Checking Your Privacy at the Border

Sept. 11, 2008 — -- Rising gas prices, crowded airplanes and tightening wallets have all put a damper on America's travel plans. But there is another reason to think twice before planning a quick weekend jaunt to Mexico -- your privacy.

The amount of information the government collects on citizens crossing our borders, and the means with which it gathers it, is expanding in ways that seem procedurally chilling and irritatingly limitless in scope.

New regulations now allow Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents to search your laptop computer. Every file, photo, e-mail or scrap of confidential data -- any of the secrets or intensely personal information you keep closely guarded -- is now subject to the spotlight of inspection and possible seizure without any "reasonable suspicion."

The rule extends to all electronic devices: your cell phone, your personal digital assistant, your iPod or iPhone. Ironically, the rule prohibits CBP agents from inspecting any unopened letters without a warrant, as long as those letters are in the postal system. So, while en route to the old country, your letter to grandma asking for her secret goulash recipe has more protection than the confidential merger agreements living on your hard drive.

Americans have come to expect that a CBP agent might rummage through their luggage. And while the thought of a total stranger stumbling across some dirty laundry might raise a blush, most Americans take such actions as a minor inconvenience for the security payoff we've come to expect from these random inspections. But personal computers are not dirty socks.

We increasingly live our lives online, filling our computers with confidential business information, personal writings, a record of our associations, banking transactions and health-care information. The same information locked in a desk drawer would be entitled to full Fourth Amendment protections. But in an environment where technology has far outstripped the law, a digital "strip search" at the border without any suspicion is perfectly legal.