[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by joblack

You haven´t understood my post correctly.

They are not only searching it. They are copying my data. My data is my property. I´m not sure if they can confiscate my data if they copy it. But its definitively more than just searching.

You are assuming this will happen. Why?

Granted a Customs official can request and search your laptop. Why would they? They won't do it just because they can.

A huge number of travelers pass through customs checks every day. They certainly aren't going to search files on laptops on a whim. They practice management by exception, and only look closely if they believe there is a good reason to do so. Otherwise, they could never handle the volume.

When I've traveled, the only interest shown in my laptop has been "Turn it on to prove it's a working laptop, and not a bomb in disguise." No one has shown the faintest interest in the contents.

The only occasions I can see in which a laptop would be searched and files examined would be if the examiners thought there was some reason to do so, and that would occur because an ID search of the traveler revealed something like an outstanding arrest warrant, or a suspicion that the traveler was a terrorist, criminal, or foreign agent.

I´m seeing that the USA is shifting from a free country to a police state. The 'Patriot Act', the "enemy combatant", the increased surveillance or the 'war on terror'.

The differences in the three branches of government are known to me.

I don´t want to argue about deep legal interpretations - fact is, if you´re watching something else than Fox News, that the USA (as Germany as well) had more freedom 20 years ago than it has now.

<shrug>

These things are cyclical. This sort of thing has happened before, and may well happen again. The question is whether it will be sustained.

Given the current political climate in the US, my guess is "No". Regardless of who wins the next Presidential election, the current administration has largely discredited itself by its actions, and there is immense pressure on the next to not repeat the mistakes. (They will make all new and different ones.)

There were some doomsday scenarios being floated around in the US a few years back positing ways in which the Bush administration might attempt to subvert the law and the Constitution to maintain themselves in power, up to and including canceling the elections and imposing martial law. That didn't happen, and would be highly unlikely to happen, almost regardless of the circumstances. Among other things, military officers take an oath to defend and uphold the Constitution, not the current holder of an office. A President who attempted to declare martial law and make himself dictator might just discover that his military commanders would refuse to obey his orders.

Given some of the Horrible Examples elsewhere in the world, I don't think the US is anywhere near a police state. I grant the climate has been more liberal and the security less onerous at other times. And I agree that a good deal of it is pointless and unnecessary. Offhand, I'd guess about half of the security precautions currently imposed on travelers could be dispensed with with no perceptible increase in risk. That will happen slowly, because bureaucracies are ferocious about defending their turf. The agencies responsible for doing it will go to extreme lengths to preserve and extend their staffing and budget allocations.

But that's bureaucracy as usual, not police state.
______
Dennis