Laptops - customs checks.

[Sergei Gotsmanov]

I'm off overseas soon and was planning on taking my laptop for music and films for the flight etc.

Have read recently that customs randomly check peoples laptops and check what is on their hard drives. This can include hard drive scans and requesting that any password protected files, drives or partitions are unlocked, which apparently they are allowed to demand.

I've got nothing on my machine that will land me in prison or anything but not sure how much I should worry about this. How far do you go to hide sensitive files? Do you just remove any files you dont want people to see? Do you delete all your browsing history etc? What about smart phones, do they get checked as well?

Has this happened to anyone? What steps do people take to secure their computers when travelling?

 

[hans kraay fan club]

None whatsoever. I'm not an Al queda member, and have no bomb-making instructions or similar on my laptop.

 

[Icy Gull]

Travel a fair bit and although it's irritating to have to put your laptop through security on it's own I have never had a single query about it. They seem to like giving me body scans though,

 

[Nottseagull]

Can Customs demand the password to files on your phone, too? I don't see the point of this, if people really wanted to smuggle documents and information abroad, it would be quicker, cheaper and safer to do it by attachments using an unregistered phone.

 

[sten_super]

I'm off overseas soon and was planning on taking my laptop for music and films for the flight etc.

Have read recently that customs randomly check peoples laptops and check what is on their hard drives. This can include hard drive scans and requesting that any password protected files, drives or partitions are unlocked, which apparently they are allowed to demand.

I've got nothing on my machine that will land me in prison or anything but not sure how much I should worry about this. How far do you go to hide sensitive files? Do you just remove any files you dont want people to see? Do you delete all your browsing history etc? What about smart phones, do they get checked as well?

Has this happened to anyone? What steps do people take to secure their computers when travelling?

I've never heard of this happening to anyone, and I've taken a laptop on a place LOADS of times, so I really wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Icy Gull]

Can Customs demand the password to files on your phone, too? I don't see the point of this, if people really wanted to smuggle documents and information abroad, it would be quicker, cheaper and safer to do it by attachments using an unregistered phone.

I think that they can do pretty well what they like, in the name of national security.

 

[Sergei Gotsmanov]

Can Customs demand the password to files on your phone, too? I don't see the point of this, if people really wanted to smuggle documents and information abroad, it would be quicker, cheaper and safer to do it by attachments using an unregistered phone.

I think they can yes. Anything with a password is a bit of a red flag and shows that there is something to be hidden/protected.

 

[bhaexpress]

I've never had a laptop content checked but I would question whether they have a legal right to do so without a warrant. I wonder what they'd do if you refused.

 

[Icy Gull]

I've never had a laptop content checked but I would question whether they have a legal right to do so without a warrant. I wonder what they'd do if you refused.

They'd make sure you missed your flight for a start.

 

[Worthai Seagull]

I'm off overseas soon and was planning on taking my laptop for music and films for the flight etc.

Have read recently that customs randomly check peoples laptops and check what is on their hard drives. This can include hard drive scans and requesting that any password protected files, drives or partitions are unlocked, which apparently they are allowed to demand.

I've got nothing on my machine that will land me in prison or anything but not sure how much I should worry about this. How far do you go to hide sensitive files? Do you just remove any files you dont want people to see? Do you delete all your browsing history etc? What about smart phones, do they get checked as well?

Has this happened to anyone? What steps do people take to secure their computers when travelling?

Total bollocks. I do 50 plus flights a year around the world, and have done for the last 10 years. All you have to do is take your laptop out of your case, put it in the tray provided.( with keys, belt, cash etc..put it through the xray machine...pick it up when it comes thru, put it back in your bag again..go and have a glass of beer/wine/coffee ..get on the plane and enjoy wherever your going. Some countries dont even make you take your laptop out of your bag now !

 

[Fef]

In the distant past, I've been asked to show that my laptop works by turning it on (i.e. it isn't stuffed full of explosive) at an airport without a scanner, but I've never heard of anyone being asked to show what's on their laptop. As most laptops contain a few hundred thousand files (system, program and data) how would 'they' know what to look for?

If I were a ne'er-do-well sort of person, the last thing I would do would be to cart damning evidence around with me. I'd probably keep it in the cloud somewhere.

Personally, I wouldn't worry in the slightest.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Not heard of them checking laptops for content, and not sure what their powers to do so would be unless they had a reasonable suspicion that something would be found on there that was an issue (ie through prior intelligence etc).

That said, it's more likely you'd be checked abroad than here, and their rules- particularly in the US- probably permit all sorts of snooping.

 

[Sergei Gotsmanov]

I've never had a laptop content checked but I would question whether they have a legal right to do so without a warrant. I wonder what they'd do if you refused.

At the very least they would delay you i guess.

I'm mainly worried about all my bittorrent files....a lot of my music and films are BT and could do without getting done for dodgy downloads.

 

[Bad Ash]

I think they can yes. Anything with a password is a bit of a red flag and shows that there is something to be hidden/protected.

Working in a Finance department is quite common to have password protected files as they often contain information which is sensitive (e.g. employee salaries), so hardly a "red flag". Never had my laptop or seen anyone have their laptop scanned for content.

I would have thought that there would be data protection issues and that they would need significant reason to suspect you of something, not just selecting random laptops to search.

 

[Sergei Gotsmanov]

Total bollocks. I do 50 plus flights a year around the world, and have done for the last 10 years. All you have to do is take your laptop out of your case, put it in the tray provided.( with keys, belt, cash etc..put it through the xray machine...pick it up when it comes thru, put it back in your bag again..go and have a glass of beer/wine/coffee ..get on the plane and enjoy wherever your going. Some countries dont even make you take your laptop out of your bag now !

It's definitely not total bollocks. There are plenty of cases where people have been asked to have their computer scanned. They have specific software that searches through you directories etc looking for common flags for anything illegal. They will even scan through your email boxes for sent and received mail that might containing incriminating content. I guess you've just been lucky....or maybe you dont have a dodgy look about you.

 

[Springal]

It's definitely not total bollocks. There are plenty of cases where people have been asked to have their computer scanned. They have specific software that searches through you directories etc looking for common flags for anything illegal. They will even scan through your email boxes for sent and received mail that might containing incriminating content. I guess you've just been lucky....or maybe you dont have a dodgy look about you.

Agreed, I take ALOT of flights for work and never had that, heard of that, or had first hand story of that. Even with colleagues that have had to go to secondary checks in the US, they never showed any interest in laptops..... BS in my opinion

 

[sten_super]

It's definitely not total bollocks. There are plenty of cases where people have been asked to have their computer scanned. They have specific software that searches through you directories etc looking for common flags for anything illegal. They will even scan through your email boxes for sent and received mail that might containing incriminating content. I guess you've just been lucky....or maybe you dont have a dodgy look about you.

How many people will have to tell you that they've never seen or heard of it, let alone had it done to them, until you believe us that it's really not a problem?

Just out of interest, what are all these 'plenty of cases' that you've heard about? I've just done a quick google search and turned up one reported case of it happening in the UK, to a reporter in 1998.

 

[Worthai Seagull]

It's definitely not total bollocks. There are plenty of cases where people have been asked to have their computer scanned. They have specific software that searches through you directories etc looking for common flags for anything illegal. They will even scan through your email boxes for sent and received mail that might containing incriminating content. I guess you've just been lucky....or maybe you dont have a dodgy look about you.

Sorry...that really IS total bollocks. Its nothing about having a dodgy look. I promise you . ...it doesnt happen. Unless of course you know of a specific case that it has happened. What are the plenty of cases?. Names and places please ! Would love to know... i think there may be many of my colleagues that would love to know !

 

[Fef]

It's definitely not total bollocks. There are plenty of cases where people have been asked to have their computer scanned. They have specific software that searches....

Could you provide us with two or three examples of this - if what you are saying is true, there must be plenty of examples on the net.

 

[Bisto]

I travel a lot on business and everytime you take the laptop out of the case and place in its own tray to go through the scanner.

a while ago 4 or 5 years back, during trips OUT OF US airports they asked for you to turn laptop on and as soon as the windows startup box appeared they waved you through (Though I haven't seen that for a while)