Hands off my laptop

As a regular traveler to the United States on business, and therefore always with my laptop, this article certainly gives me pause. I’ll certainly be thinking twice what files I have on my system before my next trip, and leaving a back-up of my critical files at home. The security provisions for traveling to the U.S. are getting increasingly ridiculous, but perhaps none more so that the take off your shoes rule, instituted only because some guy tried to make a shoe bomb. As one wit said, thank-god there wasn’t an underwear bomber…yet.

Returning from a brief vacation to Germany in February, Bill Hogan was selected for additional screening by customs officials at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. Agents searched Hogan's luggage and then popped an unexpected question: Was he carrying any digital media cards or drives in his pockets? "Then they told me that they were impounding my laptop," says Hogan, a freelance investigative reporter whose recent stories have ranged from the origins of the Iraq war to the impact of money in presidential politics.

Shaken by the encounter, Hogan says he left the airport and examined his bags, finding that the agents had also removed and inspected the memory card from his digital camera. "It was fortunate that I didn't use that machine for work or I would have had to call up all my sources and tell them that the government had just seized their information," he said. When customs offered to return the machine nearly two weeks later, Hogan told them to ship it to his lawyer.

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