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Government/Legislation
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U.S. border crossing carries risk of laptop search, confiscation
Business travelers and their companies are becoming increasingly cautious about laptop content when traveling internationally. Most are not yet aware that, under U.S. law, a person’s laptop and other electronic devices commonly carried to conduct business may be seized, searched, and even confiscated upon arrival to or departure from the United States. This applies to U.S. passport holders and non-U.S. passport holders alike.
Courts in both the United States and Canada are grappling with the need to rethink the rules around when a person’s reasonable expectations of privacy collide with a government’s obligation to protect its borders.
Some argue that this is not just a U.S. program and instead is a basic concept of international law: that all persons and their belongings upon entering a country are subject to search, and that by natural extension the search could include computers. Others question whether laptops should be viewed as another piece of a passenger’s luggage.
An international survey of Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) members showed that 86 percent of business travel executives - who were surprised that U.S. government officials have the right to search, seize, and confiscate computers - believed the right to search passengers’ computers was ample cause to limit the type of information usually carried in an executive’s computer. Susan Gurley, executive director of ACTE, said, “The common belief is that there is a right to the privacy of one’s computer. Yet it appears that there is none.” The organization is advising business travelers to use caution if carrying proprietary information across U.S. borders.
ACTE’s survey also showed that companies with policies limiting proprietary information contained on laptops equaled those without; and a similar number of companies are researching the issue. Those with policies were primarily addressing laptop theft or loss.
Source: ACTE
