The View from Here: Portable Devices Now Can be Confiscated at Customs

August 9, 2008

Passing through customs just got a lot more complicated–and dangerous.

In April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco found it is permissible for customs agents to examine the electronic contents of a portable device even if there is no suspicion of wrongdoing on the part of the traveler.

The decision led last month to a couple of directives from the Department of Homeland Security allowing its agents to search and confiscate devices for an undetermined period of time. The contents can be shared with other agencies or even private companies.

IT departments and the CIOs/CEOs must be aware of these rules. Now, more than ever, it is vital that important documents and data be replicated and kept in a safe place. If possible, important data must be trafficked between countries electronically–not carried through customs.

It also is vital that data that is needed at a specific point in time–for a sales meeting or an audit, for instance–be handled with these rules in mind. A company shouldn’t let a problem at customs ruin a deal, blow an important deadline or in other ways hurt the organization.

Here is some information from the DHS. The bottom line is that IT, the offices of C-level executives and administrators who manage travel need to be extradinarily careful as these new rules take root.

–Carl Weinschenk

Photograph by Emily Weinschenk

Posted by Carl · Filed Under Uncategorized

Comments

One Response to “The View from Here: Portable Devices Now Can be Confiscated at Customs”

Michael Finneran on August 12th, 2008 4:20 pm

I travel all the time, but I’m not worried.

TSA is too busy getting old ladies to take their sneakers off to worry about my laptop.

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