Do you keep everything on your laptop and are thinking about foreign travel?

[thewayne]

You might want to do a little cleanup first. I'd suggest backing up and removing stuff that you won't need and storing the backup DVDs in a fire-proof lock box or safe deposit box, then doing a wipe/overwrite of the unused parts of your drive.

There is a lot of uncertainty about what your rights are regarding search and seizure, so it'd be best if nothing major is there in the first place.

http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,72510-0.html

Comments

[neefsck.livejournal.com]

I have a travel laptop.
Most of the time it doesn't get touched except for work, and travel :)

[silveradept]

Definitely. Until the courts can decide on the reasonable interpretation (warrants are required for searching the files on a the computer system, and results/evidence can only be obtained from the specified warrant categories), it probably wouldn't be worth inviting wrath by displaying your "F the G-Men" wallpaper when the TSA asks you to prove your computer's not a bomb.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

They've stopped (at least at PHL, BWI, and DTW) making you power up the laptop like they used to do shortly after 9/11/2001.

I think the only way they'd make someone power up their laptop is if it shows something wonky on the X-ray, or if they think the person is suspicious.

I've taken various laptops in and out of the country (mostly via the Niagara Falls entry point) and I've never even been asked specifically about my laptop. Then again, I also don't carry my laptop in a traditional laptop bag, so it probably doesn't get picked up by customs as being a laptop when they see the bag in the car.

I haven't taken a laptop overseas, but with the restriction on no-carry on's on the flights into the UK, I probably won't bother taking it if I go to visit...the ban better be lifted by the time I move there.

[wuglet.livejournal.com]

When I travelled to the UK and back to Germany with my laptop, all the airport guys did was looking if the CDs I had with the laptop were original ones.

I also had an audiobook with Frank Schätzing's "The Swarm" in German (which comes in a box of 10 CDs), and the security guy actually asked me where I got it because he didn't know it was already published. ^^

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Interesting that they'd be concerned that you had original CDs. Myself, I have no idea where the originals are. All of my software serial numbers are in an encrypted file on my Palm Pilot, and the software is in compressed files (RARs) on a DVD.

Not having an original on your person wouldn't come close to proof that you have illegal software. At least in the US, you are perfectly within your right to make backups of your original CDs.

[wuglet.livejournal.com]

Well in Europe you are within your right to make backups too.
They were actually looking if I had the original Windows XP CD and not a burned one. I had some burned ones with me too and when I said that those were my backup CDs, they just moved on.

I gues here it is a bit of a paranoia about illegal music and games, they are pretty harsh to people who illegally download those.

Oh well, I have no idea. ;)

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Ridiculous. They're only going to capture stupid pirates because the smart ones will have all of their warez on a server that Customs will never see.

I think I would consider rigging my machine to dual-boot Linux, and before going somewhere it might be inspected, flip it over to boot Linux only.

A few folks recommended if you are traveling for business

[julydancer.livejournal.com]

Overseas. Don't take the laptop unles syou have to. Burn what you need onto a jmp drive or memory stick and borrow a laptop when you get there.

Re: A few folks recommended if you are traveling for business

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Interesting approach. Sounds good. For me, I would have to have one for storing digital photos.