Privacy groups praise bill curbing warrantless laptop searches

The bill also spells out specific procedures to be followed during such searches, including the need for supervisory approval and the specific nature and basis for the suspicion. It would require customs agents to allow the traveler to be present when the search is conducted and mandates that such searches must be done by a minimum of two customs agents at all times. The bill would also restrict the search to only the specific documents, files or other storage media that could reasonably contain the information that triggered the search. It would also require customs agents to maintain complete records of all such searches.

The bill also lists similar requirements for all such seizures.

In a statement last week, the ACLU's Washington office said the bill will ensure that individual privacy rights as well as national security interests are protected. The statement noted that laptops, cell phones and other electronic devices that store personal information can't be breached "under the guise of border security."

In an interview with Computerworld, Timothy Sparapani, the ACLU's senior legislative counsel, said the bill was "critically important" to curbing the warrantless searches.

"The customs and border protection division is acting as if the border was some sort of lawless Wild West zone that is only theirs to police with laws they have written and only they can enforce," Sparpani said. "Nothing can be further from the truth."

Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, said Feingold's proposal deals "with a real problem."

"The view of the DHS is that it has the right to search a laptop without any indication of probable cause or criminal conduct. That is authority that really needs to be regulated by someone," he said.

The ACTE noted that the bill introduces a "much higher and necessary" standard for laptop searches at U.S. borders.

The bill seeks to ensure that such searches are subject to a formal judicial process by requiring the DHS to obtain warrants beforehand, the ACTE statement noted. "It puts an end to the indiscriminate ransacking of data. It allows the traveler to witness the process, and it limits the time officials can hold a traveler's hardware," ACTE Executive Director Susan Gurley said in the statement.

Feingold's proposal comes at a time of growing concern over the searches of laptops and electronic devices at U.S. borders. There are no hard numbers available for the searches that the DHS has conducted of traveler's laptops and electronic devices at U.S. borders. While the agency has contended the instances of such searches are few and far between, groups such as the ACTE and ACLU claim that they have been increasing sharply both in number and scope.

Groups such as the ACTE and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have warned travelers that such searches could result in personal and business data being breached.

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