UAE | Tourism
US agents given power to seize travellers' laptops
US federal agents could take a traveller's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.
- By Ellen Nakashima, Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service
- Published: 00:04 August 2, 2008
Washington: US federal agents could take a traveller's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.
Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two agencies, US Customs and Border Protection and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"The policies ... are truly alarming," said Senator Russell Feingold, who is probing the government's border search practices. He said he intends to introduce legislation soon that would require reasonable suspicion for border searches, as well as prohibit profiling on race, religion or national origin.
US officials said that the newly disclosed policies - which apply to anyone entering the country, including US citizens - are reasonable and necessary to prevent terrorism. Officials said such procedures have long been in place but were disclosed last month.
The policies state that officers can "review and analyse information" in the traveller's laptop "absent individualised suspicion".
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