I read the news about US border agents seizing travellers' laptops and other communication/storage devices upon their entry into the country. While I understand the US government's desire to protect the country from all enemies both foreign and domestic, I only hope they use the information seized to understand the national threats against the country. I do, however, worry that some departments will use the information obtained to help advance the technological and financial interests of the country. Say, for example, a laptop seized from a British or Japanese contained information about a medical breakthrough in cancer or AIDS, will the US government agencies pass on that info to US-based drug companies? Or how about a situation where a French CEO has a voice message saved that mentions the company will miss its quarterly earnings - and some government official uses that info to go short on the shares? Who will prosecute the government official when there is no way of tracking such illegal (or legal) activity? Is this new policy being used to help US industry compete in the 21st Century? And will other nations do the same? Will China, Russia, India, Japan, Canada begin seizing IT products at their own borders? I think I will leave my laptop at home when I travel overseas or at the very least to the US.
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