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ACLU Seeks Records on Suspicionless Laptop Searches
The American Civil Liberties Union is attempting to discover the degree to which Constitutional protections are being violated by a US government policy allowing border officials to search the laptops and other electronic devices of travelers even in the absence of any reason for suspicion.
Last July, Customs and Border Protection — which is part of the Department of Homeland Security — issued a policy (pdf) allowing it to conduct suspicionless border searches of “documents, books, pamphlets, and other printed material, as well as computers, disks, hard drives, and other electronic or digital storage devices.”
The announced purpose of the searches was to counter such crimes as terrorism, drug smuggling, child pornography and copyright violations.
The ACLU has now filed a Freedom of Information Act request (pdf) to discover what impact that policy has had on travelers. According to ACLU staff attorney Larry Schwartztol, “Based on current CBP policy, we have reason to believe innumerable international travelers — including U.S. citizens — have their most personal information searched by government officials and retained by the government indefinitely.”
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