Business travelers Beware: A nightmare in US Customs

A relatively new and all too common occurrence in US and some other countries is the routine seizure and inspection of personal electronics devices. We all travel with them on business trips and vacations. On the surface Customs inspections of personal electronic devices including laptop computers seems like a harmless security measure designed to stop “terrorists”.

That is unless you’re one of the thousands who have been held had their laptops seized and been accused of heinous crimes against children. The following are a series of accounts of US citizens, mostly business people, being abused at the hands of US Homeland Security.

I recently interviewed a middle aged white female accountant for an advertising firm out of the Midwest. As part of her duties she regularly traveled abroad for business. On the trip about 2 years ago, where she was “profiled” she spent a week in Amsterdam for a trade how and then 4 days in Munich to host some important clients for Oktoberfest.

During her stay she withdrew several thousand dollars to pay for all the food and beer at the beer tents as credit cards are not accepted or not convenient at the most tents. It’s that what she believes is what triggered a “random” check of her belongings upon return. When she made her way through customs a young eager Homeland Security Agent greeted her by name and said they had been waiting for her. This was the beginning of 6 hours of interrogation, accusations and demeaning treatment by Homeland Security.

As it turns out in the border zone (according to the agents who were questioning her) you have no rights. All of your property is subject to search and seizure regardless of probable cause or nationality. In her case they went right for her laptop, camera and cell phones. They hooked the laptop up to a computer and bypassed standard Windows security and began scanning her hard drive and making a copy. They showed her a tiny thumbnail of a woman (in this case it was her boss’s 24 year old wife in a bikini) and accused her of being involved in distribution of child pornography. Her husband who had also been stopped was separated from her and they were interrogated separately.

In his interrogation they stated that they had evidence on his wife’s laptop that she was involved in horrific crimes against children and that if he cooperated they would go easy on him. Neither person was allowed to call a lawyer nor given the opportunity to refute the charges.

After 6 hours of constant badgering and military grade interrogations without food or rest following 15 hour flight they were released and told all their possessions were being turned over to local authorities for further investigation. She was devastated. An accusation of this sort even if eventually refuted can destroy a person’s reputation permanently.

Two weeks passed with no word and no return calls regarding her work laptop, camera and cell phones or the crimes she was accused of. The laptop itself, contained personal financial information about clients and according to the company’s privacy policy, should never be copied or transmitted to anyone outside the company. This alone exposed them to loss of contracts and possible lawsuits.

Finally a local police investigator called her and stated after carefully reviewing everything in her emails, and files, that he believed the did not have enough evidence to peruse a case against her and that she would be able to come claim her property in the next week. No apology, no admission of wrong doing, nothing to excuse this abusive invasions of personal and company data. She believes the trigger that got her “flagged” was the large withdrawals of cash from ATMs in two countries. If this is the case it is indeed troubling that they would have access to this information and use a cover rouse such as child abuse to gain access to personal financial data. To this day every piece of mail or package she receives from overseas is opened and inspected.

The next person I interviewed is an airplane mechanic whose job requires him to travel all over the Middle East installing safety equipment on commercial and private aircraft. Upon a recent trip back to the USA he was also stopped for “random” profile. As he was traveling without a laptop they went for his phone and wallet. His wallet contained dozens of business cards with names like “Muhammad” and “Abdulla” as did his phone. Having been working off and on in the Middle East and living in Thailand for the last 15 years he had quite the interesting contact list in his phone. They wanted to know each and every name in there, what they did and who they worked for.

He did his best to explain his situation and they simply said he was not being accused of anything but they needed to know everyone he knew and why to make sure he wasn’t associating or supporting terrorists. During the course of his 4 hour ordeal the agent while trying to copy his phone data accidentally erased the entire phone by resetting the factory settings. Once that happened they had very little to ask and sent him on his way. Free to go but missing years of work contacts and data. Had they not made that mistake he believes they would have held him for at least another 4 or 5 hours based on the speed they were making their way through his contacts.

The final story I have is of particular interest to those traveling in Asia on holiday. These are identical accounts from two different people one returning from Thailand on a two week trip to the islands and the other a business owner in Manila. Both were stopped in customs and told they were being random checked because they matched a profile of single middle aged men traveling in Asia alone. Their laptops and cameras were seized and inspected onsite. The next event was a rather embarrassing examination of personal photos taken with their girlfriends. As everyone who’s familiar with Asia, the women look young well into their 40’s.

On this case their respective girl friends were well into their 20s. That didn’t stop the agents from accusing them from abusing children in an attempt to extract some admission of guilt. They both denied the accusations and finally after several hours in both cases the agents acquiesced and said next time they travel they should not take provocative photos back home because it’s likely they will have to endure the same treatment and the next agent might not be seasoned enough to tell the difference between kids and girls in their 20’s. Both laptops were copied and no indication was given the data would ever be purged from the system.

I will not get into the pros and cons of such invasion of privacy and violation of rights in disguise of national security. I think to all who read this it’s fairly obvious. What I will tell you is if you travel with electronics, you must secure your data. The best way to do this is using an encryption program such as TruCrypt (www.trucrypt.com). It’s free and has some great features. You can encrypt your entire computer and you sacrifice very little speed or you can create an encrypted “file” where all your documents can be stored. Even though you are not required to turn over a password when asked for one, it may make you uneasy to refuse a request by customs agents. What I suggest is to follow the instructions in True Crypt to create a “hidden” volume with the highest possible encryption level. When the agent asks you for your password you give him the “fake one” and it will open the folder with whatever files you determine will look realistic but not be your actual files.

I usually include a few photos of sunsets, a document with logins and password to an old bank account I have long since closed and fake love letters to my wife. There is no way for them to know that you gave them a different password. Your data will be safe and they will believe you have fully complied with their request. I also suggest you empty your trash, delete your temporary internet files and wipe the free space on your computer. A file deleted is not actually deleted till it’s written over. When customs scans computers it’s very easy for them to also view everything that was deleted too. To wipe your drive I recommend BcWipe by (www.jetico.com) they offer a trial which should be all you need to use.

In today’s world your computer is less of a “tool” and more of an extension of your mind. I know I use mine to journal, blog, store photography, as well as all my banking, travel, business 5and personal information. The last thing I would want is some snot nosed kid in customs poking his way around in my personal data without cause or concern for my privacy.