Should I change my name to GuiltySid?

Don't other countries do this as well? Just asking because I'm curious.

I travel internationally for business on a semi-regular basis. I thought it was a given that you had to show your laptops and that there was always the small risk that it could be seized (making it wise to always back-up before traveling, not store all of your proprietary info, and not store anything which might violate the laws of the country your are entering.)

Don't take this as bashing you at all, because a lot of people feel the same way, but that's really scary. We are becoming so accustomed to loosing our privacy and civil liberties that we assume that we have less of them than we actually do, or are supposed to have, anyway. The incredible erosion of our civil rights over the last 8 years has reached such endemic proportions, that this insanity is now considered normal, even by the most informed of us.

I'd love to travel outside the country some time, but the stories I've heard about re-entry scare the shit out of me. How fucked is it that I'm afraid to leave my own country, because I'm afraid of getting back in?

If you were a real American patriot you would never have to leave the country.

Not seen as a bashing at all. Some of of you've probably been privy to my going off on the erosion of our fundamental rights and 4th Amendment violations....so I agree. Nothing worse than the helpless feeling one has crossing borders knowing you are at the mercy of whatever officials. Not to mention what an intellectual property or personal nightmare it could be to have your laptop seized.

I was just asking whether anyone knew if the laptop seizure policies differ here from other countries. In the past I've seen some posted policies about laptops and travel put together by IT departments at some client companies, they addressed things such as seizures and prohibitive materials by country. I was just curious since it was a "who wants to travel to the US" focused topic.

I was born in DC on a military base, does that count?

most of the time it's customs doing the seizing, but there have been a few stories of the TSA seizing laptops from people they supposedly had reasonable doubt about.

The majority of the stories are from people traveling either back into the country and are a citizen, or are flying into the country to do business and are citizens are of a different country. The minority of the stories are domestic flights, where a laptop bag doesn't fit the "requirements" of the TSA and the laptop is seized.

Customs and TSA are a blur, much like all of Homeland Security, which in my opinion seems horribly organized and grossly inefficient.

Only if you installed a flag pole on the bed of your Ford pickup, so you can wave a big ass American flag that you bought at Wal-Mart. That is the definition of an American patriot.

(TINFOILHATTIME)
Do you think it's possible that it's poorly organized on purpose? That way, they can keep the public cowed by using poorly established guidelines, so that nothing they do is really "against policy"? "Plausible deniablilty" through disorganization and intentional ignorance?
(/tinfoilhatime)

Since fall 2001, ( The last time the world was really on your side....A relationship that was squandered, very quickly by the Bush Administration. ) Everything has made the idea of travel to the U.S.A. worse.

In my case, your new U.S. Customs and immigration policies. Requiring Canadian's to have passports. Just so we can buy cheap beer, jeans, milk and cigarettes at your border towns. The unjustified first strike and occupation of Iraq. The creation of Homeland Security, an organization that rings of a, politically motivated federal police . And, lastly after all this.... Bush getting re-elected ( or stealing the last two elections.. If you believe the smarter people. )

Many of us outside the U.S. have, in the last 4 - 8 years, done the only thing we can do. We Voted with our feet.

Traveled elsewhere, toured and invested in other countries. Of course this has affected your international business and vacation trade. But, mostly the way your percieved. The U.S. is now seen by the rest of the world to be more dangerous to international peace, and prosperity than Iran, Russia, China, or North Korea. And, for the most part. You still think your low point, was the Nixon years. Out here, outside your country... He was great.

I glimmer of hope? We, the rest of the world all see in Barak Obama. Who brings he revolutionary idea of talking to other countries goverments. As apposed to dictating or striking first.

And, I'm telling you.... The world Cringes when it contemplates Mcain and Palin being the next stewards of your current course. come November....

I currently live in Montreal.

Many flights are quite a bit cheaper if I fly out of NYC instead of Toronto or Montreal, but the hassle just isn't worth it. The last time I flew into LAX I was detained for 3 hours because I had just flown in from Guatemala.

They asked thousands of "haha, wait, are you actually serious?" questions and ended up keeping the cigarettes I bought at duty-free. It fucking sucked.

I dread when one of my international flights has to be routed through the U.S. now.

That was one comment i kept coming across while reading about this. It's what made me come to the conclusion that travel to or through the United States has become so feared, and such a loathsome activity that people prefer to just not do it.

I can understand searching international flights to a point, but on numerous occasions i read about travelers who were simply going from point A outside of the United States to point B outside of the United States who ended up getting detained and delayed in the United States.

I've basically read many opinions such as yours, they either dread it or reschedule their flight for a different route.

Politics and laptop issues aside, have had the experience of accompanying a few foreign business associates through the immigration line at the airport here and I cannot tell you how disheartening it was. The level of rudeness was unfathomable. Last time, the undeserved verbal abuse hurled at people was so bad, I actually filed a formal complaint. To think this is the first thing foreigners experience when they arrive. I'd never have believed it had I not seen it firsthand. It's enough to put people off or even hate the country for such bad treatment. It's pretty disgraceful.

Why do you hate freedom?