Miss Behavin

FISA / Customs cocktail

August 5th, 2008

What do you get when you add FISA and the new Homeland Security Customs search practices?

Well here is an excellent way to put it from Steve Bellovin:

“…it would seem to make little difference if the information is ‘imported’ into the US via a physical laptop or via a VPN, or for that matter by a Web connection. The right to search a laptop for information, then, is equivalent to the right to tap any and all international connections, without a warrant or probable cause. (More precisely, one always has a constitutional protection against ‘unreasonable’ search and seizure; the issue is what the definition of ‘unreasonable’ is.)”

Other great article’s referring to this topic:

• Slashdot’s FISA and Laptops
• Information Week’s Homeland Security: All Your Laptops Belong To Us
• The Street’s Government Gets a ‘C’ on Data Protection
• EFF Battles Dangerous Attempts to Circumvent Electronic Privacy Law

  Entry Filed under: Privacy rights