Violated!
June 26th, 2008 by KimI’ll never forget that trip home from college in 2002, the first time I opened my suitcase and found a small, white card with an official-looking seal informing me that border security agents had gone through my bag and inspected my belongings.
“Great,” I thought. “The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been rifling through my underwear.”
The men in black, or whoever they were, left little evidence that they had been through my things at all, save that card, and some slightly out-of-order folded clothing — oh wait, this was MY suitcase, so nothing was probably folded anyway.
Nevertheless, that card alone made me feel slightly, well — violated.
Six years later, there are bigger fish to fry — a U.S. Senate hearing yesterday questioned whether federal officials can seize and search people’s laptop computers during airport security inspections. That story in today’s New York Times.
The federal government says the laptop searches are a necessary step in efforts to catch people who carry illegal material across U.S. borders.
The searches are problematic not only because of the obvious privacy concerns, but will likely cause an uproar because so many people today tie their entire lives up in their computers. I’m traveling to Chicago next month and will probably take my laptop, on which is saved countless, priceless notes, papers, interviews. I’ve seen friends treat the death of a laptop like the loss of a loved one. Seriously, they’ll mourn for days.
What would they do if their computers were suddenly taken away? For me, it would be as if someone took over and blew up my office.
I’m also confused as to what the Feds looking for. Data? Viruses? Photos? Is this a security issue? If it’s a bomb disguised as a computer, I could see how there would be cause for concern. But can’t anything being carried on a hard drive just as easily be sent via email from outside the U.S. to within American borders without even going through a metal detector? Someone enlighten me.
After going along with stricter bag inspections, pat downs, shoe removal, long lines, extended waiting times, no bottled anything, and the consolidation of all toiletries and medicines to a quart-size, zip-lock, clear plastic bag with (relatively) little protest, one wonders how much more travelers will tolerate.
Seven years after 9-11, seems like little white cards in our suitcases may be the least of our worries.
Tags: fourth amendment, government, travel
June 26th, 2008 at 4:23 am
I’ve had several of the white cards left for me….I finally figured out why. I use a cologne, its shape is similar to a grenade, just missing the handle. On my trip back home from Hawaii last month, I left it behind and upon reaching home and opening the luggage, no white card.
On another trip to Hawaii, the picture on my driver’s license is somewhat unrecognizable. The TSA asked me to step aside - they did a complete hand scan, inspected my luggage as well. They recommended that I obtain another license with a clearer picture. I had my local MVD Fedex a new license.
June 26th, 2008 at 6:30 am
When I came back from Vegas, where I purchased a ring from Tiffany’s, my suitcase had obviously been opened along with the Tiffany’s box, but there was no little white card. I wasn’t stupid enough to leave the ring in the box in the suitcase, but still I felt quite violated.
June 26th, 2008 at 7:35 am
the island air tsa’s at kapalua are ridiculous. they ALWAYS rifle through your stuff and leave the white card. Not to mention, if you have little kids or if you are elderly, you will automatically be wanded. Last week on our return from Kapalua the tsa agent actually checked a mother’s HAIR! As if!
Its a good question Kim - how much will travelers put up with? I’m already prepared to be Fed-Exing my luggage! and where will we draw the line?
meanwhile - do a backup onto a portable hard drive - just to be safe.
June 26th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Didn’t read the article, but obviously another reason not to travel. Does “searching” mean they can boot up your computer and view your business documents??
June 26th, 2008 at 9:21 am
One time flying back from Las Vegas I had a big bag of pistachio nuts in my suitcase with some boxes of model cars in my suitcase and got he white card. The funny thing was it was repacked way nicer and neater than I had packed it with a lot more room left over. That was okay but the last time I went to Las Vegas the TSA approved locks were missing and no white card. Another time going to Hilo I had some Red Bulls and one was missing along with the TSA locks again. Maybe the TSA guy needed some energy.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:32 am
what will be their protocol for going through your computer?
last month when i went back to Hilo, i was appalled because the TSA guy dropped my computer into the bin screen side down. when i asked him to turn it over he gave me stink eye than threw the bin on the belt. not like baseball player throw but heave-ho toss kine.
the TSA people in the Big Island were much cooler.
June 26th, 2008 at 10:03 am
I’ve had my bag inspected (presumably) several times, but I’ve never received a white card. Since 9/11, I’ve always traveled with TSA approved locks, but when I arrive at my destination, the locks are always gone, which is extremely frustrating. Why dish out $$$ for locks that are supposedly approved if the TSA is just going to lose them or throw them away? I’d rather not travel without locking my bags, but I’m left with few other options. You’re right, it does feel like a violation, and in the name of Homeland Security, it seems we have little recourse now but to tolerate it.
June 26th, 2008 at 10:12 am
You know, it is weird for me to read that there are so many problems with the TSA at the airports.. Don’t get me wrong, I believe everything you guys say but I just have complete different experiences (these are, in a way, not correct either but it was no hassle for me).
Last year, I travelled between Europe and Hawaii, and I travelled between Oahu, Maui and Big Island.. all times I had this open tube of toothpaste inside my carry on (laptop bag with laptop). They checked me in Honolulu, Kahului, Hilo, Minneapolis (it was a stepover but I left the international/secured area so they had to check me again) and not once they stopped me because of the open tube in my bag and, according to the rules, they should’ve stopped me and taken it away from me since it was open. I still wonder how come they didn’t..
Oh well.. I hope the laptop story is something they wont do.. I like my privacy and there’s many stuff on it that I don’t want others to know or to see… I don’t even want to think about losing it, there is so much work on it, it’d kill me :/
Stupid anti terrorist acts, you’ll completely lose your privacy when they keep going on with this, in the end we’ll end up with camera’s everywhere.. in every building, in every place and in every home…
June 26th, 2008 at 10:25 am
I really haven’t had problems, per se. However, the manner in which they treat passengers is inconsistent enough to always concern me when I travel (mostly interisland).
June 26th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Pack dirty underwear next time.
June 26th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Do NOT pack any object with wires sticking out and pass it off as art.
June 26th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
emailing or sending documents over the internet leaves a digital “paper trail” that can be traced. carrying sensitive data on a laptop with you onto an airplane would be a good way to move data without being traced… but what if you put the information on a DVD-R or onto a thumbdrive or portable hard drive? What about your Ipod? you could easily store data on an Ipod and no one thinks twice about seeing an Ipod these days. also, even if you did have suspicious files on your notebook, would the TSA be able to find it in a reasonable amount of time? unless they plan on staffing security checkpoints with computer forensics experts, this would be such a waste of time. and just what are they looking for? a “NOC List” like in the movie “Mission: Impossible”? Are you going to get busted for your MP3 collection at the airport now? Searching laptop computers would be such a gross invasion of privacy. If the TPTB are smart, they will not go down this avenue…
June 26th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Wow: Just read the article and the searches do/could involve checking emails, etc.:
“But,” Mr. Feingold continued, “if you asked them whether the government has a right to open their laptops, read their documents and e-mails, look at their photographs and examine the Web sites they have visited, all without any suspicion of wrongdoing, I think those same Americans would say that the government absolutely has no right to do that.”
June 26th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
seems like that should be protected against illegal searches and seizures of our bill of rights. i can see if they have a reasonable suspicion, but just randomly rifling through your stuff and maybe info. on a laptop? seems like too much. there needs to be a balance between personal safetly on flights and personal liberties. right now everything is slanted towards the government and the patriot act and the lingering fear from 9-11.
June 26th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
At least no one I know has had this happen to them yet: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0315-04.htm
A New Jersey man who was carrying two “No Iraq War” signs in his suitcase found a note on that little white piece of paper from the TSA: “Don’t appreciate your anti-American attitude!” it said.
Believe this story?
June 26th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
I don’t disbelieve it. Another thing about traveling to neighbor islands is that the laptop goes in one box (after taking it out of the bag), shoes, belt, and watch go in another, if I’m wearing a coat, it goes in another, files/documents go in another, etc. etc. What a drag.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Yep. This is something that should’ve always been done, even before 09/11.
To me, we oughta follow what El Al Airlines does.
Regarding laptop or any kind of info’ on ya’ll computer hard drive? If it’s important enough? Back up, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up. On to disc. Always back up; heck, you can DROP the laptop and, voila, there goes the info’ anyways.
K-den.
June 26th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
I don’t mind my suitcase or laptop being searched. I have nothing to hide. As long as they don’t mess up my computer or take it, it’s fine. I don’t know what kinds of things they expect to find either. Papers? Pictures of my family and friends? Korean drama stuff? Who knows.
I don’t like them touching my clothes either, but they always say it’s better to be safe than sorry.
June 26th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Time to put everything on Google Docs, leave nothing for Big Brother!
June 26th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
I wouldn’t mind, but the amount of time it takes to do go through my files, wth? The PATRIOT Act similarly permits the government unprecedented access to my internet activity. I don’t really care-I have nothing to hide and it does not interfere with my ability to catch a plane.
June 26th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
News Flash, Ty. Google IS big brother.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:52 am
I’m having to delete comments, kids. Please no attacks against the host. Thanks.
June 27th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
In the 18th Century, when the Constitution was written, “unreasonable search” meant search of your home, personal effects, papers, letters. When the telephone became an important part of our lives, these protections were extended to our phonecalls and “wiretaps” required warrants, though the police and Feds were sometimes caught violating those safeguards.
As more of our life has moved into the digital realm, it is essential that our constitutional rights to protection against unreasonable search follow us into cyberspace. The current debate over FISA, is part of the ongoing struggle for personal liberty from intrusive government, which will always suggest they are only trying to increase their power over us in order to better serve our interests. Absent from most mainstream accounts of the FISA struggle is an explanation of why the Feds feel they “need” to remove the already weak restraints the current FISA bill imposes on them. Already, they are freed from the requirement of getting a warrant in advance of a “wiretap,” if, in their judgment, there is insufficient time. The answer appears to be that the Bush administration never truly abandoned their TIA initiative (Total Information Awareness), which called for widespread datamining/eavesdropping and analysis of the electronic communications of all US residents, in an effort to build up a database capable of tracking and discerning patterns in our behavior which may be advantageous to law enforcement. Those of you advocating online backup of our computer data should remember you have turned your private records into “electronic communications” in the process.
TSA has no business inspecting our harddrives, absent a search warrant. They have a right to “x-ray” our devices, looking for explosives hidden in them. And they have a right to ask us to turn them on. But they do not have a right to read our emails, look at our pictures, check to see if we have licenses for our mp3s, etc.
Digital “contraband” can easily be uploaded to a website and then downloaded once the traveller crosses the border. Any serious inspection of a hard drive would be quite time-consuming, unless the harddrives are copied for more exhaustive inspection. Like much of what the TSA does, I think the actual purpose is more “theater” designed to create the impression of security, both as a deterrent to “the bad guys” and to provide cover for the politicians in case something bad does happen. “At least they tried.”
It may be tempting to say we have nothing to hide from law enforcement, but the history of government surveillance is not very re-assuring. When data is kept and human beings have access to that data, it will be used by those human beings for very human, and very flawed, purposes. J. Edgar Hoover maintained massive files as a result of widespread and often illegal surveillance. he used that information to advance his agenda, blackmail troublesome politicians and trying to destroy people whose politics he disagreed with.
If you are a Republican, imagine what a Hillary Clinton or James Carville would do with access to the personal information of Republican politicians. If you are a Democrat, imagine what George Bush, Alberto Gonsales, and Dick Cheney may have been doing with the info at their fingertips. And such information, once collected, is always at the fingertips of someone connected to the powerful networks running this country.