[Infowarrior] - Bill would limit Homeland Security laptop searches

[Richard Forno]

  September 30, 2008 3:35 PM PDT
Bill would limit Homeland Security laptop searches
Posted by Stephanie Condon 8 comments

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10055020-38.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20


The Homeland Security Department has declared its right to seize  
laptops at the U.S. border indefinitely, but legislation introduced  
Thursday is intended to curb that power.

U.S. Sens. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), and Rep.  
Adam Smith, (D-Wash.), introduced the Travelers Privacy Protection Act  
in response to the DHS policy allowing customs agents to detain a  
traveler's laptop for an unspecified period of time to review its  
contents, even absent of individualized suspicion.

"Most Americans would be shocked to learn that upon their return to  
the U.S. from traveling abroad, the government could demand the  
password to their laptop, hold it for as long as it wants, pore over  
their documents, e-mails, and photographs, and examine which Web sites  
they visited--all without any suggestion of wrongdoing," Feingold  
said. "Focusing our limited law enforcement resources on law-abiding  
Americans who present no basis for suspicion does not make us any  
safer and is a gross violation of privacy."

The legislation would require DHS to form reasonable suspicion of  
illegal activity before searching electronic devices carried by U.S.  
residents. The DHS would also be required to provide probable cause  
and a warrant or court order to hold such a device for more than 24  
hours. The bill also limits what information acquired through  
electronic searches the DHS can disclose, and it requires the  
department to report on its border searches to Congress.

The DHS refused to send a witness to a Senate hearing in June, chaired  
by Feingold, regarding searches of electronic devices, but it provided  
a written statement defending its policy. A ruling in April by the  
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals also defended the agency's right to  
conduct the searches without reasonable suspicion.

Similar bills, such as the Securing Our Borders and Our Data Act and  
the Border Security Search Accountability Act, have been introduced  
this year in the House.