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In the anecdote in the article, the guy who had his laptop searched was asked for a password. As far as I know, there is no legal basis for compelling a passwo
by largesse 14y ago
In the anecdote in the article, the guy who had his laptop searched was asked for a password. As far as I know, there is no legal basis for compelling a password at the border. He could've just said no. The price would probably be losing the laptop.
I've very curious about the legality of password compulsion in the US. With so much moving to cloud storage, the feds are going to lose their picking rights if that don't have that one.
- chmars 14y agoThe price would probably be losing the laptop. … probably after spending hours of uncertaintity in some DHS waiting areas, interrupted only by DHS officers shouting at you from time to time – in case of an American national. For a foreigner, the result could be even more unpleasant. The first part of my just-written paraphrah by the way is standard for the so-called DHS secondary check if you enter the US and some system (or some officer) does not like you for some reason. Regarding cloud storage, most data in the cloud is not encrypted, and if encrypted, only with a provider and not with a user key. Dropbox is a well-known example, i.e., authorities can always ask such providers for data access and they will usually get it.
- largesse 14y ago..if they know the username of the account. Beyond that, I don't think there is any legal basis to compel a password. Do you know of one? I'm curious about it. In the UK, apparently, there is but only for criminal investigations.