The Wall Street Journal reports today that DHS will continue to search some laptops at border entry points in the US, bu that the policy will be made more transparent. Laptop searches have been the source of much discussion amongst legal scholars recently as a result of several court decisions allowing the searches. For those interested, see my articles in the Publications section of my website www.karas.ca
Laptop Searches to Continue, Though Officials Pledge More Transparency - WSJ.com
AUGUST 27, 2009, 6:33 P.M. ET.
Laptop Searches to Continue, Though Officials Pledge More Transparency
By CAM SIMPSON
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration said Thursday it would continue peering into the files of laptop computers and other electronic devices carried by travelers arriving in the U.S., including U.S. citizens. But officials pledged to add more transparency and other reforms to the program, which has been criticized by privacy advocates.
At issue is a policy allowing border agents to seize and search electronic devices of travelers arriving in the U.S. without the permission of the traveler or probable cause. A small fraction of the devices carried by international travelers are searched, but civil liberties advocates complained about the intrusiveness and a lack of standards.
In response, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano pledged to review the program earlier this year. She announced new checks Thursday, but the underlying guidelines for when searches can be conducted remain largely unchanged. She cited concerns about terrorism and child pornography.
"Keeping Americans safe in an increasingly digital world depends on our ability to lawfully screen materials entering the United States," Ms. Napolitano said. "The new directives announced today strike the balance between respecting the civil liberties and privacy of all travelers while ensuring DHS can take the lawful actions necessary to secure our borders."
Among other changes, Ms. Napolitano promised to more closely track searches and seizures, to conduct annual audits and to return laptops to travelers faster. Border agents now will be limited to holding laptops for five days, while Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who are charged with investigating potential crimes, will have 30 days to hold devices, barring extenuating circumstances, officials said.
Sen. Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat who had been sharply critical of the searches, said the changes were an improvement. But he also left open the possibility that he might push legislation to limit the searches.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a federal lawsuit this week to obtain documents about the program, said the changes didn't go far enough. "We are still talking about the searches of everyone's laptops without standards," said Chris Calabrese, counsel for the ACLU's technology and liberty project.
Officials said Thursday that border agents searched about 1,000 laptops from the more than 221 million travelers they encountered from Oct. 1, 2008, until about two weeks ago. Of those, officials said, only 46 were searched in-depth.
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