At 02:14 PM 7/21/00 -0700, Eugene Leitl wrote:
>David Honig writes:
>
> > But could they do that to an American returning to America? Sure,
> > a brit returning to post-RIP britain is fresh meat. Or a furriner
> > coming to America (who isn't yet on US soil).
>
>The point is rather, can they legally demand the passphrase for my
>hard drive with a cryptographic file system?
I think its pretty clear they can, if you're not a citizen and not
yet on official US territory.
What about naked hard
>drives (I habitually lug computer hardware in disassembled state, when
>I change my country of residence) which are filled with random-looking
>bits? Hey, I could always claim I'm transporting a one-time pad ;)
Again, if they have the 'right' (as border agents) then the technical
difficulty translates into a battle of wills. A non-citizen would
lose. A citizen *might* have a case but might also spend a few
weeks in a Customs' hotel...
