p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- “Your laptop computer likely contains a massive amount of private information such as personal emails, financial data or confidential business records,” says EFF staff attorney Marcia Hofmann.

“The Department of Homeland Security has given its agents increasingly broad authority to search, copy, and store that information. Congress needs to step in now to stop these invasive practices and protect travelers’ privacy.”

Her comments come in an Electronic Frontier Foundation report which says recently obtained documents show last year, the US Department of Homeland Security, “quietly reversed a two-decades-old policy that restricted customs agents from reading and copying the personal papers carried by travelers, including U.S. citizens”.

The documents were made public today by the Asian Law Caucus (ALC) and EFF which sued the government under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to get access to policies governing the searches and questioning of travelers at US borders.

CBP agents could previously read travelers’ documents only if they had “reasonable suspicion” that the documents would reveal violations of agency rules, but in 2007 officers were given the power to “review and analyze” papers without any individualized suspicion, says the EFF, going on »»»

Furthermore, whereas CBP agents could previously copy materials only where they had “probable cause” to believe a law had been violated, in 2007 they were empowered to copy travelers’ papers without suspicion of wrongdoing and keep them for a “reasonable period of time” to conduct a border search. The new rules applied to physical documents as well as files on laptop computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices.

The EFF says the documents also reveal:

• In 2004, CBP adopted a directive on responding to “potential terrorists” seeking to enter the United States. The directive, which was revised in 2006, called for intensive questioning and document review of individuals who were flagged as “known or suspected” terrorists.
• CBP appears to have no policy constraining agents from questioning travelers on their religious practices or political views, in spite of the fact that many travelers have complained about being grilled on such First Amendment-protected activities.
• According to the Tucson, Arizona, field office of CBP, a database developed within that office to gather and disseminate intelligence on possible terrorists was to serve as a model for a national database.

The ALC and EFF say they”ll challenge the government’s withholding of portions of many of these documents in federal district court this fall.

EFF - Internal DHS Documents Detail Expansion of Power to Read and Copy Travelers’ Papers, September 23, 2008

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 1:17 pm and is filed under Freedom, P2P. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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