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

[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.