Do I have to give customs officials the password to my laptop?

Question

So more and more courts are siding with customs officials and agreeing that they have the right to search your laptop upon entering/re-entering the country. If my laptop is encrypted using a 160 bit AES passphrase, do I have to give that passphrase to them if they request it?

Also, under what circumstances would they request it? People have told me that they only check pedophiles' laptops. Then I usually follow with the question "How did they know they were pedophiles?"

I recently did an article on pedophilia for an online magazine. From what my research showed, they have layers upon layers of security protocols that they've followed since before the Internet. Anyone who doesn't follow the protocols gets caught almost instantly b/c the government has certain links setup for sting operations on the Internet. Anyone who follows the protocols is almost impossible to trace.

With this in mind, how do they know who's a pedo and who's a normal person? I only ask this question because of a recent article I read. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11171475

BTW, there was nothing on this guy's computer.

Answer 1

You don't have to give them the password. But that doesn't mean they can't confiscate the laptop if they have reason to believe there's contraband on it.

Answer 2

You don't 'have to' give them any information, but on a whim, they can and often do confiscate any and all electronic media looking for evidence of child pornography and even mild interest in children such as idle pictures of them.



What probably happened in the case you sited was not the equipment that was suspect, but that the name of the person must have come up as 'needing further investigation upon entering the state' when pulling up advanced passenger lists. He was probably mixed in with someone else with the same or similar name that is suspect, and that is why the person you referenced was searched and his property detained.



Remember that the western countries, as well as Oz & Nz are conducting international witch hunts thru Interpol and the FBI and MI5. Reason: It pays vast employable resources to be able to go after otherwise innocent people's lives while crossing boarders. There is no need for police at the borders to have a reason to search and seize, they can do it on a whim. Therefore, travel light or not at all.

Answer 3

Legally you can call a cop an asshole but, are you just going to be able to walk away ? Probably not...



Just because something isn't legal, no longer matters in America.