Comment by MichaelGG | Hacker News Reader

Comment by MichaelGG | Hacker News Reader

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Hopefully a lawyer will chime in, but I searched this a while ago. As a US citizen, CBP cannot require you to answer any questions beyond your customs declaration. They can detain you, but you don't have to say anything; they cannot deny you entry.

As a non-citizen, I don't believe you need to answer any questions, but they may decide to just deny you entry at that point, and it could cause problems if you ever wish to return. Best idea I've heard of is to have your company encrypt the laptop before you travel and do not provide you the key until you're done travelling.

The one case I am aware of was when a CBP agent stated they saw child porn on the laptop, which the person subsequently locked. In that case a court ordered him to provide the key.

Better idea: Buy a laptop when you get here, or have it shipped to you, and load it by downloading from the VPN. Upload your data before you return, and then Wipe/Destroy/Donate before crossing borders.

One of the things I like about my W500 Thinkpad (and my Dell D830 and ilk before that) is that it is insanely easy to swap the hard drive.

If I were concerned about traveling with certain data I would use a travel drive. Swap it in before going, and, as suggested, download what I needed once safely at my destination.

Now I'm wondering if there are other ways to carry that data with me in a format that would resist inspection. For example, on an SD card inside a camera. Or on a DVD. Break up the data into smaller files and named them variations on foo.jog or bar.avi or something, and reassemble things later.

For something like that the question might be whether I could be compelled to install or copy files to the active machine for inspection or evaluation if anyone got wise.

I was always a fan of renaming stuff to e.g. bzrun32.dll and moving it to C:\Windows\System32\.

Amusingly, this feature has utility for people in the US who work in defense areas (or anything covered under ITAR).

Planning to travel but got ITAR data on your disk? Better swap that disk unless you like fines and jail time.

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