American human rights activists outraged by groundless customs checks
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against U.S. Customs Service. According to the portal Xakep.ru, human rights activists do not like that customs checks laptops of persons arriving in the United States without any grounds.
The purpose of the lawsuit is to obtain information about the checks of laptop contents carried out by the Customs Service, during which customs officers often create images of hard drives without legal grounds. Moreover, after such checks, a laptop screen replacement is often required, which also displeases travelers. According to the ACLU, such checks are indiscriminate, although they should be selective and based on reasonable suspicion.
According to ACLU attorney Catherine Crump, the fact that a person travels with a laptop does not give the government the right to free access to their personal information. The lawyer believes that examining the contents of laptops when crossing the U.S. border directly contradicts the provisions of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures.
The increase in such checks is already causing growing concern in the corporate environment. Thus, many companies currently provide employees going on business trips with special corporate laptops Sony or other brands that do not contain important internal information. Additionally, they grant access to separate FTP sites, through which employees can download the data necessary for work after crossing the border.
Let us add that initially the American Civil Liberties Union tried to get answers to its questions in a pretrial manner, but its June request went unanswered.
Meanwhile, as Reuters notes, authorities are already trying to allay fears about violations of privacy and other constitutional rights. According to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who defends the innovations, the new rules proposed by the Obama administration will become a 'golden mean' between respecting travelers' civil rights and the need to ensure security within the country.
In particular, the rules allow searches of electronic devices without the owner's consent. However, the search must be conducted in their presence, unless otherwise directed. In addition, law enforcement officers have the right to copy information from devices for further review without the owner's knowledge. After inspection, copies of all data must be destroyed, but federal agents may retain all their extracts or notes, as well as summary reports on information found on the computers.
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