Without a doubt air travel is a lot more complicated than it was a few years ago.? First, there was the "turn on your electronic devices" check.? Not a problem, except for slow-booting laptops or if your cell phone battery was flat.? Then came the free keyboard cleaning service (wiping your case and keyboard for traces of explosive material).? Now, things might get a little more complicated for people traveling into the U.S.
We all know that customs officials, regardless of country, have pretty broad powers of search to protect their country from "bad stuff".? It's a fact of life, really.? The problem has become one, though, that as Canadians especially traverse the border their sensitive business documents could be under scrutiny of border guards and there doesn't appear to be much we can do about it.
It started thinking about this earlier today when skimming BlackberryCool discussing an article from the Law Times (Canadian) about how Canadian lawyers' laptops and Blackberrys could be examined and confidential solicitor/client information exposed.? Then that there isn't much that can be done about it.
Then there is the quandary.? Okay you have sensitive files, just encrypt them, right?? Well, no.? In the eyes of the law encrypting means you have something to hide.? Well, yeah maybe a sensitive negotiation, insider financial information on a stock, love letters to your spouse, who knows.? So you encrypt and the officer sees that files are encrypted, you might be asked for your password.? Then the files are open.
One person suggested on an article carrying an empty machine and using remote access to get to your files.? Interesting idea.? It's certainly possible to even make sure that the laptop is self-cleaning after you use it … but really, how efficient is that?
Here's one way you might be able to keep your documents more secure … USB flash drive with encryption.? I saw on Sex Drive Daily that New Tech Information systems will be giving away its USB encryption software for one day starting tomorrow (Sept 26th).
Again, this raises an important question.? Is it better not to encrypt and allow law enforcement see that you have nothing to hide, or take some measures to protect legitimate private files?
Tags: privacy, encryption
