DHS: Terrorism? We Thought You Said "War on Tourism"

Overseas travel to the United States has plummeted in the past five years, and it may well plummet further thanks to The Department of Homeland Security’s recently revealed border policy on laptops, iPods and other electronics carried into the country by travelers. The policy (PDF) is five pages long, but essentially boils down to this: DHS agents can routinely seize travelers’ electronic gear and keep it for as long as they see fit. And they can search its contents and copy and share them with other agencies. And they can do this “absent individualized suspicion.”

The policy–which covers “any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form” as well as “written materials commonly referred to as ‘pocket trash’ or ‘pocket litter’”–applies to anyone entering this country, including U.S. citizens.

Anyone who wants to, that is.

If only we could keep our right to privacy safely up in “the cloud: along with our data …