US OFFICIALS GIVEN POWER TO TO SEIZE BRITISH VISITORS' LAPTOPS
Visitors to the United States face having their laptop computers and other digital devices seized after federal agents were given new powers to protect America's borders.
In a move that could affect thousands of British business travellers and tourists each year, the Department of Homeland Security will be allowed to carry out seizures without suspicion of wrongdoing and can hold devices for a "reasonable period of time".
Customs and border staff have been empowered to share the contents of seized computers with other government and private agencies for data decryption and translation.
The policies cover hard drives, flash drives, mobile phones, iPods, pagers, and video and audio tapes - as well as books, pamphlets and other written materials.
US government officials told the Washington Post that the policies applied to any of the 400 million people entering the country in a year, including US citizens, and were needed to prevent terrorism. About four million British people travel to America each year.
The measures are already in place but were only disclosed under pressure from civil liberties and business groups, who were acting on reports that increasing numbers of overseas visitors had been stopped and had their electronic equipment confiscated and analysed.
The policies require federal agents to take measures to protect business data and privileged legal material. They stipulate that any copies of the data must be destroyed when a review is completed and no probable cause exists to keep the information.
The Democrat Senator, Russ Feingold, described the new measures as "truly alarming". He intends to introduce legislation to require reasonable ground for suspicion before equipment is confiscated.
(Telegraph)
Meanwhile: A traveller is more likely to to lose a laptop computer at Heathrow than at any other major European airport. 900 go missing every week. According to research, most laptops are lost at the departure gates or airport lounges, although 42 per cent of travellers said that their computer went missing after they asked another passenger to keep an eye on it!
