However, what is most ironic about this ruling is that it was not made with intent to thwart terrorism but in fact was made regarding an American citizen returning from the Philippines with child pornography on his computer. Now I'm all for this man rotting in jail for years but this sets a dangerous precedent. For example, if one is an attorney with confidential attorney client privilege on your computer and now all of the sudden because you choose to leave the United States your information is subject to becoming not so confidential. More interestingly, how will they handle companies that have government contracts that issue laptops with confidential information?
This seems to me yet another violation of privacy and illegal search and seizures that has plagued the Bush Administration and the conservative justices that have been appointed by them or previous so called conservatives. The prevailing wisdom being, if you do not have anything to hide than why worry? Yet, as I pointed out above this is not simply the case and I can only hope that the Supreme Court realizes this as well.
I guess as always...big brother is watching more and more.
1 comment:
The problem goes further than that. I have friend that had this happen to him entering into Canada.
They asked to look at his laptop, he replied with a smart answer knowing nothing was on it that would throw a flag. They took it into a separate room, and after an hour returned and told him to put his hands behind his back he was under arrest. He did, and was taken to an integration room where they began removing other electronics from his bag like his cell phone. They poked around on it for a while then finally decided they would inform him of what he was being detained for. "Sir, here in Canada its is illegal to possess material that is considered bestiality." WHAT! he said, "You have to be out of your mind to say that." then out comes his laptop, with outlook pulled up. Inside his spam folder was an email, NOT SENT BY HIM, but sent to him by way of spam, that showed (use your imagination). He freaked out, they had him by the balls technically, and he knew it. It took several hours for them to finally get over the smart ass comment pissing them off in the first place.
He told me he will never take a laptop or cell phone to Canada again. He said he'll borrow or rent one from now on. As for files he carries them on a small flash chip in his pocket.
He never saw that $2500 laptop or $400 pda phone again. Expensive lesson learned.
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