Traveling With Laptops

My dad forwarded the following article from the Tulsa World. I'm not a frequent traveler, but thought I'd post this for the sake of any who are.

Feds have the last say on air traveler laptops
by: PHIL MULKINS World Action Line Editor, Friday, February 27, 2009

Dear Action Line: Under what circumstance could airport security confiscate a laptop from a business traveler? --- M.H., Tulsa.

Last April, a federal appeals court issued a decision "giving customs officials the unfettered authority to examine, copy and seize travelers' laptops --- without reasonable suspicion."

Two days later, the Association of Corporate Travel Executives warned its members worldwide to "limit proprietary information on laptop computers when crossing U.S. borders." It also recommended eliminating personal data, photographs, finances and e-mail they would not want examined by border protection authorities.

The association filed an amicus brief contending that a traveler's laptop is "essentially intellectual property and not luggage nor freight," Susan Gurley, global executive director of the group, said in an e-mail. "The court has disagreed, and this decision will have significant impact on business travelers who have no idea their data is subject to search and seizure."

Beginning Aug. 16, the Transportation Security Administration began allowing laptops to remain in bags meeting its "checkpoint friendly" guidelines. Its Web site notes that not all laptop bags are checkpoint friendly and suggested reviewing TSA's "Laptop bags: industry process guidelines" at tulsaworld.com/TSAlaptop and "TSA ready for 'checkpoint friendly' laptop bags" at tulsaworld.com/TSAfriendlylaps.

To streamline the security process and better protect laptops, TSA encourages manufacturers to design bags that will produce a clear and unobstructed image of the laptop when undergoing X-ray screening. "A design that meets this objective will enable TSA to allow laptops to remain in bags for screening," the TSA says. "TSA screens laptops to see if the electronics have been tampered with. Our officers know what the inside of a computer should look like, and they can recognize irregularities. This is why they need an unobstructed view as the item moves through the X-ray machine."

Purchasing one of these bags will not guarantee you can leave a laptop in your bag for screening. If a security officer determines that the bag does not present "a clear and distinct image" of the laptop separate from the rest of the bag, the laptop must be screened separately.

The association argued before the court that there were "no published guidelines as to what might trigger a secondary inspection or the seizure of data or possibly the entire computer."

Gurley said the expectation of privacy at the border is considerably less than in one's own home or office.

The association reports that a survey it performed last year showed that 81 percent of responding travel managers were unaware that laptops and other electronics seized by TSA could be held indefinitely, and 65 percent said their companies have instituted policies restricting the amount of sensitive or proprietary data their employees can carry in laptops. That number is expected to rise.

See the association's "Traveler security and data privacy" at tulsaworld.com/ACTElaptop.