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.

[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. ^^

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.