The Hindu Business Line : Going to US? Your laptops are in for search

Travel advisory
Do not carry any confidential, personal information
In case the laptop also serves as your major home computer, get another one for travel

Our Bureau

New Delhi, April 24

For those who are heading to the US, here is a word of caution – the border agents can now search your laptop even without a cause.

This follows a US Federal Appeals Court ruling, earlier this week, that agents at the border do not need any “reasonable suspicion” to search through travellers’ laptops.

In other words, computers are like any other luggage going through the border, and hence, subject to searches at US national borders and airports.

“For travellers, this is beyond the issue of inconvenience. “It means that the authorities can seize the laptop or copy the information… It can jeopardise the result of a trip. We are advising that travellers should limit the amount of proprietary business information they carry on computers, and that it be transmitted ahead of arrival so it could be accessed in the event the device is seized,” Mr Jack Riepe, Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), National Communications Director, told Business Line from the US.

The ACTE — a body representing the global business travel industry and having 2,500 members across 80 nations — has issued a travel warning to its members across the world and to all business travellers, to eliminate any personal data on the laptop (including photos or financial information) that they do not want to be scrutinised by a third party while crossing over the US border.

When contacted, Mr Vikram Tiwathia, Chief Information Officer for CII, said, “This is going to be a restrictive requirement. On one hand, we are moving towards openness and, on the other, such practices are more intrusive. There is a need to check such practices as it makes travelling more cumbersome.”

Mr Tiwathia said that business travellers with their packed schedules would find it inconvenient to segregate personal and office information on their laptops.

“It also raises privacy issues, as the laptop is a personal device,” he pointed out.

In its travel advisory, ACTE also cautioned that in case the laptop also serves as home computer, the user should get another one for travel purposes.

“You should not carry any confidential, personal information that you do not want examined.

“This includes financial data, photographs, and e-mail stored on computers, wireless phones, Blackberries, or iPod-type devices,” ACTE added.

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