I would tell them that I didn't know it. That I would obtain the password from a colleague upon arrival at my destination. ;) Would they be able to crack it? Perhaps in a few decades, with the right number of processors working on it. Or maybe the NSA does have some super secret back door. That's what the encrypted images with pictures of pretty flowers are for. :D

The fact is that without a warrant, they have no probable cause to search anyone's hard drive, so the search is unconstitutional. It's our duty to fight against it in every legal way possible.

Encrypted hard drives will not solve this problem.... you'll either give 'em the password and/or show them how to access the encrypted files or you won't be getting on the airplane (or through customs). Uncooperative folk go to the end of the line. Afraid the bureaucrats have the hammer on this one.

What we need is a flash drive that looks and works like a ball point pen.... ala 007, hidden in plain sight. That'd be a lot more fun than up/downloading a bunch of stuff and zeroing out your hard drive before a flight. Always a little exciting to blow something by them when they don't have a clue.

Like most endeavors to catch criminals, they only catch the dumb ones.

That's what the other half of the strategy is for. ;) After decrypting a few thousand images containing these, there will be little enthusiasm for randomly searching hard drives.

Edit: Of course, if your encrypted images are buried within a bunch of folders, it's likely they'd copy everything to their hard drive and not know they had files they couldn't access until long after you've left the airport.

Will a flash drive even set off metal detectors? SD Cards?

In other words, is there any electronic storage medium that could remain in your pocket as you go through security?

Or perhaps carry-on sushi? :cool:

Ha! Put a tail on that fish, wrap it in tin foil, and pack it with your lunch, and I think you've got a winner here.

Going back to the original post ... I am still at a loss to understand just why the officials would think they have time to do this, or why they would ever want to go through the manpower expense of in-depth looks at passengers' hard drives without at least some hint that something may not be right. This is a time consuming, monster of a task for an airport security screen.

Given there will be nothing on the hard drive capable of bringing down an airplane, what's their motivation for doing this? It just makes no sense. Ranks right up their with "Officials Save Flight From Exploding Nipple Rings."

It's a world gone mad!

It's worse. At least with nipple rings, until you verify that is what they are, there is some small chance that the metal could be part of a weapon.

errr... how does a $20 gigabyte flash drive with a $3 plastic fake sushi cover end up being $99 dollars???!?

lol - Arctic... I never lose my temper, and I'm always reasonable in discussions - i.e. I'm quite good at self-moderation. what you're requesting is self-censorship, because other people on the forum don't happen to agree with my opinions, and don't happen to be as good at self-moderation as I am. to which I can only say "piffle".

enough said, in my opinion.

Because if falls prey to the same economic pricing mechanisms as a liter of petro.... it has nothing to do with the cost of producing the product. One must believe in supply side economics and the tooth fairy to understand fully how this works. Trust me, though, it is fair, any excess profits have been earned, and the CEO deserves her 8 digit bonus. :)

Sushi is the part I don't understand.

ok, I have to ask... how do you explain the tooth fairy using supply side economics?

I believe this is called entrepreneurship. :D

TW, I see that you have added a rather impressive self-characterisation a few posts down. I won’t spoil it by commenting. ;)

Today's kids are a lot more savvy about economics than I ever was. The little one and his buddies got together and compared notes on this tooth fairy reward thing. They quickly decided they were not being fairly or equally treated by said tooth fairy.

Recognizing they had a limited resource that was in high demand (being excited at the tooth fairy's reward makes parents very happy), they formed a cartel and set a "fair price" for each tooth. Then each child told their parents little Johnny got $1 for his tooth. This set the expectation that anything less than $1 would not make the child happy and thus would deny the parents the joy of seeing them excited and happy.

They secretly agreed that if they got a quarter again, they would throw the quarter against the wall and loudly exclaim how unfair, thoughtless and mean the tooth fairy is. Either he's mean, or "I just don't deserve anything good" (play the low self esteem card cause that always works).

End result here was the joy (getting $1 instead of a quarter) tricked down to the parents. The kids increased their joy and a rising sea raises all boats, hence the parents benefitted from the trickle down.

Embellished a tad, but they did compare rewards and that had the effect of bumping the rate up.

Next time, the little one is going to get a flash drive that looks like sushi under his pillow. (Flimsy attempt to stay on topic).

Ahem. The topic was the American TSA copying and searching laptop hard drives. ;)

Ok, other countries are doing the same, but we're supposed to be leading the world when it comes to protecting freedom.

im i the only one whos completely lost?

I wouldn't be surprised.. :D

I would also hope we are trying to lead the world when it comes to protecting our citizens from those nameless persons of nameless political views who would do us harm.

At the risk of being slapped twice in the same day, this entire subject is political. On one extreme is the faction who wants to protect America at all costs. On the other extreme, we have the faction who wants to protect individual freedoms at all costs.

The vast majority of us are in the middle... we want to do both, but we would really prefer they use a little darn common sense in the process.

There are no constitutional rights being violated here. The search is perfectly legal because we gave them permission to conduct the search as a condition of entering the country or boarding the airplane. There is nothing new about this except possibly the search being extended to include electronic devices and information.

The only legal argument that has any chance of success is that they may inadvertently copy material that is protected under other statutes and hence violate those statutes (e.g. Patent Laws, Protected Health Information under HIPPA, Attorney's Working Papers, items covered by the Privacy Act such as Social Security numbers and on and on).

So, which law takes precedence? I'm betting the government's right/duty to protect our nation will be preserved, but, hopefully, with a little restraint on our airport screeners such as look but "don't tell, don't copy."

Trickle down, tooth fairies and such allude to one particular political party in the US which has particularly strong views on this subject. Cartels (and kids) and such refer to price setting by certain political entities on a product that is right in the middle of this debate and some think the major cause of US problems in the Middle East. I was obtuse and difficult to understand. My apologies for that.

Huh???? By that logic, the state could claim that you give permission to search your vehicle as a condition of receiving a license, or using the state's roads!

We give permission to conduct reasonable searches when we board a plane. There is no reason that a search of papers or hard drives would help secure the plane, so it is not reasonable to conduct such a search.

What about border searches? (if that's the correct term)
Bringing marijuana on the plane will not cause it to crash, but it's considered an illegal drug, and it will most likely be confiscated.
I think the same should be with digital items. Kiddie porn won't cause the plane to tilt to one side, but it is illegal and the its owner should be punished in the same way as the marijuana guy.
Well, that's just my opinion, feel free to criticize me, I'm only 15 and not even a US citizen yet.

This is a border search. It is different. The 9th circuit court has already weighed in:

http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/006839.html or you can google and get a dozen more references.

Supremes may have a better idea, but for the time being they can search without cause, including laptops.... but only when you are entering or leaving the country.... land, sea or air. They cannot come to your home nor take it out of your car and search it without probable cause and a properly signed search warrant.

I think this has run amok, too, but it is the law.