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US customs agents Examine and Copy Data From Laptops

By Mark H. Astarita, Esq.

According to a number of reports, US Customs officials are searching computers of US citizens coming into the country from trips abroad, and making copies of data on those computers.The warrantless wiretaps were bad enough, and an affront to our constitutional rights. But the government claimed that they were only listening and reading communications with suspected terrorists. Then we found that they were listening and reading communications from virtually everyone.But the justification was that they were checking on communications by terrorists. When they seize the contents of my laptop, without any probable cause or warrant, is it because they think there is a terrorist inside? What about the Fourth Amendment? More to the point with laptops, what about the attorney client privilege?And the truly amazing point - the Government will not comment on what it is looking for, who it shares the data it copies with, or if and when it destroys it...continue to full post

Full post as published by SECLaw.com on February 13, 2008 (boomark / email).