And security measures just got tighter with this one. The Washington Post reports that the feds “may take a traveler’s laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing” as part of the border search.

Further more, once they take hold of it, your data is basically open season as they can hand it over to other agencies and private entities for translation and data decryption. So that means that no matter how private your data is (whether it’s corporate secrets, client information, or some good ol’ homemade pr0n) the feds are free to pick them apart.

And when they mean electronic gadgets, that would include hard drives, USB thumb drives, iPods, cellphones, audio and video tapes. Even written documents are subject to their scrutiny from books to pamphlets to pocket litter!

Here’s what’s dubious – if they find out that there’s nothing suspicious in your stuff, they have to destroy their copies but are free to keep notes that they took about it. Sheesh. Notes can be comprehensive enough, you know.

But I guess you only have to worry if you do have some suspicious stuff on you. So it’s probably a lot better to leave all your hardcore data at home before scooting out of the border.

Via: Web Worker Daily