Keys Corner

Problems that travelers have with the Transportation Security Administration (the agency that is responsible for checking passengers before they board flights to and from US airports) have been well documented (in case you need reminding, here’s a summary of some cases). I wasn’t aware that Canada poses similar problems until Ruth noticed this entry in James Bach’s blog:

...A few weeks ago, as I was clearing customs in Ottawa, on my way into Canada, the customs guys decided that they needed to search my stuff. No problem.

Then they decided to search my computer… the inside of it… the part with all the files. I was shocked. I had never heard of this before. But not only do they have the right to do it, they apparently have the interest.

They told me that they were looking for prohibited material, which include “hate materials” and “child pornography”. If I refused to provide them with the necessary passwords, they told me they would simply sieze all my equipment. So, I complied. (Not before some grumpy sputtering on my part, which they interpreted not as surprise and dismay at an unexpected personal invasion, but a non-verbal admission that I was a child pornographer)

The thing is, I travel with 300 gigabytes of disk space, which includes 7 or 8 complete virtual computers that comprise a travelling test lab, plus backups. I must have millions of files. Furthermore, it quickly became apparent that the frowny customs guys didn’t know very much about computers. They seemed to think that any file with an extension not mapped to an application is “inaccessible” and therefore suspicious. After two hours of plinking away at my system, speaking in hushed French, they announced that they were turning my equipment over to a forensic team for examination…

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 7th, 2006 at 09:01:14 and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.