TSA to download your iTunes?

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/apr/18/tsa-to-download-your-itunes/

by pquerna • 16 years ago

82 50 16 years ago

rit2• 16 years ago

The TSA has posted an official reply to this:

That's the Customs and Border Control's Job not ours. You can tell the difference because their uniform is NAVY blue and ours is more of a ROYAL blue. (I'm paraphrasing here but only barely. THEY ACTUALLY POINT OUT THE UNIFORM COLOR DIFF).

I wish/hope this was/is a joke:

http://www.tsa.gov/blog/2010/01/can-tsa-copy-your-laptop-har...

milkshakes4• 16 years ago

As much as I hate to agree with him ( http://reason.com/blog/2010/01/19/tsa-pays-blogger-to-mock-p... ), in this case "Blogger Bob" has a point. It was customs, and not DHS who actually searched the laptop.

The court case: http://fourthamendment.com/blog/index.php?blog=1&title=s...

Sukotto• 16 years ago

Speaking as a fairly frequent traveler here...

In my mind, there are two sets of uniformed people at the airport. "Airline worker" (gate agent, skycap, pilots, etc) who are there to help me.... and "TSA" (Anyone with a badge, possibly a gun, and the ability to basically do whatever the hell they want) who are there to make life demeaning.

It doesn't matter to me that the dark blue person is Homeland Security, the pale blue person is Customs, and the in-between blue one is Immigration. They are all equally "the man" and equally capable putting me on the "fuck that guy" list.

Intellectually I understand that many of them perform a valuable service. Emotionally I fear (and by extension: hate) them and have grown to dread traveling.

wtn• 16 years ago

Customs is part of DHS.

rit2• 16 years ago

I was more mortified at the tone in which this was posted. Something about it seemed far too carefree and nonchalant, as if the most important thing is quibbling over the subtle shade of blue in their uniforms. These being the people who complained so much people didn't take them seriously that they now get fake cop badges and uniforms.

jrockway14• 16 years ago

This is why I travel with a netbook that has full-disk encryption. If the government wants my laptop, they can have it for as long as they want. $300, whatever. If they want to compel disclosure of the passphrase, though, that's not as easy. Then judges and the Constitution get involved.

What I've learned from reading cases (and watching Law & Order, heh) is that if the police have evidence against you, it's easier for them to get what they want from the courts. "We already saw the child porn, we just want to check for more."

If all they have is a disk they can't read, it's going to be hard to get any judge to compel you to produce the key, especially if they can't prove you have the key. (And, in the US anyway, there is some precedent that you can't be compelled to produce the key anyway.)

The government wants more power, but the people have the power to take it away. It's just a checkbox away in your favorite OS's installer. (Well, in Debian anyway.)

With talk of 20 year prison sentences for ordering manga from Japan or talking to people on Myspace, I think it's pretty insane to not encrypt your disks. Who knows what someone else will think is illegal? I would rather not find out.

mshafrir• 16 years ago

Do you use http://www.truecrypt.org/ ?

jrockway14• 16 years ago

No, dm_mapper/LUKS.

But actually, I do have a Windows 7 machine, and am TrueCrypt-ing that right now. (I had forgotten about that until you mentioned it, and BitLocker is $200 I don't want to pay.)

So far, seems pretty nice. You can never be 100% sure about encryption software, but since I haven't read about the government breaking any crypto implementations and sending anyone to prison, it is probably Good Enough.

I don't worry too much because I don't think I am doing anything illegal. But it's still nice to avoid people rummaging through your stuff.

ErrantX3• 16 years ago

Make sure you use an adequate password with that encryption. It amazes me how many people use, say, an 8-10 character password with just lower case (and maybe numbers).

jrockway14• 16 years ago

Good full-disk encryption systems use key strengthening, making even short passphrases reasonably secure. Testing one passphrase on my machine, for example, takes about 1 second of CPU time. 26^8 seconds is a long time (6,000 years).

The other alternative is to brute-force the entire keyspace, which puts you back in 2^128 (or 2^512) territory but with the option of trying billions of keys a second. A few Universe lifetimes, and my .emacs will be all yours.

Oh, but I use a long password anyway. The key, IMO, is to avoid using a password you have ever used for anything else. You might not have to testify against yourself, but your employer or mail provider will be happy to cough up your password for the authorities. So don't give it to them.

tptacek• 16 years ago

This works up until the point where it's decided that refusal to disclose your password, while not a criminal offense in any way, is grounds to prevent you from boarding your flight.

jrockway14• 16 years ago

Customs is after you arrive, so whatever.

If I'm ever in this situation, I fully expect to be arrested (and released 23 hours later with no charges filed), though.

(Expect the worst and you won't be surprised.)

proee• 16 years ago

You should create your true root disk at a few levels down. If forced to reveal your password, then provide them only with the first level - maybe have it load windows 95.

whatusername• 16 years ago

You have seen this I assume? http://xkcd.com/538/

piguy3142• 16 years ago

The law on this matter is, as I understand it-IANAL, that a password is a product of the mind and so it would be a violation of your fifth amendment rights to compel you to give up the password, as it would be "testimony against yourself." A password written on a piece of paper or a physical key would be a different matter. This doesn't mean they can't confiscate your laptop and/or image the hard drive to try and crack your encryption later though, it just means if you have encrypted files you can't be penalized for failing to disclose the password (probably).

This lecture from Defcon 17 may be relevant: https://media.defcon.org/dc-17/audio/DEFCON%2017%20Hacking%2...

anigbrowl• 16 years ago

From the article: [4th amendment] protections do not disappear merely because one happens to be at a real - or imaginary - border.

Ah, but they do. It's called the 'border search exception' and it has been consistently upheld by courts, based largely on the 5th act of Congress passed in 1789 which set up the US Customs Service. Not only are searches of laptops and storage devices considered reasonable in this context, but so is opening mail and just about anything short of a strip search.

This has been argued over on a variety of grounds quite recently but the courts have stood firm on it. So like it or not, it's better to avoid carrying any storage device containing data that might be construed as suspicious.

jrockway14• 16 years ago

Indeed. Just send it via the Internet, where packets are not opened and inspected before entering the country.

Sometimes I think that government policies are implemented only to make people feel powerful. We can search your laptop!

OK, but I can just send the data to my home computer via the Internet, and just carry my wiped laptop across the border.

milkshakes4• 16 years ago

You're joking right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protect_America_Act_of_2007#Dat...

hannibalhorn• 16 years ago

It's worth nothing that CBP cannot compel you to give them your password(s), and can't really refuse entry to a US citizen, so as long as you encrypt everything your laptop should be secure. They can of course confiscate the machine to image it - and you may not get it back while it's still worth anything - but, what can you do.

The iPhone is trickier, mAdvLock is the only thing I know of that would most likely work even if it was confiscated.

piguy3142• 16 years ago

Nobody disputes, or should dispute, the right of a sovereign nation to perform invasive searches at international borders. What is most serious and egregious in the DHS/CBP behavior is the slippery slope of trying to change the definition of an international border. The 4th amendment in no way protects you from a border search, but saying that 100 miles inside the country is an international border is ludicrous.

TSA to download your iTunes?

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