Homeland Security: We can seize laptops for an indefinite pe

I'm not sure this is the right place for the topic. I just found this and would like to share with you guys. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10004646-38.html

 

Yeah, that sucks bawls big time..

They can basically take your laptop for an indefinite time for what ever reason they can come up with from whoever they want whenever they want. :|



Oh, and maybe this would better fit "Offtopic", since this should be General Discussion about the One?

 

I read about this on lifehacker, but they offered a pretty good "workaround" :
buy a cheap usb drive and install fedora live usb on it, then encrypt it (if you want).
Then take that across US borders rather than your laptop and the worst that'll happen is you lose a £5 usb stick
obviously it still sucks, cause no netbook action for the paranoid, but hey better than nothing.

 

This I why I never visit USA.

 

Everyone is paranoid. Just because someone can do something doesn't mean they will. The law is just written that way so they can use prejudice in taking action without being sued.

 

The question is, would you take the risk of losing your laptop/iphone because of this law? That makes me think TWICE to take my A1 with me going to the States; or, I'll never visit this lovely country again.

 

First off, I'm from the US. Secondly, I would absolutely take my laptop with me because based on prejudice, neither my computer nor myself appear to pose a threat.

 

It's not what you think whether or not you appear to pose a threat to the country. It's them, the government, who decide whether you will pose a threat. I'm pretty sure they will give hard time to minorities who want to cross the border. It looks like the US government is trying to protect the home land. To me they are isolating themselves from the rest of the world, which is a sad thing to say.

 

Dealersing is right imho - this is Big Brother in training, a possible ouverture of what might come further down the road. It's not the loss of a laptop that may be at stake here, it's a government chosing to disable civil rights and moving ever so slowly towards a police state. :|

And yes, this does make visiting the US of A less of an option - with or without a laptop.

 

A plus to taking your laptop through the airport is that on Aug. 16th you won't have to take the laptop out of the bag and put it in its own bin anymore.

 

Does anyone know if this policy is still in use? I ask because I might be traveling abroad after a couple of months and I will be taking my laptop with me! I'd not like them seize it and retain it over there. I haven't had good experiences with homeland security so far (last time I traveled they opened my back and left my shampoo bottle open!!! The shampoo was all over my things!).

 

With the NSA saga still on now Homeland security is now trying to show their might also. People in USA are not really free no matter how they claim to be.