OT: mailbox generator

[Oleg Goldshmidt]

"Nadav Har'El" <nyh at math.technion.ac.il> writes:

> It isn't bull, especially if you're innocent. Sure, if you're a
> terrorist and your only email account is full of terrorist plans, you'd
> rather be deported then surrender your account. But if you're an
> innocent tourist (or business man), who invested your yearly savings
> in this trip (flight, hotel trip, etc.) or your business rides on it -
> wouldn't you do almost anything to not give them an excuse to deport
> you? Allow them to read your mail, do a cavity search, take off your
> belt and shoes, throw your water to the garbage - just so they'll let
> you continue?

Obviously not, whether travelling for business or pleasure. Serious
unpleasantnesses will take the fun out of a vacation and indicate that
you cannot do business in the country anyway. Besides, agreeing only
opens a door to provocations. Trivialities (relative!) like taking your
belt off happen when you leave, not when you arrive. To clarify: I would
have no problem logging into my work email if I travel on business -
there is nothing personal there and, as I mentioned before, it is
usually consistent with the policy. I would not show my real personal
email account under any circumstances though.

Trying to enter an unfriendly foreign country is an easy case.  Leaving
one may actually present a more serious problem. You *want* to leave by
all means, and what if the choice is between a cavity search and a
detention or another serious trouble? For giggles, I was *very*
thoroughly patted down - fully clothed - by a femail security officer
when leaving Moscow two months ago (I was there on business). I was
imagining what would happen in, say, California or if I were there with
a wife or a girlfriend, but I quickly decided it would be a better idea
to chuckle it off than to protest. ;-)

What if you are coming home? Here is what happens in another, generally
considered democratic (for a lot of good reasons, too), country:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/24/us_border_control_laptop_searches/

Seems an interesting discussion to me, written by the former head of the
US Justice Dept. Computer Crime Unit. Note, by the way, that while the
author elucidates the dangers he does not argue for forbidding computer
searches altogether. On the contrary, he does say some computer searches
are reasonable. His discussion of where the line should be drawn is,
IMHO, interesting, even if it is in the context of a different legal
environment, and even if there is no clear answer.

-- 
Oleg Goldshmidt | pub at goldshmidt.org