MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - US Border agents can seize electronic devices without much reason

ebusinesstutor · 04-09-2011, 03:48 PM

I should note that the man in question in the first link was a registered sex offender. So they were looking for child porn.

I doubt that the average traveler gets that sort of attention.

There is nothing on my laptops that would be illegal or pirated, so they wouldn't find anything if they looked, but it is definitely a concern as they could find something they thought was wrong and it might take a while to prove it was ok.

So it would be best to take mobile devices that you are not dependent on to run your whole business. If you primarily work from a laptop in your business like I do, perhaps take a tablet or less expensive laptop just for travel and work with cloud documents.

We are very cautious when we go to the US from Canada and back. My wife was a Canadian immigration officer years ago, so we understand the difficulty customs officials face.

We are very up front about where we are going and what we are doing and don't try to hide anything. And we don't do smart alecky remarks. On our way back, we have our declaration forms all ready.

It is just not worth bringing extra attention down on us.

04-09-2011, 03:48 PM	#25
ebusinesstutor Star Gawker Posts: 526 Karma: 6944314 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Spruce Grove, AB Canada Device: Kindle Paperwhite	I should note that the man in question in the first link was a registered sex offender. So they were looking for child porn. I doubt that the average traveler gets that sort of attention. There is nothing on my laptops that would be illegal or pirated, so they wouldn't find anything if they looked, but it is definitely a concern as they could find something they thought was wrong and it might take a while to prove it was ok. So it would be best to take mobile devices that you are not dependent on to run your whole business. If you primarily work from a laptop in your business like I do, perhaps take a tablet or less expensive laptop just for travel and work with cloud documents. We are very cautious when we go to the US from Canada and back. My wife was a Canadian immigration officer years ago, so we understand the difficulty customs officials face. We are very up front about where we are going and what we are doing and don't try to hide anything. And we don't do smart alecky remarks. On our way back, we have our declaration forms all ready. It is just not worth bringing extra attention down on us.