coming here!
I'm not so opposed to the idea of more thourough examination of electronic devices. Heck, a ton of stuff can enter the country, encrypted on an iPod. Cell phones, laptops, and other devices carry considerable data storage potential. Enough to be a concern.
I'll buy that, even if I think it's over hyped. I do think it's fair.
However, the way in which we are implementing these things --essentially with no regard for core civil liberties is downright hostile when it does not have to be. There is also a distinct lack of balance here as well.
Accountability is marginal to non-existant, and that brings with it a very sharp limit on people being able to use the courts to handle their situation.
And if not the courts, where?
(begins exploring available means of moving / sharing data that circumvent this whole mess)
What about the implications for so many of our supposedly American companies being owned now by foreign interests? We entertained policies that outsourced significant technical skill, then devalued our currency, resulting in a very sharp increase in foreign ownership.
That comes with it's own problems, like us building wealth that does not contribute to the overall growth of the nation...
But then allowing this draconian kind of policy on top of it all?
What the heck is going on here?
It's almost as if the global powers that be want to break our society here. Doing it for profit, or control, or likely both?
Saturday, August 02, 2008 - 12:52 am
DHS is simply a knee jerk fear response from fraidy cats. We can protect our citizens without giving up our freedoms. Unfortunately there are more fraidy cats than brave Americans. C'mon everyone, lets go cower in a corner and shudder at the thought of bin Laden knocking on our door. 
Saturday, August 02, 2008 - 1:37 pm
Nah, it's a response created by a bunch of wealthy members of the Industrial/Military Complex to make even more money through fat government contracts as a response to a bunch of scaredy cats that think someone from the middle east is going to bomb their cattle.
Monday, August 04, 2008 - 9:01 am
W. Says:
WEEZZZ PROTECIN EVERYONE FROM DUH TERRORISTS.
They're going to use that excuse for everything they do until people pull their heads out and say enough.
