DHS Claims It Can Seize Laptops Forever

I reported last month on a remarkable Ninth Circuit ruling holding that border police can search citizens’ laptops without cause. Now, the Department of Homeland Security is taking advantage of the ruling and trying to push it as far as it will go. DHS’s new policy claims that the Department can seize laptops for as long as they want – including to catch people with material that violates “copyright or trademark laws.”

Better clean your music library before taking that vacation to Mexico. (Actually, CNET advises that you “encrypt your laptop, with full disk encryption if possible, and power it down before you go through customs.”)