Court says your data is private unless it’s on your laptop

Think twice about taking your laptop on international flights. Even if you have a backup, your personal and business data is at risk of being shared as it has to be surrendered to border officials. That will make it much safer to rent or borrow a computer at your destination vs carry. A thumb drive containing your data will probably not get so much attention. Then again, secure storage in the cloud may be an even better solution.

As was widely expected, an appeals court has ruled that customs agents have every right to search the content of your laptop, reversing the only court case that had ruled otherwise (a few others had previously said such searches were just dandy). The court found (just like the other rulings) that there’s an “exception” to the 4th Amendment against unreasonable search and seizure at the border. The government, of course, claims that it needs to be able to search laptops to keep people safe — but it doesn’t explain why it needs the ability to search any laptop even if there’s no suspicion or reason to do a further search. (Techdirt)